Some say they will wait to buy an HDTV set, others have already done so and ready to buy again, looking for the latest and greatest. I am in the middle, meaning I have entered the world of HDTV and thoroughly enjoy what I have and will wait awhile before purchasing the next big thing! I wanted to take some time and breakdown the details you need to know about when purchasing, upgrading or if you are just interested in HDTV.

FORMAT/RESOLUTION

One of the biggest things to look for is the resolution or format of the HDTV set. The best format you can get currently is 1080p. This means 1,080 lines of resolution is contained in each frame of a TV show, movie or video game. Now the SOURCE needs to start out at 1080p for you to get 1080p. As of the authoring of this article, all TV shows in HD are either 1080i or 720p. Video games on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 come in 1080p, 1080i, 720p and 480p. Standard DVD's are 480i or 480p with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray in 1080p. Now there are frame rates, upconverting, frequencies and other issues us tech geeks talk about, but to keep it simple, format and resolution is what to watch for. It really depends on what your budget is and what you really are watching or plan to watch. Here is a quick breakdown as to what each format is really made up of.

Through the past 50 years, most TV shows have been broadcast in 480i resolution. You can see from the table above that TV shows in 1080i are almost 4 times sharper than 480i. The reason we can now get a better picture and sound is that television signals are being sent though as digital signals, not analog. On February 1st, 2006, the US congress passed a law which in effect requires all Television Stations to broadcast a digital signal by February 17th, 2009. Now digital does not mean HDTV! This simply means that with a digital signal, broadcasters will be able to carry more information than is currently possible with analog broadcast technology. More space for the signal allows for a better resolution and picture on your end. Considering the financial investments currently made by ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX, I do not foresee them moving to the 1080p format anytime in the immediate future. All of their equipment is 1080i, with the exception of ABC who went with 720p. If you only watch TV shows, you may not need a 1080p capable TV monitor. With 1080p, you are considering future programming possibilities, but that fact that HD-DVD, Blu-Ray and video game consoles like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are producing media in 1080p, this is only going to increase demand for 1080p TV monitors. So the question is, what are you watching?

CONNECTING THAT MONITOR

When it comes to connecting your HDTV monitor to the sources that provide HD signals, the current standard is HDMI. HDMI stands for HIGH DEFINITION MULTIMEDIA INTERFACE. Created in 2002/2003, this cable has 19 pins and can send plenty of UNCOMPRESSED audio and video signal to your HDTV monitor and sound components. HDMI supports TV and PC formats for standard, enhanced and high definition video as well as multichannel audio. If you are looking to purchase a HDTV set, I highly recommend you connect your sources via HDMI. The other ways you can connect the video for HD is component video, VGA or DVI cable. The component video and VGA connections will require you to run separate audio cables such as optical, coaxial or the standard RCA audio connectors. DVI will carry an audio signal, but not like HDMI does. The great thing about HDMI is that it supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD which are lossless audio streams and used on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs. If you are buying an Audio/Video receiver or other components, be sure that they have an HDMI connection available. A quick note on capabilities of your cable connections. Currently, you can get 1080p signal on all cables mentioned, except for component video. Now Microsoft claims that 1080p is possible via component video for games only, not movies via HD-DVD. I know 1080p is good through VGA and HDMI, but I would just suggest making your connections all HDMI and eliminate your audio cables. CLICK HERE FOR HDMI & DVI CABLES

NO MORE BLACK BARS ON MY TV, RIGHT?

The passion some of my friends have over whether or not the "black bars" on a TV screen bothers them is tremendous. In one camp, they HATE the black bars and only purchase DVD movies that are "fullscreen". If you have a medium or small TV, like a 32" or smaller, seeing the black bars can give you a sense that you are losing picture size, but it makes for a difficult time seeing the movie at all. I am in the other camp. Those fullscreen movies actually can remove anywhere from 7% to 45% of the original movie!!! 45% of a shot is gone! I can't stand that! Well, it all has to do with Aspect Ratio. Now getting a HDTV montior won't do away with black bars completely, but it will enhance your enjoyment of big screen movies. Your regular TV (Standard Definition or SDTV) is close to the shape of a square, or is 4:3 ratio. Most movies filmed before 1950 and all television shows (pre-HD) are shot in this ratio. HDTV or "widescreen" televisions are in 16:9 or 1.78:1 ratio. Many movies and current "HD" TV shows are shot in this ratio. Movies are also shot in 1.85:1 ratio, which is very close to the 16:9 and epic movies are shot in 2.35:1. If you are watching a fullscreen movie on a 4:3 (SDTV) or even a 16:9 (HDTV) monitor, the movie uses what is call Pan & Scan or in some cases, Tilt & Scan. Basically the picture and video artificially moves left and right (PAN) or in rare instances, up and down (TILT) to capture the primary action. This is where you lose picture. With a movie filmed in 2.35:1 like Star Wars, you lose a character on the screen or see half of a face, which is not the way the movie was intended to be seen. The picture can even be squeezed to fit the screen size. This is called Recomposition. If you watch a movie or DVD in widescreen or "letterbox"  format, you will lose the black bars for the most part only if you are watching them on a HDTV monitor. For TV shows and movies filmed in 1.78:1, you will not have any black bars and see all of the movie area without sacrifice. A movie filmed in 1.85:1 will give you a very slight black bar on the top and bottom if at all. For a 2.35:1 movie, you will still get black bars on top and bottom since the aspect ratio is larger across the horizontal than a 16:9 screen is. I have been watching HD-DVD's and am noticing that new aspect ratios are cropping up. 2.20:1 and 2.40:1 are formats that allow menus and extra content to be displayed during the playback of a HD-DVD. A 2.40:1 ratio allows for a 2:35:1 movie to be completely visible and playing while accessing the DVD menus in the extra space. The main things to remember with widescreen movies is that you see the WHOLE movie as it was in the theater, you are experiencing the director's artistic vision and it looks great on an HDTV monitor. For visual examples of Aspect Ratio and the effects of Pan & Scan, Tilt & Scan and more, visit this link.