High definition TV

High Definition (HD Ready) Television uses the latest technology to bring clearer and sharper television pictures to your home. HD services are already on-air in some parts of the world and they are about to be launched in the UK.

To view HD you need a high definition display to show whether a particular display is ready for high definition broadcasts.

The news models of dreambox use the HD, but remember that HD Full (1080p) is best that HD Ready.

HDTV (high definition television) is the new standard in television technology which provides wide-screen picture quality similar to 35mm film along with compact disc (CD) sound quality.
HDTV is part of several standards incorporated in digital television or DTV. Basically, DTV is composed of three separate standards:

HDTV 1080 (1080 lines of resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio)

HDTV 720 (720 lines of resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio)

SDTV (480 lines of resolution, 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio)

United States major market television stations began transmitting DTV in the fall of 1998. The number of new DTV stations on the air is increasing every month. By the year 2008, all United States television stations will be converted to DTV



HDTV is the biggest breakthrough in broadcasting since color TV. It offers wider pictures with greater detail and the clarity of motion pictures. Compared to standard television (NTSC), the true HDTV image has twice the luminance definition - vertically and horizontally - and is twenty-five percent wider. Standard television aspect ratio is 4:3 (four units wide, three units high) - the HDTV aspect ratio is 16:9. The 16:9 ratio is much closer to the average wide-screen image shown in movie theaters. The biggest difference, and the greatest appeal of HDTV, is its clarity. True HDTV pictures are composed of 1080 active lines (1125 total) whereas current standard television pictures are composed of only 486 active lines (525 total). While it is possible to see the lines that make up standard television pictures, HDTV lines are not at all noticeable. The fine-grained HD picture contains five times more information than does the standard television picture and is accompanied by multi-channel, CD quality sound. The difference in video and sound quality is dramatic.