What you need to know about your next high-def television
Scan the descriptions of the latest high-definition televisions in your weekly flyers and you’d think a degree in electronic engineering was required to understand the latest buzzwords. I mean, do you really know the difference between 1080i and 1080p, ATSC and NTSC or 120Hz and 240Hz? You might, but most of us don’t.
And so here’s a quick plain English dictionary of HDTV jargon, to help you make an educated purchase.
HDTV: A high-definition television can display many more pixels, or little dots, on its screen than older standard-definition televisions. This results in a much clearer, sharper picture. High-definition televisions are also wider (called 16:9 aspect ratio), which is more akin to a movie theatre – compared to the older boxy (4:3) standard-definition TVs. But you don’t see HD unless your HDTV is connected to an HD source, such as an HD cable or satellite receiver box, Blu-ray Disc player or HD game console (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3).
1080p: Along with pixels, another way to explain HDTV is in the number of horizontal lines it can display. An older standard-definition television can display 480 lines, while HDTVs can show up to 1,080. Older TVs also draw lines in an “interlaced” fashion, meaning the even and odd lines alternate quickly to produce the picture, whereas newer HDTVs can show you the lines in a “progressive” fashion, where all lines are drawn in sequential order, resulting in a clearer picture. Blu-ray players are capable of showing “1080p” visuals on a compatible television.
120Hz: In order to help reduce motion blur on some LCD televisions, 120Hz (pronounced “120 hertz”) technology doubles the speed at which frames are displayed -- from 60 frames per second to 120 frames per second. Therefore, the image on a 120Hz television will better retain its detail during motion than a non-120Hz television, which might give it a blurred out effect. Newer TVs might offer 240Hz to smooth out the motion even more. Plasma TVs don’t need this as fast motion isn’t a problem for that technology.
ATSC: While all TVs ship with a built-in NTSC tuner for you to watch cable or satellite television from a connected box, some HDTVs also have a built-in ATSC tuner. This is a neat feature to look for as these televisions can receive free over-the-air high-definition broadcasts, depending on where you live.
Blu-ray Disc: A high-definition disc format that, while resembling a DVD, can store up to 10 times more data, therefore capable of displaying movies with unprecedented clarity on compatible high-definition televisions. While you need a Blu-ray machine to read these discs (which start at about $200), they will also play your existing DVD collection.
Contrast ratio: This is a measurement of the difference in brightness between the whitest white and the darkest black within an image. An HDTV with a ratio of 3000:1, for example, means the brightest point in the image is 3000 times as bright as the darkest point. When it comes to TVs, the higher the contrast ratio, the better, therefore a contrast ratio of 10,000:1 is better than 3000:1.