w hole
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Hello All
I have heard a few things about HDTV on the airwaves recently, and found the following extract from Dr. Digital quite interesting:
"HDTV or what?
In what seemed more of a 'rant' than a technical question, Clive Dale asked
When are we going to get proper Digital TVs? The industry is obviously waiting for everyone to get a Integrated DTV before launching the real thing. Why can't we have the benefits of Digital TV now? It's pointless paying to get a receiver for an existing set or an IDTV because it's still using an analogue set. Don't say they are not around because they have them in other countries. Is it another case of get as much money from the British as possible by the retailers?
The Doctor was rendered temporarily speechless by such an assault, and asked for further clarification about what the patient meant by a 'proper' digital TV. Clive then claimed that ...
Current iDTVs have an 'integrated box' / 'built in facility' to convert the digital broadcasts into an analogue format so that they can be displayed on what is basically an analogue set. Proper digital televisions will not need this conversion and because they are built to take advantages of the digital format we will have 1300 lines instead of the 625 line system allowing bigger clearer pictures (not the optimum size of 21" for the 625 system).Digital TVs have a host of additional features allowing such things as displaying multi-windows. I have seen such TVs being demonstrated in my travels and nothing in our shops compares with them. These I have seen mainly in Spain and Germany.
The Doctor replied that there are absolutely no plans throughout Europe to go to higher numbers of lines - the DVB system is used in Spain and Germany today and is basically the same as ours. There are certainly no 1300 line transmissions, so it would be interesting to know where that incorrect information came from. A deliberate decision was taken NOT to go to HDTV for the European digital system (the US made a different decision) on the basis that with receivers up to about one metre in diagonal size you can get virtually perfect pictures with 625 line processed images. The Doctor has seen side by side comparisons of processed 625 line sequential scan pictures and 1125/1250 line HDTV images, and the differences are practically invisible even to skilled broadcasting engineers, with many preferring the 625 line results. The 'picture in picture' facilities that you describe are a function of the receiver, and not the transmission standard, or are so-called mosaics put together by the cable companies to show all the available channels 'at a glance'. In essence, as long as we are using cathode ray tubes we are all using analogue display devices."
Regards
W.H.
PS. link at : http://www.dtg.org.uk/consumer/doctor_digital/index.htm
Can be quite amusing.....
I have heard a few things about HDTV on the airwaves recently, and found the following extract from Dr. Digital quite interesting:
"HDTV or what?
In what seemed more of a 'rant' than a technical question, Clive Dale asked
When are we going to get proper Digital TVs? The industry is obviously waiting for everyone to get a Integrated DTV before launching the real thing. Why can't we have the benefits of Digital TV now? It's pointless paying to get a receiver for an existing set or an IDTV because it's still using an analogue set. Don't say they are not around because they have them in other countries. Is it another case of get as much money from the British as possible by the retailers?
The Doctor was rendered temporarily speechless by such an assault, and asked for further clarification about what the patient meant by a 'proper' digital TV. Clive then claimed that ...
Current iDTVs have an 'integrated box' / 'built in facility' to convert the digital broadcasts into an analogue format so that they can be displayed on what is basically an analogue set. Proper digital televisions will not need this conversion and because they are built to take advantages of the digital format we will have 1300 lines instead of the 625 line system allowing bigger clearer pictures (not the optimum size of 21" for the 625 system).Digital TVs have a host of additional features allowing such things as displaying multi-windows. I have seen such TVs being demonstrated in my travels and nothing in our shops compares with them. These I have seen mainly in Spain and Germany.
The Doctor replied that there are absolutely no plans throughout Europe to go to higher numbers of lines - the DVB system is used in Spain and Germany today and is basically the same as ours. There are certainly no 1300 line transmissions, so it would be interesting to know where that incorrect information came from. A deliberate decision was taken NOT to go to HDTV for the European digital system (the US made a different decision) on the basis that with receivers up to about one metre in diagonal size you can get virtually perfect pictures with 625 line processed images. The Doctor has seen side by side comparisons of processed 625 line sequential scan pictures and 1125/1250 line HDTV images, and the differences are practically invisible even to skilled broadcasting engineers, with many preferring the 625 line results. The 'picture in picture' facilities that you describe are a function of the receiver, and not the transmission standard, or are so-called mosaics put together by the cable companies to show all the available channels 'at a glance'. In essence, as long as we are using cathode ray tubes we are all using analogue display devices."
Regards
W.H.
PS. link at : http://www.dtg.org.uk/consumer/doctor_digital/index.htm
Can be quite amusing.....
