In previous articles I’ve attempted to define digitaltelevision so anyone could understand it. In this article I want to update those articles with more detail and continue educating those who use community television to begin thinking about how the technology is changing and how it may affect them. I am going to delve a little deeper into the formats and resolutions.

The mystique behind HDTV and digital TV is that they are not synonyms of each other. HDTV must be digitally transmitted to work on an HDTV enabled set, but digital is not to be used in place of HDTV. HDTV is just a way to refer to a particular format of transmission/reception. The type of display should not be synonymous for HDTV, or digital. Most consumers should know that purchasing an LCD or Plasma TV will not automatically turn your reception into HDTV. HDTV begins with the camera in the studio; from there it must be recorded, edited, transmitted (all in HD), and then received by you after purchasing HD service from your cable or satellite provider. So, even when you see “transmitted in HD”, like Jeopardy HD on the ABC affiliates in New York and Hartford, don’t go out and purchase an HDTV. That designation refers to only two places you might see it, 1) on the special HD Channel designated by your cable or satellite provider as part of their HD package, or 2) by installing an HD antenna on your roof, which may get you a local HD station or two, but here in the hills of CT, that’s about it.

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Another detail of digital receivers that I have found useful is understanding the letter (i) or (p), which follows the lines of resolution in any digital set you might consider for purchase. Those resolutions are 480, 720, and 1080, and all can have the (i) or (p) following it. The (i) stands for interlaced and (p) stands for progressive. Interlaced is the way we’ve been watching TV since its inception, the lines which make up the video image are scanned even lines first, then odd, this equals one frame of video. After 30 sets of these lines have scanned, you have one second of video. Progressive can best be described by considering that the lines, instead of scanning odd, then even, are displayed at once. Progressive scanning is superior in picture quality to interlaced scanning. Look closely when comparing models and pricing. There is more confusion when you consider that not all networks send their programming as progressive, and signal compression can have an impact as well.

Still trying to justify the cost of one of the newer styled receivers? Don’t rush. Prices of LCDs and Plasmas have been going down, not up. Even though electronics stores try to steer you away and make them look as grainy as possible, CRT (tube) TV’s still have a good looking image for the price. Don’t go out and purchase HDTV for watching programming on CTV21. We’ll get there, but not for a while. We want to remain open to anyone who walks through our doors with even the most obsolete piece of video equipment and still have what ever they recorded be able to air on CTV-21.