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HDTV will be a greater leap in the quality of the home entertainment experience than even the change from black-and-white TV to color, or Hi-Fi to Stereo, or AM to FM. HDTV, in addition to picture and sound will also deliver data services, such as electronic program guides or information related to the programs you watch. Local broadcast stations broadcasting in HD will be able to broadcast one extra high quality picture, or several separate camera angles equal to today’s pictures. HDTV will offer the opportunity to develop sophisticated services that meet consumer demand for flexibility and convenience.

HD will be presented in a 16:9 format and will allow resolutions up to 1940×1080 plus provide you with twice the amount of picture information both vertically and horizontally. It will not work on regular analog televisions since these sets don’t support the interfaces required for HDTV signals.
After February 17th of 2009 local analog TV channels will stop transmitting, everything else connected to your analog TV will continue to work.

DVD

By the time HDTV is wide spread, high-definition movies will be on the shelves, playable on Blu-ray, HD DVD or both, depending on which way the format wars go. When you switch over to HD, you may need to connect your HD set-top box, Blu-ray or HD DVD player to your TV using a HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) cable. Both Blu-ray and HD DVD are compatible with existing standard DVD, so you can play your current discs on a next-gen player, but the two competing formats are not compatible with each other. It’s a bit of a laugh if you are old enough to remember the ‘Beta-Max VHS Wars’, Beta you say?

Technology

What problems are facing the early adopters of this new technology and what caveats remain for it to become mainstream? The people buying HDTV units today are known as “early adopters”. They usually buy whatever is the ‘Latest & Greatest’ especially in the Hi-Tech field. Other consumers will have to be sold on the technology. A huge number of older television sets will instantly become obsolete and when their owners make plans to replace them, newer technology like HDTV as it exists at the time of the mass conversion will be very attractive. You can bet that there will be a market for ‘conversion hardware’ to enable the use of ‘analog’ sets with the new HD Broadcast Technology. If you now record off-air local TV shows on your VCR you will not be able to continue doing that after February 17th of 2009 without an upgrade. To continue recording local TV programs you will either have to connect a Digital to Analog TV Converter box to your VCR or purchase a different TV recording device that has a DTV tuner built in. You’ll need that to continue to record programs from local TV stations after February 17th of 2009. The advent of Tivo will eventually make the VCR question irrelevant.

While the prices of HDTV sets are dropping, the High Definition equivalents of many of the complimentary technologies that we’ve come to expect will remain relatively expensive, such as home recording and storage media. The HD DVD and Blu-ray war is another slow down in bringing High Definition technology into the mainstream. In reality the main distinctions between competing HD formats will be virtually unnoticeable unless you are viewing on a screen 55″+ in size.

Antenna

In cities across the nation stations have already begun broadcasting an HDTV signal, receivable with an antenna. In order to receive over-the-air digital and HD signals, you need a tuner and a digital antenna. In order to watch local network affiliates, some satellite customers may have to switch from their dish to an antenna. To receive HDTV via antenna you’ll need: An HDTV, HDTV tuner, HDTV antenna. Depending on your location you may need an antenna rotor to point the antenna to multiple broadcast towers.

A major hurdle to overcome with over-the-air HD broadcasts via Antenna is, the technology has to overcome the ‘consumers’ misperceptions and long held myths, combined with lack of knowledge about the capabilities of antennas. The solution to the Antenna/Satellite conversion question may have a more long term effect on the consumer response than the seemingly obvious debate in other hardware.
Note: HDTV tuners that come built-into many HDTVs are over-the-air tuners for use with an antenna and cannot be used as your cable HD tuner.

Local Response

It’s always a good idea to check with your local TV dealer regarding what HDTV services are available in your area before buying. It would even be a good idea to call your local TV stations and ask for the Chief Engineer to find out the stations’ particulars.

The cable industry believes that HDTV will drive DTV sales up and bring prices down to a where more consumers can buy.
I’m looking at a DLP Projector System now; capable of displaying HD and allowing connections for an HDTV Tuner. Perhaps HDTV will be my next acquisition.

