HDTV: It's like going from records to CDs

Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News

Saturday, January 14, 2006

You can talk pixels and ratios and standards and horizontal resolution and line interlacing, but all that really matters is that high-definition television gives you a much better picture than you've ever seen.

"Basically, you're getting more than twice the resolution of traditional analog TV. You're gonna get a much sharper picture," says Phil Murray of Listen Up Audio/Video.

"It's kinda like when we went from vinyl records to CD in terms of the impact it has on people. The improvement is really dramatic in terms of the sharpness, color of picture and sound quality."

Analog TV's standard is 480 horizontal lines, according to the Federal Communications Commission. High-definition TV has up to 1,080 horizontal lines. Analog TV has a 4-3 ratio, making a nearly square picture, while high-definition goes for the wide-screen movie ratio of 16-9.

And while HDTV programming isn't everywhere, it's getting there. Comcast Digital Cable currently offers 16 channels that offer HDTV either part or all of the time. EchoStar announced recently that it will roll out local high-definition channels on its Dish Network in Denver in March.

Most prime-time network programming is broadcast in high- definition, and 9News is the first local station to broadcast its news in that format.

"The reason why it has taken a long time to make this transition is, the broadcasters have to change out everything - the cameras, the editing equipment, the transmitters, everything. And it's a very expensive transition," Murray says.

To get high definition, consumers first need to buy special HDTV-ready sets. You can buy HDTV-ready units for as little as $500 for smaller screen sizes, but some think that defeats the purpose. A high-quality 42-inch flat-screen unit can be had for under $2,000. If you don't already have a surround-sound home-theater setup, you may want to invest in that for the maximum experience.

Murray had just returned from the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where companies like Panasonic and Samsung were squaring off with flat-screen plasma TVs in the 100-inch range.

"It was pretty amazing to see how the prices are dropping on the flat-panel TVs, the LCD and plasma. They've dropped 20 (percent) or 25 percent in the past year," Murray says.

"The prices have really reached a point and the source content has reached a point where we're really hitting critical mass."