The Science of High Definition

The building blocks of a picture:  Items called pixels are what make up any picture on your television.  These pixels are made up of small dots (red, green and blue) that when put together form the image.  Unlike a normal TV where dots are placed closely together, in an HDTV, even smaller dots are placed even closer together to bring out even more detail.  For example, a regular TV, has these pixels spaced together in lines, and there are 480 lines per image.  In an HDTV, there are either 720 or 1080 lines per image.  This means that images can be delivered in a format that's much more detailed.  Next, in a traditional television, lines of pixels are scanned one by one.  HDTV scans in a way that delivers the whole picture all at once, which results in greater detail and more realistic colors.

No More Black Bars (Letter-Box):  One of the things you may see when watching a movie that is now airing on television is that message that "This movie has been formatted to fit your screen".  What that means is that the movie, which was shot in an aspect ratio (width to height) of 16:9 has had the sides cut off in order to fit the traditional 4:3 screen that is typical of any traditional, crt-style television.  Or, if you choose to watch a wide screen movie rental, your whole picture is shrunk down to include black letter boxes on the top and bottom.   A typical HDTV will have the full 16:9 aspect ratio so that you never get the letter-box effect.

(Letterbox Example)

More Than a Pretty Picture: Sound is one of the main things that distinguishes an HDTV from a regular television.  Before, many tricks had to be done in order to make surround sound appear to be, well, surrounding you.  With Dolby Digital Sound (available, but not standard on HDTVs), sound is delivered and processed with a six-channel digital audio experience consisting of front-center, front-right, front-left, plus surround (rear-left and rear-right) and a subwoofer.