Webmaster of Informational Sites and Blogs since 2000

C R Ellsworth is retired from Corporate America and living in the ‘Great Northwoods’
Wireless Home Theatre Systems

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Flyfish For Less

On the surface, the two big satellite television companies, DirecTV and Dish Network look a lot alike. And in many ways they really are similar. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t great reasons for choosing one company over the other.

The biggest factor overall will probably be the package selections. When it comes right down to it, you want to receive the channels you want to watch, and if one company offers them and the other doesn’t that’s the way you should go.

This can be challenging, however. Sometimes each company will have slightly different channels, and what you would want most is a mixture of the two. In that case you will have to decide based on other factors.

For example, if you love sports, can’t get enough, Dish Network has some great sports packages. But DirecTV offers more basic packages, which gives you greater flexibility on the basics you may want.

Equipment and equipment cost can be a big factor too. It’s not that hard to find offers where you get at least some of your satellite television equipment free. But as a general rule, Dish Network offers more free equipment than DirecTV.

One factor that can be hard to figure out without actually checking with the companies is what exactly is offered in your area. Most areas have local channels available, although you may have to pay an additional fee for these. Available sports channels also vary by location.

Both companies of course offer a variety of addons, such as movie channels, the aforementioned sports channels, and HDTV. If these are the packages you want, their exact composition could be the deciding factor for you.

At the time you are searching, it never hurts to check for ongoing offers. This is especially nice when you come to the conclusion that it doesn’t much matter to you which you get, such as when the offers for your needs are much the same. But don’t make a decision you will regret just to save a little at the start. You want to be happy with your decision.

The differences between these two companies are slight in many ways, but they can be important when it comes down to your overall satisfaction with your satellite television service. Don’t compromise on your overall satisfaction just to save a few dollars; pick the company that closest meets your needs. There are few frustrations like that of not being able to watch something you love because you don’t get the right channel.

Stephanie Foster runs http://www.comparesatellite.info/ to allow people to take a good look at which satellite television is right for them. Visit her site to compare satellite television services.

Price comparison website uSwitch says that millions of television sets and video recorders will be dumped following the Digital TV switch-over. Their bold statement comes on the back of a survey of 2,500 UK adults.

The survey estimates that eight-million machines, enough to fill 100 Olympic swimming pools, will be dumped after being rendered useless by the Digital TV switch-over. Most existing TVs will continue to work once the analogue TV signal is switched off, but viewers will have to either subscribe to BT Vision, Sky or Virgin Media, or buy a Freeview box to continue watching television following the Digital TV switch-over.

However, older television sets without scart inputs will be rendered useless and one in five video recorders will also be dumped as they will not work in the same way. This is because the Digital TV switch-over will mean that most people will be unable to record one programme whilst watching another. One way around this is to purchase a digital recorder, or to buy a seperate Freeview box for solely recording from. Either way, many people will not have expected this problem and extra cost, whilst it will cause extra confusion and worry for more people already dreading the Digital TV switchover.

uSwitch has predicted that of the 25 million television sets in the UK yet to go digital, nearly five million will be unable to receive a digital signal. The national cost of making all UK television sets work will be 2.2 billion pound, with 15% planning to throw away their old sets. When this is added to the one in five video recorders that will be thrown away, with the cost of replacing them with digital recorders estimated at 1.1 billion pounds, it proves that it will not only be costly for the customer but for the environment too.

Steve Weller, head of communication services at uSwitch, says: “Not only is the switch-over costing the nation significantly more than the low cost of a Freeview box, but the potential environmental impact of the discarded VCRs and TVs is shattering.”

The uSwitch findings have prompted calls for better education with regards to the Digital TV switch-over. Although the government and relevent authorities claim to be providing enough information for people in how to ensure their television set will receive Digital TV signals following the switch-over, there are major concerns that the use of video recorders has been overlooked. Finally, to avoid damaging the environment collection and recycling schemes need to be set up so that people can safely dispose of their old analogue equipment.

Guide to TV discusses television options for residential customers, primarily for the UK market. Find out more about getting the best option for your home at Guide to TV.

