In order for a TV station to broadcast high definition (HD) programming they must first be broadcasting in digital. HD is an extension of digital television. Just because a TV station is broadcasting in digital does not mean it is broadcasting HD. And further, just because you have a High Definition TV set doesn't mean that all programming you watch will actually be in high definition.
Two things must be true in order for you to watch high definition television. The TV station (or cable network, which I will get into later) must be sending an HD signal out over the airwaves AND you must have a TV that is displaying high definition receiving that signal.
What is High Definition? A super clear, superior picture with more dots of color to comprise that TV picture than was ever available with analog. There are really 2 types of high definiton. "P" for progressive and "I" for interlaced. You don't need to understand the difference other than "P" puts the image on the screen all at once and "I" put the image on the screen line by line. Television shows are not broadcast in 1080p, really only video games are capable of diplaying this high end of high definition. Television highest dots per inch is 1080i. The other type of high definition picture of TVs is 720p. As an example, the ABC network broadcasts its HD programming in 720p. The CBS network broadcast its HD programming in 1080i. The human eye, under normal circumstances would have an impossible time telling the difference between these two different type of HD. Both are very high quality.
The step-child of 1080i and 720p is "480". 480 is really the lowest number of dots per inch on the screen that you can have and still call it digital. 480i and/or 480p are not high definition, just regular digital TV.
The moral of this story: There are a lot of different kinds of digital TV
Stay tuned for more.
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