What's available today in High-Definition?

The public is finally starting to get a taste of HDTV as many local affiliates convert to the broadcasts equipment required for transmission.  As most consumer televisions transition from analog to digital, the differences (as shown below) and older sets start fading away into oblivion, a primer to different sources of HDTV is in order.   

NCAA Basketball in SDTV 

NCAA Basketball in HDTV

The source

You need to identify how you'll receive your HDTV signal.  Not including other sources of video like VCRs, up-converting and true High Definition (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray) DVD players, summarized below are your options.

Over-the-air with antenna  
If you live in a typical midsize market, most of your local stations should already be broadcasting over-the-air (OTA) HDTV signals using 8VSB (ATSC) modulation.  These stations are our national broadcasters like ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and PBS as well as a few independents.  By next year, nearly every digital TV sold will have OTA HDTV tuner built in.  Free public broadcasts are accessible simply by connecting an antenna to your TV set as before, and eye-popping video will be the norm.  Over-the-air broadcasts are unencrypted and can be recorded and stored with ease and played with most MPEG-2 decoders.

Cable
Now the most common source of HDTV.  Using QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) requiring a different modulation scheme from the that mandated by the FCC for US over-the-air broadcasts, a cable box or card is generally employed to receive this type of signal, although some HDTV tuners offer clear QAM tuning for unencrypted (local must-carry) stations generally in High-Definition. With a deployment of recording capable DVR (Digital Video Recorder) set-tops, the industry makes the fastest inroads into the average US home.  The DVRs are necessary for recording and storing premium pay channels that are encrypted and cannot easily be imported to other players.  

Satellite
Our duopoly of satellite service providers, DirecTV and Dish Network, each using a third proprietary digital format not compatible with cable nor OTA modulation, again requiring a different set-top-boxes that are leased or purchased.  The advantage of satellite service being available virtually anywhere in the country with installation of a small dish, many pioneering broadcasts originated from this field (Mark Cuban's HDNet and short lived third satellite broadcaster Voom).  Like cable, DVRs are required for recording and storing premium channels in digital format.    

To locate the broadcasters in your area providing digital content, visit TitanTV website.  

Getting connected  

Display Technology and TV Types

• Standard or Widescreen Aspect Ratio

• FCC's Digital Television Website. 

• Digital TV Facts

• What is HDCP?

• How to connect your PC to a Digital TV with a Transcoder

• Guide to PowerStrip Custom Timings and Resolutions

 

To ensure that a product delivers as advertised, we at Digital Connection make it a mission to test and rate products sold on our site.  Products that perform at the maximum test frequencies are labeled with 1080P-Ready symbol for the highest compatibility.