This is one of those hard questions to answer. It is not as straightforward as it may seem. Which option is best for you depends on what is offered in your area as well as your own needs.

Cable television certainly has a lot of advantages, especially now that digital options are available. Lots of channels and a wonderful range of packages to choose from. Many companies will give you the option to have service on multiple televisions as well.

Cable television is also available in most areas now. Not all, certainly, but it is extremely widely available. However, in many areas you will still only have one company to choose from. If you don’t like the service you are receiving it’s not so easy to just go over to the competition, unless you switch to satellite.

There aren’t a lot of satellite companies to choose from either, but you do at least have a choice. And the channel selection is simply wonderful. Many people get marvelous reception, although some do complain of weather related issues.

Choosing based on cost may not be as easy at it first appears. Most cable companies don’t particularly care how many televisions you hook up, although if you get digital cable you will need a box or card for each so that your television can understand the signal.

Similarly with satellite you will need a receiver for each television. Unlike cable, the costs may go up when you add more televisions.

You will also want to consider who is offering the best options for what you watch. Sports lovers will want to consider which sports channels they can order and the costs associated with that. It will be similar for movie lovers.

Many cable customers suffer from regular price increases. This is one of the biggest problems with the lack of competition. But on the other side of things, most satellite providers insist on a contract, so you have to be prepared to stick with it for a time.

Equipment can be something of an issue. Depending on your cable provider, you may have to pay rent for the digital receiver if you go with digital cable. On the other hand, many satellite providers offer at least some equipment for free, then have you purchase anything above and beyond what they offer for free. In both cases you may well need equipment for every television you hook up.

As you can see, there is no definitive way to declare one is better than the other for every home. It depends on your own needs and preferences. Don’t be afraid to contact both a cable provider and a satellite television company to get the numbers for your situation. It will help you make the right choice.

Stephanie Foster helps you compare satellite and cable television at her site. She finds that each has advantages and disadvantages, and hopes to provide a good resource for you to make the right choice at http://www.comparesatellite.info/

Virgin Media customers look set to lose a number of Sky channels after talks broke down between the two companies.

Virgin Media look set to drop the Sky Basics package, which includes such channels as Sky One, Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel, after Sky raised the fees it charges the cable company to carry them. Premimum channels such as Sky Sports and Sky Movies are unaffected.

The news comes after weeks of negotiations and a hardline marketing campaign by the two companies. Virgin Media, which formed just weeks ago when the cable companies ntl:Telewest merged with Virgin Mobile, have accused Sky of “bullying” and “arrogance” by asking “nearly double” the price it had previously charged for the channels. It has said that although it increased its offer to keep the channels, if it had matched the Sky estimation it would have had no choice but to absorbing the significant costs and passing the price increase onto its customers which it was keen to do.

Sky have responded by saying that it feels Virgin Media should keep the their channels for its customers’ sake and that “it would be sad if they failed to provide their customers with their best-loved shows”.

Virgin Media have accused Sky of dirty tactics after advertising the fact that their customers may lose the Sky channels and it published a phone number for its customers to ring to ask the company not to lose these channels.

Virgin Media’s chief executive Steve Burch has said: “We frankly believe they never had an intent to reach an agreement with us. All their actions - advertising, bullying tactics claiming we didn’t care about Sky’s basic package - and the price they asked was just so far out of reality, we just believe it was engineered so we wouldn’t reach an agreement.

“We sat down and negotiated with them in good faith. Last night we made a final offer. They not only rejected it but indicated they were not going to go further with negotiations even though the contract didn’t expire until next week. And they indicated to us that they had planned a PR campaign for this weekend to show we wouldn’t be carrying Sky Basics any more.”

Virgin Media have responded to the debacle with a message on their website to its customers. They have said that despite them continuing to offer its channels, including Living, Bravo and Challenge, to Sky customers, Sky seems insistent on withdrawing is channels from their customers.

They said that although they were willing to increase the price they paid to carry the channels in question, the price they was asking for beared no relation to the channels true market value and therefore “Sky have picked up their ball and gone home”.

