What is the difference between hd and hdmi

However, if you had an older TV and watched over-the-air broadcasts by antenna, you may have been one of millions unprepared for the June switch.

Despite early misconceptions, this didn't necessarily mean you needed a new TV set to continue watching television. And you certainly didn't have to have an HDTV set. In fact, unless your television has a built-in digital tuner, receiving DTV requires only a digital-to-analog converter to turn the digital signal into an analog signal that your current TV set can show.

While this does reduce the quality of the original digital signal, you can still watch all available over-the-air broadcast TV in your area without a new TV purchase.

While digital television supports HDTV, not all channels are broadcast in high definition and not all shows are produced in HD. As each channel and program transitions to HD format, though, digital broadcasting ensures that we can receive digital HDTV over-the-air broadcasts when they're ready. HDTV is not just another pretty flat-panel. While each of these flat-panel technologies can provide higher-resolution images than CRTs, that does not mean all flat panels are HDTVs.

The first requirement for an HDTV is a set that has the appropriate screen dimensions -- high-definition sets in the United States use a ratio. HDTV as we know it in the United States has been around for a little more than a decade, though early development for a high-end television broadcast started long before that.

Flat-panel display technology was developed independently over the same time, and it became the more-adaptable way to provide the new ratio picture that eventually became part of HDTV standards. The HDTV label on the new display tells you that the set is capable of receiving high-definition digital television signals and presenting them to you in their fullest quality. However, not every signal the set receives will necessarily be HD. So how can you tell if you're watching HDTV?

There are two things you'll need to check: the kind of signal you're receiving, and how you're getting that signal to your TV. First, check to be sure the original video is in high definition. Some channels dedicate themselves to being "HD," but be wary of this label.

Besides broadcast TV, digital media such as Blu-ray players can also provide high-definition video. Second, check that you're receiving the video as a digital signal.

This is automatic for digital devices such as Blu-ray players. For broadcast television, though, this means using a digital antenna, digital cable TV or digital satellite TV.

Digital cable typically requires an upgraded service and a special receiver from your cable provider. Rather, its classification and its certification do. You can buy a very inexpensive cable and still get top-notch performance.

Our recommendation is to pick from among Monoprice or AmazonBasics options, which have huge followings for their affordability and reliability. See the sidebar for specific suggestions. You can find out more about the certification and how to verify authenticity of certification in this article and on the HDMI.

These cables are extremely overpriced. Use keywords only as a starting point. If you look on Amazon or Monoprice. Ensure you get the right cable by looking at the actual specs. The quickest way to determine the type is to look for its bandwidth rating. Price is still an important clue about type and quality.

By paying attention to bandwidth rating, refresh rate, and price, you can avoid unreliable cables. Inexpensive options outside of known brands AmazonBasics and Monoprice are currently the top two can be tempting, but some budget cables have weak electromagnetic interference EMI shielding, which can disrupt your Wi-Fi network, and they might cause visual artifacts and signal drop-outs.

On the flip side, bandwidth rating and price can also help you discover cables that punch above their weight, such as the AmazonBasics High Speed HDMI cable Remove non-product link. Active HDMI cables should not cost exorbitantly more than their passive counterparts. While prices do go up, you can find them for well below the usurious rates of highly marketed cables at Best Buy and similar stores.

Purchase only as much cable length as you need. The general rule of thumb is that for lengths of six feet or less, a passive cable is more than adequate. A good AV dealer will definitely provide you with a good in-house demo, and more likely be happy to arrange a home demo if their broadcast feed isn't up to scratch, which it should be.

Just don't rush the decision - perchase in haste, repent at leisure, as the saying goes. Whereas LCD is a bit inferior in these fields plus blurr surroundings around fast moving objects esp in the distant, but changes to give astonding picture details if work with a DVD player with a scaler chip inside which outputs p signals via a HDMI cable.

The plasma generates much heat and now, 13 months from buying, has a faulty colouring verticle line of the breadth of several pixels appeared near the side of screen which cut across the whole panel vertically.

On the contrary, LCD gives much less amount of heat. One thing to mention is that my wife used to watch TV on the palsma for long hours, usu hours a day. What I got the impression is, although newer plasma TVs are announced to have longer lifetime, some 60, hrs, its design makes it more prone to failure esp in the panel, and should that happen serious repair in the panel is unavoidable.

On the contrary, LCD's design makes it more easier to repair replacing the backlight should it be necessary. So, if you can afford, get the LCD. If not, get a palsma but grasp the longest warranty as much as possible and when get it home make sure to allow some time of 'rest' for it after hours of watching.

Lots of points here, and I hope that all this advice is beneficial and sensibly directed, rather than just being argumentative. Whenever anyone knocks a particular display technology, there is ALWAYS someone who will reply to defend it because that is their chosen poison , so that is quite what I expected, and I actually toned down my original impulsive drafted comments to try to avoid offending people. However, no-one will deny that the reason why people buy flat panel TVs is NOT picture quality, but the reasons can still be quite valid.

I think maybe we should stop to ask what the original question was. Because it revolved around HDTV, I assumed, as I suppose I always do, that the priority was picture quality, but that might not be the case. The debate about the relative merits of the different types of displays is interminable, and probably never reaches any conclusion in any of the forums.

One thing I would like to add, though, that flat panel display technology is still advancing. It has come a long way, and still has some way to go. CRTs still give the best picture quality. No-one disputes that, but the gap is not as wide as it was. If it is an HDTV that you want, now may not be the time to get one. There will many more options to chose fom next year once the broadcast and distributed material becomes available, and I'm sure all the display and processing technology will continue to improve.

Finally, I would warn against being swayed by what you see in shops. There are many different ways of connecting and configuring TVs, and it is very difficult to get a fair comparison. You are likely to find displays connected by composite, component, RGB, DVI or VGA all within the same shop, and that may have more bearing on picture quality than the products themselves. And if one screen looks brighter or more colourful than another, well, we all know the explanation for that - the vendor gets more commission.

If that makes it more difficult to work out what is best, then I don't have a very good solution. Magazines may be more impartial, but have you noticed they never rate anything lower than 3 out of five for fear of losing advertising revenue? As I said in the beginning, the best opinions you can trust are forum mebers with four figure posting ratings or Stephen Neal, who knows much more than he lets on Best regards, Nick.

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