Thinking About Upgrading to HDTV?
by
Christina Nikolov

Are you, like millions of people around the nation, thinking about upgrading your television to High Definition? Think again because, yet again, marketing moguls have us right where they want us - confused and dazzled by hype, misinformation, deception and outright lies. Here are few HDTV facts to clarify your decision process.

The bit-rate of HDTV, by specification, is 19.3 megabits per second. Few, if any, HD programming providers are passing through TRUE HDTV to their viewers. Cable HDTV, at its best, currently provides a bit-rate of 13 - 17 megabits per second. Some satellite high definition providers are currently  passing through supposed Hi-Def which is actually barely above DVD quality. There are not yet enough satellite transponders extant to provide TRUE HDTV for all the services claiming it. Some experts theorize that much HDTV movie programming is, in fact, merely DVD. Broadcast HDTV, such as your local stations that broadcast high definition programming, is capable in theory of providing the full 19.3 megabit picture quality. However, most broadcasters prefer to transmit a much lower rate, oftentimes FAR less because they prefer and plan to utilize the public's digital spectrum for other services. In other words, you are NOT viewing TRUE HDTV ever!

• Most of what passes for HDTV programming is simply a normal analog program 'remastered' to HDTV. High definition television is an entirely NEW method of transmitting picture and sound - it is digital - and as such everything is new starting with the camera which captures the action. Events such as sports, documentaries, movies, etc. captured by a HDTV camera are far superior to anything captured by analog cameras and then 're-mastered' to HDTV - there is no comparison.



• Few, VERY few if any, consumer HDTV television sets are capable of displaying TRUE HDTV. Plasma and LCD sets are NOT HDTV. The HDTV specification requires a 16x9 aspect ratio - the widescreen look. The regular 4x3 aspect ratio - the normal looking television cannot, by definition, be HDTV, no matter what the showroom label might trumpet.
  
  
• The only way to experience the TRUE HDTV experience is to view TRUE HDTV while sitting at a three times the height of the picture distance from the screen - surrounded by the sound. If you ever experience TRUE HDTV, you will understand what a sham the current HDTV hype really is.



• HDTV, by specification, requires Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. If you are not receiving DD 5.1 you are not viewing HDTV.



• Current HDTV sets might well not be backward compatible with yet to be realized copyright protection schemes. Hollywood and other television programming providers fear the ability of the American public to create digital copies of their programming.



• Until the FULL 19.3 megabits per second of picture quality and sound can be transmitted to the home and until home sets can display the FULL amount of data carried within the digital signal, you will NOT be viewing TRUE HDTV. Until then will pay for HDTV without viewing it. The reason the current HD sets and programming appears so spectacular is that for decades Americans have been accustomed to the very poor image quality of analog television.



• Why the official push to HDTV? Because the current analog television 'public airwaves' spectrum is due to be returned to the government, although some senior broadcast executives think differently, auctioned to the highest bidders and then utilized for other services. In fact the income the U.S. government expects to realize from this auction was long ago  factored into the budget - that expected amount did, in point of fact, go a long way toward 'balancing the budget, on paper, in the late 1990s.