However, Virgin Media have said that they are confident that they can still compete with Sky even without such channels as Sky One and that they are “full of fresh entertainment and communication possibilities”. In fact they end their statement by saying: “We’re not scared of competition, we welcome it”.

The bad blood between Virgin Media and Sky relates not only to the Virgin re-branding of the cable company earlier this month, but also to an incident last year when their biggest shareholder, Sir Richard Branson, was left infuriated by Sky’s decision to buy more than one billion pounds worth of shares in ITV after Virgin Media had declared an interest in buying it. The Sky shareholding effectively blocked Virgin Media’s takeover plans.

Guide to TV discusses television options for residential customers, primarily for the UK market. Find out more about getting the best option for your home at Guide to TV.

Recently the “Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act” was passed. This sets February 17th - 2009, as the “final-cut-off-date” for Over-The-Air Analog TV Broadcasts. That means your ‘Rabbit Ears’ and the tall antenna on your roof will be useless except for lawn ornaments. To watch any TV presentation that originates outside of your home you will need new hardware. The minimum will be an HDTV with a digital tuner. The tuner can be integrated or external. If there happens to be an HDTV Transmitter close enough to your home, you can buy an HDTV antenna.

HDTV signals are line-of-sight, so if you are on the edge of a broadcast area there are Roof mounted antennas available. This is how the local broadcast network affiliates will transmit, if you still watch them. There will of course be satellite and cable available for the myriad extra entertainment venues they provide.

Some regions may need an HDTV antenna if your cable provider is slow bringing HDTV to your area or if your area has no cable. If you use one of the Satellite providers you should be in luck. They are transitioning to HDTV as we speak. Ain’t Competition Great.

HDTV SPECIFICATION
The HDTV specification provides for three different types of HDTV, denoted by the number of lines of resolution and the signal type. They are:

*1080p (1080 lines, progressive scan)
*1080i (1080 lines, interlaced)
*720p (720 pixels, progressive)

Any TV not capable of displaying at least 720 lines is not ‘HDTV ready’ and any signal with fewer than 720 lines is not an HDTV signal. So, in order to be properly HDTV capable, a TV needs to be able to display at least 1280 pixels horizontally as well as at least 720 vertically.

The ‘i’ and ‘p’ in the HDTV specification refer to interlaced and progressive scan. The analog TV we’ve been watching for years is interlaced. That simply means that each frame of video is split into two fields. Each field contains alternate lines of the signal (one has the odd, the other the even) and is displayed for 1/60th of a second. Because it happens so fast, your brain interprets each frame as a single image. Progressive scan signals have no fields, they simply display each frame in its entirety for 1/30th of a second. This results in a higher quality image, particularly noticeable in fast-action broadcasts such as sporting events,

Once the decision is made as to how you are going to receive HDTV some decisions need to be made about how you will use the system. Your choices in display technology will depend on your most frequent use of the system. Depending on your interests you will want to evaluate different types of displays and/or controls.

Gamers will probably want different display qualities than a Home Theatre Buff, Sports enthusiast or Business users. Business applications such as Power Point & Spreadsheet display well with most consideration being given to the size of the audience. Avid sports viewers will need true high speed performance. I haven’t been a Gamer since before Intel’s P III, so their concerns will be addressed in another publication.

So what do you prefer?

A front-projection system uses a projector and a separate screen, and it projects images onto the front of that screen. This setup looks most like what you’d find in a movie theater — the projection unit is completely separate from the screen. The projector can be placed on a table or mounted to the ceiling. The picture looks best when displayed on a high-quality screen, but a specially painted, flat wall will work as well.

Rear-projection systems look more like traditional televisions. They display images on the back of a screen rather than the front, and the projector is completely contained within the television itself. You can also set up a rear-projection system with a projector and a special screen, but the term is most often used to describe self-contained TV sets.

For that theatre experience at home, without the sticky floor and screaming kids, I prefer a front-projection DLP Projector for my Home Theatre Room. In my opinion DLP is best for Home Theatre Video’s (DVD Etc. because of higher contrast and deeper black levels, Contrast (3000:1 for DLP, 1000:1 for LCD).

