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Is It Time For High Definition Satellite TV In Your Home?
By Tony Cunningham

You may have heard a lot about high definition television, but now satellite TV channels are available with HDTV programming. If you already have satellite TV and want high definition television or are thinking about it, get informed about the technologies involved first!

HDTV For The New User

HDTV is a relatively new television format that allows broadcasters to beam a picture with higher resolution than anything to date. All that you really need to know is that the net result is that you get a bigger, clearer picture that's quite lifelike. HDTVs have screens with a 16:9 aspect ratio, which means you have a movie-like screen at your disposal.

When you combine high definition with satellite TV, you can get an even crisper picture! Of course satellite TV is not for everyone and depends a lot on your location (although it may be your only choice in places without cable TV). HDTV also comes in several flavors, with 720p, 1080p, and 1080i.

All these numbers and letters indicate the resolution and how the image is projected, with 720 being lower resolution than 1080, the latter of which displays 1920 x 1080 pixels. The letters indicate whether or not it is progressive scan (p) or interlaced scan (i). Progressive scan gives a picture with superior clarity over interlaced, so try to avoid 720i or 1080i.

If you're interested on more details, the Wikipedia has a helpful entry on high definition televisions. Satellite TV works by bouncing a signal off a satellite that orbits the Earth and generally provides a good signal that doesn't suffer from the image degradation that you can get with terrestrial cable.

There isn't a ton of exciting HDTV programming, although some networks are broadcasting some programs and sporting events in HDTV. There certainly are impressive documentaries like the Discovery Atlas series however, and more HDTV programming is becoming available. Oddly, enough sometimes the image can be a little too perfect with HDTV.

One website rated the quality of HDTV broadcast, and apparently they rated several shows by how HDTV-friendly the stars were (appearance-wise that is). A particularly amusing review was of Desperate Housewives in which the site rated Marcia Cross as having a perfect complexion even on HDTV, while Teri Hatcher got a low score for having too many veins in her forehead showing, or something to that effect.

Even Demi Moore didn't fare too well when appearing on HDTV screens, so sometimes a super clear picture isn't a good thing (at least for Teri and Demi at any rate). Just find yourself a satellite TV provider with high definition channels and programming, and you'll be set for the future when HDTV really takes off.

Author Details:
Tony Cunningham is a gadgets fanatic writing about electrical items such as cellular mobile phones, HDTV, Satellite TV and gaming consoles such as the Xbox360.

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