What is Full HD TV ?
1 Welcome to FullHDTVonline.com – a free online resource for the subject of High Definition Television.
Full HD TV – the very basics.
Firstly you need to know is that HD is short for High Definition, where ‘Definition’ is basically referring to the resolution or picture quality that a television is capable of displaying. It is called ‘High’ Definition because compared to older CRT televisions the resolution can be up to 4 times better quality.
To simplify things, a television picture is made up of lines pixels, the more lines a TV is capable of displaying the better the picture quality.
To illustrate this, older CRT televisions were capable 576 lines but HD televisions are capable of up to 1080 lines.
High Definition TV or HD TV –
The term HDTV is a general term that covers more than one format or specification of display. The common formats are 720p, 1080i and 1080p (where the numbers in these formats refers to the number of vertical pixels displayed). The ‘i’ and ‘p’ refer to the scanning method of the display
Where –
p = Progressive Scanning – All of the lines are drawn for each video frame in sequence.
i = Interlaced Scanning – Alternate lines are interlaced for successive frames.
Simply put the 1080 is higher resolution than 720 and progressive scanning produces a less flicker than interlaced. For the formats mentioned above the following summaries can be made.
720p – Lower resolution so 1080 broadcasts have to be scaled down. Progressive scan has ‘smooth’ picture.
1080i – Higher resolution but interlaced scanning results in more ‘flicker’ resulting in a picture quality comparable to 720p despite having greater resolution.
1080p – The best HD format, high resolution and ‘smooth’ picture due to progressive scanning.
HD Ready – the term ‘HD Ready’ covers 720 and 1080 resolution displays, and is confirmation that the display is capable of displaying HD broadcasts. You should still pay attention to the resolution of the display with 1080p being the highest quality of the available specifications.
Full HD TV – This is the term along with ‘true HD’ to describe displays capable of 1080p. To take full advantage of 1080p broadcasts and other 1080p capable devices such as games consoles and media players a display capable of this format will be required. Suitable displays would include a full hd LCD TV or plasma.
Additional information
Once you have a HD ready TV it will not make a standard definition broadcast into a High definition picture.Firstly programmes have to be recorded and broadcast in High Definition format, there is an ever increasing amount of content being recorded in HD. To watch programmes and media in High Definition (HD) you are going to need the following -
1. A ‘HD Ready’ TV
2. A HD Receiver (some HD TV have HD receivers inbuilt otherwise a digital set-top box that is capable of handling HD broadcast is required).
3. An HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) cable to connect your equipment.
4. A satellite dish or cable connection (from a service provider that broadcasts in HD).
HD providers
Sky HD – Sky HD is a satellite subscription service, to receive this you are also required to purchase a Sky+HD box and a satellite dish. Sky’s broadcasts approx 30 HD channels.
Virgin Media – Virgins V+ is a cable HD subscription service provided over their cable network. It requires the V+ HD digital box which also provides on demand content.
Freesat – Operated by the BBC and ITV offers free HD channels. Requires a HD receiver and satellite dish. As the name suggests a subscription is not required.
Other HD sources – Another thing to consider is that its not only TV broadcasts which are HD capable, other HD devices includes Blu-Ray DVD, Xbox & Sony Playstation 3 games consoles, and HD camcorders.
