In the late 1800’s through the late 1920’s, several different men came up with and developed the technology for motion video that became television in 1928.The old black and white TV’s have mutated into what has been described as a “window to the world”. We have HDTV’s, but what makes it special?

 

Color television was developed in the 1940’s, but didn’t become common until the 1960’s when the major networks began broadcasting in color. While technological advances may have been made, standards take time to set so technology can be used commonly. Until HDTV standards were set, many current technological advances were stuck in the laboratory. Innovations that have been adopted includes both big concepts and little advantages. All have enhanced the experience for the viewer.

First, oldest and probably the most impactful has been the standardization and implementation of the different resolutions. Resolutions for HDTV have been set at 720 and 1080 with two types of scans. Progressive and interlaced. The 1080 resolution basically doubles the old standard def TV’s. If you look at older TV’s closely, you can see lines in the screen, and if you were to count those, you would get 525 which is the NTSC standard for US television. With the new standards, those lines aren’t visible.

 

Next is the screen size ratio. Because standard TV’s used a 4:3 ratio, movie makers had to either chop the sides off the movie or use a letterbox format which leaves black spaces at the top and bottom of the screen. Theater style, or widescreen, has a 16:9 ratio of width to height. Another standard is the widescreen format, which lets us see theater movies in their original format.

 

Since televisions are measured from corner to corner, or diagonally, this led to some standard sizes for TV’s. 13”, 19”, 25” and 27” were standard sizes for the CRT or cathode ray tube which was used to display the image on the screen. However, the larger the CRT the heavier the TV and the more likely it was to be broken. While rear projection TV’s were popular, they’ve been outmoded by LCD and plasma screens. Cheaper to produce and much lighter, these screens have replaced rear projection for HDTV.

 

While audio has been less standardized than the screens, some form of surround sound has become the norm. Whether Dolby 5.1, Dolby 7.1 or some other quasi-standard, most HD broadcasts now support surround sound. This enables the audio to rival the video in quality.

 

Last, is the lowly HDMI cable. While seemingly unimportant, this innovation has replaced the dozens of cables that were required to connect all the required equipment for a home theater system including your HDTV receiver. Consumers no longer have to fight with a nightmare jungle because passing both audio and video through one cable simplifies things immensly.

 

It may take years for technological innovations to become the newest standard, but those that make the grade will eventually do so. The future for HDTV is going to be as amazing as the progress from the 1880’s to what we have now.

 

Dish Network has a massive lineup of great satellite TV deals that gets you all the sports, HD programming and movies you love to watch. Why waste time and money with any other TV service when Dish has it all at prices you can afford?

 

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