The technology used to produce the HDTV image.
The approximate measurement in inches of the viewable area of the HDTV screen
measured diagonally.
The amount of detail that a HDTV can display. Three standards are currently
defined by the International Telecommunication Union for widespread use. The
standards (best to worse) are 1080p, 1080i and 720p.
The manufacturer’s suggested retail price.
Typical price of the HDTV in a store or from an online retailer.
A calculation of the cost per square inch of the HDTV screen. Computed by
dividing the area of the screen (height x width), by the "Street Price".
- An ATSC tuner allows for reception of over-the-air digital television (DTV)
signals with an antenna, in North America.
- An NTSC tuner allows for the reception of legacy analog NTSC broadcasts.
Currently February 17, 2009 is the scheduled mandatory shut off date for all
NTSC broadcasts in North America.
- A QAM tuner allows for direct reception of unscrambled digital cable channels
without the use of a set-top box.
Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is a framework to allow consumers to
easily and conveniently enjoy digital content using diverse devices from any
location in their home. The framework utilizes a home IP Network, whether that
network is wired, Wi-Fi or a mix of wired and Wi-Fi topology, to allow an
exchange of data between digital devices.
Remote control units that are packaged with HDTVs fall in to 3 distinct groups.
From best to worse they are:
- “Multi-Brand Learning” remotes have a pre-programmed code library of commands
for other manufacturer’s equipment, and also have the ability to learn commands
not programmed in the library so you can use one remote for all of your
equipment.
- “Multi-Brand” remotes have a built-in code library of commands for other
manufacturer’s equipment, allowing you to control the basic functions of other
equipment with one remote.
- “Basic” remotes will control only the HDTV set, and perhaps other equipment
produced by the same manufacturer.
Standard manufacturer’s warranty, when the HDTV is purchased from an authorized
dealer.
Picture-in-Picture (and its many aliases), allows you to view content from one
source on one part of the screen and content from another (or the same) source
on a different part of the screen. The original implementation of the feature
was with one source being displayed on the full screen, and a picture from the
second source displayed in a window on top of the full screen picture , usually
in the corner of the screen. Later implemenations added the ability to size and
move the window, split the screen, and freeze the image on the main or window
section.
A Comb Filter clears up any fuzziness or discoloration in fine picture detail
that may be introduced by RF and composite video connections limited bandwidth
capabilities. The feature is only important if you will be using legacy VCRs and
/ or DVDs that are not equiped with a SVideo component or better conntection
capibility. Comb filter type are (ranked from most to least effective): 3D
Digital, 3-Line and 2-Line.
Reverse 3:2 Pulldown or de-interlacing as it is sometimes called will eliminate
most, if not all, of the apparent subtle jerking you see in smooth camera pans.
If you have never noticed the subtle jerking in smooth camera pans when watching
a DVD, you already own (or plan to own) a progressive scan DVD, HD DVD or
Blu-ray player, this feature will not be important to you.
120Hz refresh rate, is a technique used by LCD displays to help to minimize the
blurring we detect when there are fast moving objects on screen. The technology
works by doubling the native refresh rate of LCD displays from 60Hz (the screen
image is redrawn 60 times per second) to 120Hz (120 times per second). If you
will be using your HDTV to watch sports, action movies or play video games, this
is a feature you will appreciate.
Channel or Video labeling provides you with the ability to label each channel (or
input) for easy identification of the origins of the source content you are
watching. With most digital cable systems, Directv, and Dish Netwrok , the
television station call letters are transmitted with each channel, and will
appear breifly on the screen when you change the channel. For typical TV viewing
this feature is redundant, however if you have a complex setup with multiple
components and broadcast feeds, this feature will be benificial.
Favorite Channels allow you to designate a collection of channels you watch
frequently. Member channels in the grouping can be quickly accessed with the
click of a single button, selected when the HDTV is powered on, and / or allow
for channel surfing of only channels in the collection.
Allows you to see images from multiple channels on screen at the same time. A
convience for habitual channel surfers.
V-Chip or Parental Control, as it is sometimes called, allows the blocking of
television channels or programs. With V-chip technology, programs that have been
rated are encoded with a signal of the rating. If the program’s rating is
outside of the level set on the TV, the program is blocked. A password
designated by the HDTV owner, will allow the block to be overidden. Most
implementations of V-Chip allows for the blocking of a channel completely, which
is a great way to handle unencoded content.
Allows the HDTV set to shut itself off after a preset period of time has elapsed.
Allows you to have the HDTV turn itself on and off at a designated time. This
feature is not only a great convenience, allowing you to automatically turn on
the set and set it to your favourite channel as you step out of the shower in
the morning, it is also a safety feature. Many of us set our lights on timers to
create the illusion that someone is home when we go on vacation, the illusion
can be further enhanced with of the television’s event timer.
Indicates the current time.
Closed Caption (CC) or subtitles as it is commonly called, displays a written
transcript of the dialog of television, video and film content. This allows
people with hearing impairments or viewer watching in a noisy environment the
opportunity to read the spoken dialog.
Auto Volume Adjust (level sound, night mode, or several other aliases), reduces
the dramatic differences in volume levels that can occur between program and
commercial segments, or dialog and special effects segments of programs.
SAP (Secondary Audio Programming) is a second audio channel that is transmitted
with television programming. The second audio channel signal is audio in a
second language. Televisions that posses SAP can decode audio broadcast in the
second language.
