Even if you consider yourself something of a guru when it comes to home entertainment, you may still find yourself confused about High Definition Television. If so, it's not your fault. It's understandable that a subject as complex as high definition television could cause a lot of confusion and misconceptions. It's also not surprising that the subject of HDTV is muddled considering all of the misinformation on the Internet. Fortunately, the introduction of a few facts are all that's required to make things a lot clearer.
First of all, we need to go through the basics of what characterizes normal television so that we have an intelligent place to start from. Normal television, which is also called standard definition television or SDTV, has four hundred and eighty horizontal lines of resolution and is shown on a screen with an aspect ratio of 4:3, which is almost square. This is the same aspect ratio of most older televisions and computer screens.
High definition television, or HDTV, is a little more complicated. High Definition Television can have either seven hundred and twenty horizontal lines of resolution or one thousand and eighty. Either of these resolutions will result in a much more detailed picture than the four hundred and eighty lines of resolution of standard definition television. High definition television also features a screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio which is almost twice as wide as it is tall and is the same format used in movie theaters. In addition, HDTV also requires sound to be in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, which relies on having a special arrangement of speakers to produce its full effect.
All of these differences between high definition television and standard definition television means that in order to enjoy high definition television, you need a special television set, a special receiver box, and programming in the high definition format. The television set has to have a 16:9 aspect ratio screen that has enough pixels to display a picture with one thousand and eighty lines of resolution. The receiver has to be able to handle high definition and standard definition television formats. The programming has to have the high resolution, wide screen picture, and the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound.
Fortunately Dish Network can provide you with the receiver and the programming. Dish Network is an especially good choice for high definition television programming for two reasons. First, Dish Network has more high definition channels than any other television service provider. Second, Dish Network provides a high definition satellite receiver at no extra charge when you sign up for a high definition programming package.
Dish Network has four high definition programming packages to choose from and all of them have more high definition channels than the competition. They start out with the Bronze Level High Definition Entertainment Package and rise all the way up through the Platinum Level High Definition Entertainment package. The Bronze package has twenty five high definition channels and eighty standard definition ones. The Silver package increases the number of standard definition channels to two hundred while the high definition selection remains the same. The Gold level package has twenty six high definition channels and two hundred and forty high definition ones. The Platinum package has a full thirty high definition channels and the same two hundred and forty standard definition channels from the Gold level.
Hopefully you now have a better idea of what exactly high definition television is and how to find what you need in order to enjoy it.
