In order to find the answer to the question "how does HDTV work?" we need to look back at the history of television.
When it was first invented TV was broadcast in an analog form and was dependant on how good the weather was as well as how good the TV set was and whether the antenna was set up correctly.
With the advent of the electronic age it became possible to not only improve the transmission quality but also gave us better receivers on the individual TV sets. This results in crystal clear pictures and also includes Dolby Digital surround sound™ audio. The result is a fabulously crisp and clear picture and cinema quality sound.
So, how does HDTV work? It is a way of broadcasting the signals digitally. In the "olden days" the TV station sent out a signal in analog form. There were limits on the amount of data that could be sent and it was divided between the sound and the picture. However good your TV set was you could only receive the pictures and sounds that the analog signal could hold.
Now though, everything can be recorded and sent digitally. We are no longer dependent on analog signals, antennas and old technology. We can still get TV via antennas but also with satellite and cable. Modern electronics mean that the TV sets are much better than they used to be too, so the resulting sounds and pictures are a tremendous improvement.
How does HDTV work so much better?
In a word, it's because of the higher resolution picture. HDTV has more lines across the screen than a conventional TV set. The individual picture elements, known as pixels, are thus much smaller and closer together. There can be almost double the number of lines on the screen, 1080 instead of 625 on older screens. Particularly if you live in the UK you will be truly impressed by the difference. In turn this makes the picture sharper and results in the wonderful quality that we’ve come to expect from an HDTV.
Because the digital signal is sent as a series of zeros and ones it doesn’t get affected by external factors in the same way that an analog signal does. It can travel over longer distances without degrading. More and more broadcasting companies are using digital signals, so there are less and less “fuzzy pictures” appearing on our screens. As more of us switch to HDTV the quality of our viewing will also improve.
So the simple answer to "how does HDTV work?" is that it brings the movies to you. You can watch cinema quality films and TV programs along with all the special effects you’ve come to expect from the cinema.
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