Sorry for the typo, that should be voom .
That’s the standard for DTV, not HDTV…
AFAIK broadcasters and manufacturers are still bickering over HDTV. The FCC is ready to impose one.
But then, lately I haven’t been following Slashdot as closely as I used to.
ATSC covers all digital broadcast television, HD and standard definition.
Speaking as someone who is in the television industry, the only bickering I know of that is currently going on is over digital cable standards, not HDTV.
As for burn-in, modern CRTs just don’t burn-in anymore, barring extreme conditions. Plasma displays are very vulnerable to burn-in, watching much programming with black bars will result in the area of the bars appearing brighter, as the rest of the screen has dimmed due to burn-in. LCD displays will also burn-in, but not nearly to the extent that plasma displays will. This dansdata article (scroll down) has more information.
Just a quick question. Are there any other formats than 16:9 or 4:3? I see widescreen TVs have a whole lot of different choices, and movies come in various formats with bars in different sizes.
Widescreen TV is 16:9, “standard is 4:3. Some computer monitors (17/18/19” LCDs) come in 5:4 (1.25:1), but otherwise these are the only choices.
That’s not quite true.
It’s true that TV CRTs are less prone to burn-in than before. Today’s computer monitor CRTs (which would otherwise be very prone to burn-in) are almost immune to it, but many modern CRTs, including expensive ones, are still prone to possible burn-in.
For example, the extra-bright CRTs used in special applications and many contemporary large screen TVs (especially rear-projection units, which you may have been deliberately excluding, but which are still CRTs) are prone to burn-in. As recently as a year or so ago, I saw channel logo burn-in on an nearly new CRT RPTV (Apparently their kids often left the TV on Disney all day in the summer.)
Many ‘better’ large screen CRT RPTVs have electronics that move the image around slightly over time, to minimize burn-in.
The 4:3 (1.33) aspect ratio is a pretty close match for the old “Academy” aperture (1.37). The 16:9 (1.77) aspect ratio is a prettu good match for the current standard aperture or VistaVision (1.85). Several formats, like Cinemascope, Warnerscope, Panavision, Techniscope, etc. have apertures with aspects ratios of 2.35. A few movies have even wider apertures (projection aperture isn’t exactly the same as a image aspect ratio, but it’s close)
Of course the DVD makers often fudge a bit. There are tons of film standards which have nothing to do with the TV standards. YMMV
Apparently the engineers at Philips (Magnavox) beg to differ: The owner’s manual that came with my brand-new, $1700 55-inch HDTV I got for Xmas stresses in bold type and all caps that no more than 15% of your viewing time weekly should be spent in the 4:3 aspect with the border bars, because they will definitely burn permanently into your picture. It is a huge problem with projection TVs.
After reading this whole thread and the whole link on digital TV, I am no closer to an answer to my basic question: Since I hate the fuzziness and graininess of my new “HD” TV set and do not wish to be held up for an extra 13 clams a month by my cable provider, should I trade it back in for a nice, clear, normal, albeit slightly smaller, TV (for over a grand less), or keep it and hope things “clear up” in the future?
I dunno, I think that’s a disclaimer all the TV manufacturers put out so they’re not liable if you crank your brightness and contrast to maximum and watch windowboxed stuff all week long.
From everything I’ve heard from actual users, if you properly adjust your brightness/contrast (e.g., don’t leave them set to the factory maximum defaults), and don’t watch eight-hour-long Twilight Zone marathons (or play the Nintendo all weekend), you’re okay.
Depends on where the fuzziness is coming from, I’d say. If it’s the signal source, after all, a different TV won’t do you any good. Have you tried hooking up a good DVD player and playing a crisp progressive-scan DVD on the HDTV to see if it’s the TV that’s the problem?