2006-11-25 07:36:40 · 3 answers · asked by athelas 1 in Consumer Electronics ➔ TVs
Digital TV has to be HD and has to be receiving an HD signal.
If you have two sets, sitting side by side, with a regular TV and analog signal compared to HD digital TV with HD signal, (and with both TVs showing the same program) you will see a difference.
I personally do not think it is worth thousands to watch HD when my 19" Panasonic has had an excellent picture for ten years.
2006-11-25 07:48:04 · answer #1 · answered by regerugged 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Digital TV is not necessarily HD.
There are several stations that broadcast the NTSC (plain old analog) signal and simulcast an ATSC (digital) signal. With ATSC there are 18 different formats specified in the standard. Only program streams with at least 540 lines of resolution are considered "HD".
In addition to being "digital", the signal can (and normally does) have compression applied to it. If the TV does a bad job of de-compressing it (or the broadcaster compressed it too much) then it can look blocky or soft. I've seen a lot of shows being broadcast digitally that look worse than the simulcast NTSC signal. BUT those shows were not HD...they were "Standard Definition" or SD.
2006-11-25 19:02:03 · answer #2 · answered by MG1999 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Digital TV has 2 things that make it better.....More information and NOISE FREE....
The old signal was ANALOG and only 480 lines of detail for the entire picture....Analog is not On/Off like Digital, it varies it's voltage between 0 Volts and 1.5 Vmax....before it's sent to the transmitter....that is the NTSC standard...The NOISE CREATOR is the Sun mostly....Background radiation of the Universe too..
When your TV signal is STRONGER than that Sun/Universe noise you don't see the NOISE....Now guess what....that tuner INSIDE YOUR TV HAS A MIXER CIRCUIT...That little bugger is NOISY!!! So your SIGNAL has to be STRONGER THAN THE MIXER NOISE or you see speckles.....
With Digital, it doesn't matter....YES there is a MIXER...IT does create NOISE....but the ON /OFF of DIGITAL makes it TOTALLY OBLIVIOUS OF THE MIXER NOISE....the picture circuit is only looking for ON and OFF....nothing in between....That's what make it NOISE PROOF.....Woo Hoo!!
Now that you know Digital is NOISE PROOF....let's deal with why your Digital picture looks like CRAP!!!
Simple....You're looking at 50 years of OLD CRAP LOW DEF-- FILM, VCR TAPE, more Film and more VCR TAPE....IN LOW DEF 480 lines of information.....
You'll never get that converted over to Hi Def 1080 lines of information....you can't take 480 lines and somehow magically get enough information out of it to fill another 600 lines that never existed.....so you look at 480 lines and say to yourself...."God what a crappy picture"....
Take a look at the old crappy 1920 movies compared to 1945 movies, compared to 1990 movies...
2006-11-25 20:19:42 · answer #3 · answered by reggieman 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