In the last twenty years the development of HD TV has been clearly evident. It has now encroached into television broadcasting and films and is rapidly becoming affordable for many consumers. Fundamentally HD or High Definition refers to a television that offers around double the resolution of standard definition digital images. In addition however there is ‘true HD’ that refers to television sets that have a resolution of 1920 by 1080p. This is the most effective form of high definition and gives the viewer an unrivalled experience.
The benefits of high definition are that viewers see films and television programmes exactly how they were intended to be seen, with a quality that puts them in the heart of the action. It is not just film and television however; sporting events are now being transmitted in HD as a matter of course. Personally the pleasures of watching a wicket tumble in enough detail to see the look of disappointment in the batsman’s eye is reason enough to buy a new TV set.
HD is simply the next evolution of the TV set that has been taking place since the twenties and thirties. The distribution of televisions across the world is staggering, considering that the first colour TV was only released around fifty five years ago this usage make the television one of the most important technological developments of the twentieth century.
Television allowed the moon landings to be transmitted across the planet, showing an unprecedented audience one of the seminal moments in history. Viewers have seen sporting events such as England’s victorious World Cup Final in1966 and Mohammed Ali’s legendary Rumble in the Jungle. Today the viewer is given the opportunity to see events such as these in superb levels of detail, unimaginable to those viewers who saw Neil Armstrong taking that small step and giant leap.
The early years of HD TV can be traced to the work of the Japanese Broadcasting Cooperation in the nineteen seventies. Development occurred with gusto and within a decade the first HD broadcast was made in America, understandably public interest in the innovation was immense. At this stage however the high definition that has come into fruition today was only a small part of the ‘advanced television’ studies, these studies were still focussing upon analogue signals. In the nineties though this was changed, the future of advanced broadcasting would be digital.
HD has been in development for over thirty five years and it is only now that it has finally entered the commercial sphere as a popular alternative to standard definition. In the next five years we will see the switching off of the analogue signals for a complete digital network. Subsequently, once this occurs the demand for high definition will be greater as many will be buying new televisions for the change. Today many of the televisions on the market are described as HD ready or compatible; this means that they will be able to show high definition signals although for true high definition the 1080p symbol should be looked for.
Hopefully this article has gone some of the way to explaining what HD is and how it is set to change the way television is watched. The article has also attempted to highlight how important to society television is and how the evolution of picture clarity is only a manifestation of this importance. Whatever can be said about the television, it has allowed the world to view pivotal moments in history; high definition will continue this role, just at a higher level of picture quality.
Technology expert Thomas Pretty looks at how the advancement of HD TV is only the latest innovation to revolutionise the televised world.