In the field of television broadcasting there are plenty of acronyms to go around and it all can all be very confusing. One of the most common terms you will read about and hear is "HDTV". A lot of people use that term in articles and at the consumer electronics stores and assume that everyuone knows exactly what they are talking about. But plenty of us are not tech-heads that know all the latest jargon in the electronics world, so let's go over just what HDTV is and what it means for you.



First of all HDTV stands simply for High Definition Television. It is a broadcasting standard for sending television signals in digital format instead of the old analog way. Back in days past, the television signal that originated at the tv station was sent in analog format that ciould only handle so much data for both picture and sound and once that limit was reached, it didn't matter how great the television set was that was receiving the signal, it would only look and sound so great.

However, with the advent of the digital age, electronics technology has improved to the extent that we can do much better than analog television signals now, and instead we can record the signal digitally, braodcast it not only by antenna but by cable and satellite and display it on greatly superior television screens. All of this results in picture and sound that is vastly improved over what we have been used to watching on television for many years now.

To give you an idea of how much improvement has been made in television equipment, just consider the screen or monitor itself. Standard television monitors have only been able to display about 525 lines of information on the screen, while HDTV enabled monitors can display up to 1080 lines on the same screen. That's almost double the detail of analog television. What that means for you is much improved resolution, color, and smoothness of action on the screen. And it will also be easier on the eyes as well.

Since all television broadcasts have been mandated by the FCC in the US to eventually be shown in HDTV format, that pretty much makes all analog TV systems obsolete. So if you are looking to buy a new television, it makes a lot of sense to buy a high definition television, as that will soon be the standard for all televisions sold for some to come.