HDTV isn't the easiest thing in the world to figure out - you can run into advertising and marketing mumbo-jumbo that makes you say, "Huh???" You need to strap on some hip boots and wade through the marketing manure to get up to speed on HDTV. So here's a list of HDTV danger zones:
- Digital confusion: One of the bigger (and most widespread) myths in the HDTV world is the notion that any kind of digital TV signal (such as digital cable, digital satellite, or DVD) is HDTV. This claim simply isn't true - a TV signal must be 720p resolution or higher to be considered high-definition.
- EDTV confusion: EDTVs are TVs (typically plasma flat-panel models) that cost a lot and can display progressive-scan images - but they don't meet the minimum requirement of 720p resolution, so they don't display true HDTV signals. There's nothing wrong with EDTVs, just don't be fooled into thinking you're getting an HDTV when you're not.
- Image scaling: Some marketing genius decided to make image scalers, devices that can convert video signals from one resolution to another, look shiny and new when they've actually been around for a while.
Some marketers present these devices as "HDTV upscalers" (yeah, right), with a promise that these scalers
can make any TV signal into HDTV. Don't believe it. Image scalers can improve SDTV and NTSC images with an
HDTV, but they don't make those images into HDTV images. Real HDTV signals can have six or more times as
many pixels as standard-definition. In other words, five out of every six pixels could be "made up" by the
scaler. Does that sound like "high definition" to you?
The DTV tuner: You can often find DTV tuners anywhere with HDTV (and DTV, in general). These tuners let older TVs "watch" DTV broadcasts. But DTV tuners don't turn older analog TVs into HDTVs. They just convert DTV signals to NTSC for display on an analog TV.
