There are a lot of exciting things happening with TV right now. New developments in the ways we watch TV can be very beneficial, but they also take some effort to figure out. Fortunately if you categorize the different kinds of TV technology into a few categories that are easily understood, they can be a lot easier to use.
The three types of TV that you're likely to come across from a TV service provider are standard definition television, high definition television, and video on demand. Standard definition television is the type of TV that we're all used to because it has been around since the beginning of broadcast TV, although it's in the process of conversion from analog transmission to digital transmission. Standard definition TV, which is also sometimes called SDTV for short, is primarily defined by the fact that it has a screen resolution of 480i which represents the number of lines of resolution that make up the picture and how they're scanned onto the screen. A larger number indicates a more detailed picture and 480 is the minimum number of lines of resolution of the various television formats. SDTV often has a boxy 4:3 aspect ratio, but it can also appear in the wider 16:9 aspect ratio and can come with a variety of different sound formats.
High definition television, HDTV, or simply HD, is a more recent and much more advanced TV format. HDTV can come in a variety of resolutions- 720p, 1080i, or 1080p- but it only comes in the 16:9 aspect ratio and it's minimum native sound format is Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. All of these properties combine to make HDTV a good way to get the big movie theater experience when you're at home. The differences between HDTV and SDTV require HDTV programming to be transmitted over its own channels. HDTV channels can deliver SDTV programming, but SDTV channels don't have enough bandwidth to deliver the more data intensive format of HDTV programming.
Video on demand is a little more complicated because it can be composed of either HDTV or SDTV programming. The defining characteristic of video on demand is that you can watch it whenever you want. Video on demand services provide you with a list of available programs. These can include movies, TV shows, short format videos like music videos, and even sporting events. When you find the video that you want to watch on the video on demand list, you can start watching it immediately. Video on demand comes in the form of pay per view schemes- which are really more like movie rentals than the pay per view technology of the past- as well as by subscription. Some pay per view packages are included in the programming package that you've subscribed to and others can be added on with an extra subscription.
All of these different modes of delivering TV programming are sure to have their own roles in the future. HDTV is exciting because of its ability to deliver a home theater experience, video on demand puts viewers in control of their own TV scheduling, and SDTV is so pervasive that it won't be going anywhere anytime soon.
Nicole Evans writes articles for consumers who want to find the best
TV Technology offers currently available. She has written for many major publications about the latest
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