With the rapid growth of high-definition (HD) broadcasting worldwide, it was natural for Europe to introduce it to the market. Market research has determined that by 2008 more than 4.5 million households in Europe would be using HDTV and industry experts have realized the need to prepare consumers for this major change in signal format.
On January 19, 2005, EICTA (European Information & Communications Technology Industry Association) officially standardized HDTV by announcing the conditions and requirements of HD display devices that can carry the "HD ready" logo. |
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| SD stands for 'Standard Definition' whereas HD stands for 'High Definition', and both are broadcasting signal formats for analogue and digital signals. It should also be mentioned that to view a true HDTV image it must be recorded on special cameras. PAL/SECAM broadcasting used in Europe for decades was an analogue SD format that provided sufficient quality for TVs of conventional screen sizes. However, with the introduction of new display technologies such as FPD panels that offered larger screen sizes for viewing higher resolution sources (DVDs, etc.) the SD format was no longer adequate. Its major drawback was that images look poor on large, high-resolution LCD TVs because these display devices offer more pixels than the source signal resolution. For example, many LCD TVs feature a WXGA panel with 1366 (horizontal) x 768 (vertical) pixels whereas signal sources such as the SD format are designed to accommodate only 720 (horizontal) x 576 (vertical) pixels. The advent of HD signals - a higher resolution source - offers the opportunity to rectify this problem. In addition to HD broadcasting, other applications such as consumer home-video making, high-definition DVD players and recorders of different formats including Blu-ray and HD-DVD, as well as high-resolution video game consoles, will help to make HD commercially viable. |
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| The biggest advantage of HDTV is that it gives superior quality images compared with standard definition TV images. HD has two formats, 720p and 1080i - with 720p, 720 lines are scanned progressively while 1080i has 1080 interlace scan lines. And once network broadcasters begin the delivery, they will be broadcasting HD programs in one of the aforementioned formats, which offer distinct advantages. For example, 720p produces a clearer, more stable picture than 1080i to make it suitable for images with rapid motion such as sports action while the 1080i image offers greater detail. But whether 720p or 1080i, the image resolution of HDTV has to seen to be believed. |
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*All pictures are simulated |
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