What do I need for high definition TV?
If you want to enjoy the best-quality picture that television offers, you must first establish that you’re in a digital television reception area. All Australian metropolitan areas now receive digital broadcasts, as do most regional centres, and even if you don’t yet receive digital broadcasts, you soon will. To check whether you live in a reception area, visit the Digital Broadcasting Authority website.
To receive HDTV broadcasts you need a HDTV receiver, also known as a HD tuner or set-top box. This converts the digital TV signal captured by your antenna into a form that can be displayed on a television. Not just an ordinary television, though, but a widescreen model capable of presenting all the extra picture detail contained in HD broadcasts.
Traditional televisions are square-shaped, so are unable to properly present the widescreen format of HD television, and the tube technology they use can’t muster enough resolution (picture detail) to support true high definition pictures. Most current model plasma and LCD screens, rear projection TVs and projectors do, however, and they provide support for widescreen pictures too.
Bringing high definition TV into the lounge room doesn’t have to mean buying two separate pieces of equipment, though. Just as traditional televisions incorporate an analog TV tuner, a growing number of LCD and plasma screens now have a high definition TV tuner built-in (many have an analog tuner too). These ‘integrated’ digital TVs save you from having to connect an external piece of equipment (and find a place for it in the entertainment unit), but there is another advantage too. With all the functions of the digital set-top box built into the set, there’s only one remote control, not two, to contend with.
How to bring HD home
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Even if you aren’t yet interested in HDTV, you’ll be amazed at how much better your collection of DVDs will look on a high definition plasma, LCD or projection system. And with high definition games consoles already on sale, high definition DVDs due to arrive by the end of the year, and an increasing amount of HD content available from the Web, any money spent on a high definition television will see you well prepared for the entertainments of the future.
HD isn’t just about video, though. HD broadcasts, current and future generation DVDs and games titles all contain surround sound. So in order for what you hear to be as good as what you see, a HD setup deserves to be paired with a quality surround sound system, which means a suite of speakers and a home theatre receiver.
Checklist
* Live in a digital TV reception area?
* High definition set-top box and HD display?
* Plasma or LCD with integrated HDTV tuner?
* Good quality aerial?
* Surround sound system?
tips
If you are in a borderline area (or, amounting to the same thing, your aerial is not of good quality), you may find that you get perfect digital reception most of the time, but with noticeable problems intruding. If the signal quality drops, briefly, to a point where the set-top box cannot repair it, then you may get ‘blockiness’, where the picture starts to look like those squares of colour that are used on current affairs shows to conceal the faces of secret informants. Or the whole picture may simply freeze for a few seconds.
If this is happening to you, don’t despair. A good antenna could well fix the problem. If you already have an external antenna, an antenna installer equipped with a signal strength meter can often fix the problem in ten minutes, just by relocating the aerial (sometimes just by a few inches!) If that’s all it takes, it could cost you well under $100 to correct the problem. |