A projector of this type can project on a wall screen up to 120″ in size with high contrast and deep black levels. DLP miniprojectors on the market are around 3 pounds. Most LCD projectors are five pounds or more. These differences are being narrowed as technology progresses. For Business applications such as Power Point & Spreadsheet display these are not noticeable concerns.

I’m a Home Theatre Buff so DLP meets my expectations. But there are other technologies with their own pluses and minuses.

Plasma Displays have great resolution and incredible color definition. With a resolution of 1366 x 768 a plasma display can give virtually a 3-D effect. This in combination with exceptional color reproduction can be quite stunning.

Plasma does have some issues though. They can be subject to ‘Burn in’ and there is a concern with ‘Life Cycle’. At the price levels you will find in display technologies a screen that only lasts 20,000 to 25,000 hours before replacement is needed is problematic. This is possible with Plasma although NEC is working on raising their ‘life cycles’ to 60,000 hours.

LCD’s have an average life cycle of 30,000. LCD Screens deliver a very good picture. The LCD was the first display to have 1080 line resolution. LCD is better in bright light conditions. LCD historically delivers better color saturation than you get from a DLP projector although this is a major focus of new research on DLP tech.

Compared to Plasma, LCD has slow reaction time if you are watch presentations focusing on split-second events such as NASCAR and other sports. Contrast, at 1000:1 is not great compared with Plasma & DLP. Full black is hard to achieve with LCD, black is usually a deep Gray. LCD may also be subject to a screendoor effect, at times seeming to show a division between pixels. Also a potential problem with LCD: Long Term Image Degradation. Although this would most likely happen after a comparable Plasma screen may show effects of a burn in or element failure.

There are so many factors to consider and so much information out there that many more articles can be written. So for now further research and choices are up to you.

C. R. Ellsworth is retired and living in the ‘Great North Woods’.

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Digital TV is a means of transmitting picture and sound to your TV set. It is done by converting the pictures and sound into computerised bits of information and compressing it, then transmitting it from as transmitter to your aerial. The signal is then converted back into pictures and sound by your TV using a decoder. Digital TV provides the potential for hundreds of channels and services via a TV. This is because the digital signal is compressed, meaning it takes up less space in the airwaves, unlike the analogue system.

Where as the old analogue system could only provide 5 channels, on digital you can potentially have access to hundreds of channels, as well as extras like a 7-day programme guide and interactivity. The main benefit of Digital TV is the increase in picture quality; digital signals produce a much better picture and higher quality sound. Ghosting images and crackling pictures are a thing of the past, and the best bit is its available to almost everyone.

In order to receive Digital TV on your television you will have to replace or adapt it (unless you have a recently purchased TV). Some brand new TVs come featuring integrated digital Freeview (IDTV), which means they are able to display Digital signals without the use of a separate box. If your TV doesnt have this feature then you will need to attach a set top box to any TVs you wish to adapt using a SCART lead.

Set Top boxes vary in costs depending on the service you require. Non subscription services such as Freeview require a one off payment to purchase the equipment in order to receive more than 30 free channels and other features. Subscription services vary in cost depending on the level you wish to subscribe to, Top up TV provides limited additional channels for a small charge which can paid flexibly each month. Others such as SKY and NTL can provide a much wider selection of services but the charges are much greater and often require a 12 month subscription.

The Digital Switchover is the process by which all television in the UK switches to a digital signal. Analogue signals are inferior to their Digital counterparts and as a result are going to be phased out. In order to make sure that everyone in the UK can receive a digital signal it has to be available for free everywhere. Presently this is possible in only 74% of UK homes, in order for the rest of the country to receive digital signals the existing analogue signal must be switched off.

After switchover at least 98.5% of people will be able to receive digital TV via an aerial. The switchover will begin in 2008 and end in 2012, and will happen one region at a time. In order to make sure that you’re ready for the switchover you will need to make sure your TV can receive and process digital signals, either via an integrated tuner or set top box.

Chris is a former TV salesman with a passion for technology. Confused about HDTVs and the Digital Era? For more information, Reviews and great deals on LCD and Plasma TV’s check out http://www.which-hdtv.co.uk