Explaining High Definition And Other Home Electronic Innovations

21st Century technology is already advancing at breakneck speeds. Especially for home entertainment, it sometimes seems new formats and improved hardware come along faster than the average family can replace them.

Of course families only have so much money to spend on home electronics. To help you make the best decisions, presented below are answers to some common and frequently asked questions.

Will my family have to get an HDTV next year?

No. Beginning February 17, 2009, all commercial broadcast stations in the United States will shift their transmission frequency to broadcast digital signals, which are not the same as high definition signals. Under federal law, all televisions sold after March of 2007 must include digital signal capability.

Cable and satellite television providers will likely provide converter boxes to their customers with older televisions. Your old antenna will also receive digital signals as long as it can already receive UHF channels (14 and above).

By the way, the older, analog VHF signals will be used by police, fire, emergency medical, and national defense organizations.

Isn't digital television the same thing as digital cable?

No. Digital signals are sent through the air and have a much higher resolution and picture quality than the old-fashioned analog signals. Digital cable allows more channels to be sent through the cable lines; "digital" in this sense doesn't refer to picture or sound quality.

What about my DVD, VHS, and video game systems? Will they still work on digital and high definition televisions?

Yes, though their picture is only as good as their formats in other words, except for DVD they won't be up to digital quality.

What's the difference between HD DVD and Blu-Ray?

Though they both use the same short-wavelength blue laser beam to read information from a disk, the software and electronic components of High Definition DVD and Blu-ray players are vastly different.

Since their introduction in 2006 both formats have waged a "format war" for consumer loyalty. Recently Blu-Ray has gained impressive advantages over HD DVD, however, and many industry experts believe it will emerge as the format of choice. Whichever format proves the winner, look for prices to rapidly drop as they pull ahead.

What about downloading movies to my home computer?

That's almost certainly the next step in home movie entertainment. Netflix and other companies have spent years developing ways to get movies into their customers' home via the Internet, and they'll begin offering such a service in June 2008. Eventual plans call for films to be downloaded directly to the television set.

By: Michael Kabel

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