Surround sound refers to the application of audio to channels to surround the
listening audience in sound. With HDTVs usually possessing only 2 speakers,
surround sound is achieved by using psychoacoustic sound localization techniques
(tricking our ears) to simulate a 3-D sound field. SRS Surround is a patented
psychoacoustic 3D technology of SRS Labs. There are four version of SRS surround
for television applications; they are called “Focus”, “TruBass”, “WOW” and
“TruSurround XT”.
The stated measurement of the maximum audio power output.
Audio Out is an unamplified low level audio output connection, which allows the
audio signal from a HDTV to be sent to another audio component for further
amplification. With a “variable” output, the final volume level heard by the
listener is adjusted up and down by the HDTV volume control. With a “fixed”
output the final volume level heard by the listener is controlled by the
separate audio component(s) that the HDTV is connected to. “Selectable” offer
the greatest flexibility allowing you to choose either the “variable” or fixed
mode. “Fixed” output will give you better sound quality, while “variable” allows
you the convenience of using or HDTV remote to control your listening volume.
SPDIF which stands for Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format is an audio
connection designed to carry compressed digital audio between home theater
components.
Digital Fiber is the optimum audio connection for sending compressed or
uncompressed audio between audio components.
Digital Coaxial is a digital audio connection capable of sending compressed or
uncompressed audio between, audio components. It is equal in sound quality to
its fiber-optic counter-part digital fiber, but it is physically more robust
than digital fiber. However, digital coaxial can suffer from electro-magnetic
interference.
Simplay HD is a new independent testing program for consumer high definition
equipment that tests HDMI interoperability and connectivity of products. The
program tests high definition components and cables so that end users will be
assured that products will provide the highest quality performance and work
together seamlessly.
HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is the next generation connection
interface, capable of transmitting uncompressed video and audio digital streams.
This connection is the optimum interface for connecting Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD, HD
satellite receivers, HD cable set-top-boxes, video game consoles, AV receivers
and new DVD players. You should purchase a HDTV with at least one of this type
of interface.
DVI (Digital Visual Interface) is a video only digital interface that was
designed to maximize the visual quality of digital display equipment. This
interface type has been superseded by HDMI connection for use with HDTV, and it
is now primarily used to connect computer video to flat Panel LCD and Plasma
computer displays.
CEC (Consumer Electronic Control) is an optional specification that is part of
HDMI version 1.3a. This specification allows components to discover, communicate
and self configure other CEC components in your system, so that optimal
configuration becomes plug and play. For example, a feature know as “One Touch
Play” will allow a CEC enabled Blu-ray player to switch the active source input
on a CEC enabled HDTV, to the HDMI connection the player is connected to, simply
by pushing the “Play” button.
VGA (Video Graphics Array) is the ubiquitous 15 pin connector used to connect a
computer to a standard analog computer display. If you plan to hook you computer
directly to your HDTV and your computer only has a standard VGA graphics card,
having one of these will simplify your connection. If your computer has a modern
high performance Video adapter with a DVI connector, you will be able to use a
DVI or HDMI connection (with the aid of a DVI to HDMI cable) on your HDTV and
get superior performance.
IEEE 1394 (Also known as FireWire and i.Link) is a serial bus interface standard
that offers high-speed communications, real-time data services, and allows up to
63 devices to be connected up together. IEEE 1394 has been chosen by HANA (High
Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance) as the standard connection type for
component communication and control.
USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a computer serial bus interface, designed to allow
diverse peripheral connections using a standardised interface. USB devices allow
for plug-and-play, without the need for device driver installation and equipment
rebooting. HDTVs with this connection allow you to do things like view photo and
other media stored on USB memory sticks directly on the HDTV set.
Component Video is the best analog video connection, which transmits video on 3
separate cables; one for color information, one for luminance (or greyscale)
information and the final one for synch. If the component you are connecting to
your HDTV doesn’t have a digital video connection, this is your best
alternative.
Composite Video is a low quality legacy video only connection that uses a single
wire to transmit video signals. At the dawn of the home video components market,
this was the only video- only connection available.
SVideo or a Y/C connection as it is sometimes called is a legacy analog video-
only connection that superseded composite video connections. SVideo separates
the video signal into two separate signals; one signal carries the color
information, and the second carries the luminance (greyscale) information.
RF is a connection that was designed to work with radio frequencies, making it an
ideal connector for television antenna systems. RF connecting cables are
typically implemented with coaxial cable, thus the connection has the alias
“coaxial”. With the advent of cable television, RF connections became the
standard way to connect a television tuner to a cable TV feed.
A Cablecard is a PCMCIA card similar to the ones used in laptops that has been
designed to allow consumers to view and record encrypted digital cable. Under an
FCC mandate, cable providers systems must allow the use of third party devices
to access their encoded services, thus freeing consumer for using Cable Company
owned set-to-boxes. The use of a cablecard simplifies the use of HDTV
convenience features like picture-in-picture and TV-Guide.
Standard computer Ethernet connection.
Vesa (Video Electronics Standards Association) has defined standard
configurations covering the mounting of flat panel monitors and displays to
walls and on stands. The Flat Panel Mounting Interface (FDMI), defines the
horizontal and vertical distances between mounting screw positions, as well as
the depth and tread of the screws. Consumers benefit from this standardization
safe in the knowledge that third party mounts will work with HDTVs that follow
this standard.
The height of the set chassis
"The width of the set chassis."
The depth of the set chassis.
The height of the set when mounted on its standard base or pedestal.
"The width of the set when mounted on its standard base or pedestal."
The depth of the set when mounted on its standard base or pedestal.
The weight of the HDTV set chassis.
The weight of the HDTV set, plus its standard base or pedestal.
Power consumed by the HDTV while in general operation.
Energy Star Compliance ensures that the HDTV uses significantly less energy when
it is turned off.