The signals are sent and received in analog format and it has worked fine for a long time. It has it's drawbacks though because analog TV signals can only hold so much data for the screen and sound, and an analog signal can degrade easily. Never fear though, analog TV will be fine for use for many years to come even after other technologies dominate. The good news is that analog TV sets are very cheap and you can get a lot for your dollar.Digital TV signals allow the data sent by the TV station to be much more dense and include more information without very much degradation of signal. So digital TV usually makes for a much better picture and sound, especially on DVDs.

Plus digital TV has made it possible for the newer standards of high definition programming. For the absolute best picture and sound the TV station should be broadcasting in high definition (or HDTV), and your TV should also be able to receive and process that HDTV signal and display it on on a high definition enabled screen. If all of this criteria is met the effects are just stunning.But many TV stations are not yet broadcasting in HDTV format because it requires them to invest lots of money in new equipment to do so. They have to have enough of a market to make it worth their while. So in the meantime, we have some stations who do broadcast in HDTV and many who still just send out analog signals.

However, all TV stations will have to comply with federal guidelines to be HDTV compliant within the next couple of years, so high definition TV is here to stay and will only grow in importance.In the meantime, you have your choice of buying an HDTV "capable" "enabled" TV if you choose to buy a digital TV. An HDTV capable TV means that it can process digital signals (like DVDs) but in order to display the high definition signal it will require you to purchase an additional tuner which you can buy later at any time. On the other hand, HDTV enabled simply means that the TV is fully capable of displaying high definition picture and sound right out of the box. The choice is yours. Either bite the bullet and get the whole HDTV enabled enchilada now, or defer it a while longer until HDTV programming is more standard.You also hear a lot about plasma and LCD screens these days.

The screens we have been used to for years are called CRTs, and they have worked just fine, but the main advantage of plasma and LCD screens are that they can be very thin to produce, usually they are only 2-3 inches wide and that makes them able to be mounted in many places that CRT screens just can't go. If you need that kind of screen, just bear in mind that plasma and LCD screens are still very expensive. There is nothing wrong with just getting a good CRT screen or a rear projection screen in the meantime as they can be had for not a lot of money and can still produce a great picture depending on the manufacturer.There is more to all of this telivision technology, but what we have covered should give you a good idea of what the different TV terms mean and arm you with enough information that you can now confidently choose the television that will work best for you..

Codecs supported by Blu-ray include the H.264 MPEG-4 codec which will form part of Apple's QuickTime 7, and the Windows Media 9 based VC-1.The BDA says that although blue laser discs and players are already shipping in Japan, they won't ship in the US until the end of 2005 at the very earliest. It is likely that players will be very expensive initially, compared to DVD players. In Japan, they cost the equivalent of $2000. However, as with all new technology, prices will quickly fall - particularly as Blu-ray will be competing with HD-DVD for that space under your TV..

Codecs supported by Blu-ray include the H.264 MPEG-4 codec which will form part of Apple's QuickTime 7, and the Windows Media 9 based VC-1.The BDA says that although blue laser discs and players are already shipping in Japan, they won't ship in the US until the end of 2005 at the very earliest. It is likely that players will be very expensive initially, compared to DVD players. In Japan, they cost the equivalent of $2000. However, as with all new technology, prices will quickly fall - particularly as Blu-ray will be competing with HD-DVD for that space under your TV..

Connect the iPod to your TV, select the appropriate input and hey presto, your slideshow can be seen in beautiful, bright widescreen glory on your HDTV.It's worth bearing a few things in mind when creating slideshows for HDTV. First of all, the screen of an HDTV set has an aspect ratio of 16:9 (length: height) so if you size your photos with this aspect ratio you'll be able to fill the screen without cropping the photo or seeing ugly black space around it. Secondly, the resolution required for optimal viewing on HDTV at full screen is less than that needed for printing even an A4 image. So if you only intend viewing your photos on-screen, whether on your computer or HDTV, you can save space on your iPod photo by reducing the capture resolution on your digital camera. If you set it at three mega-pixels, that will be enough to allow you to crop photos to the correct aspect ratio and still view them at the highest possible quality on an HDTV.Of course, the iPod photo can store more than just photographs.

Anything that can be saved as an image file, such as JPEG, can be included in a slideshow, so you could even use it to carry around business presentations which can be viewed by anyone with access to a TV or projector..

The best way is to talk to people you know - particularly those in the same apartment block. Failing that, user reviews on the Web are a good source.Amazon sells a number of antennae for HDTV and user opinion on them varies greatly. For example, this Terk HDTVi Indoor VHF/UHF HDTV Antenna gets slated by users, while this Gemini ZHDTV1 HDTV-UHF Digital Indoor Antenna, which is actually cheaper than the Terk, gets great reviews.As with any item of electronics, the key is to do your research. Find out as much as you can about the HDTV signal in your area, and if possible speak to people locally who are receiving HDTV via an antenna, before you buy..

HDTV has an impressive 720 progressive scanning (1280x720 pixels) or 1080 interlaced (1920x1090 pixels) lines. Thus, it easily meets the requirement of high definition broadcasts. EDTV, on the other hand, displays pictures at 480 progressive scan (640x480 pixels), which is the the highest resolution available on DVD. In fact, EDTV is considered optimized for the DVD format. However, this puts a severe limit on EDTV, which is simply not able to display higher resolution HD content.Our recommendation is that, when purchasing a new TV, you consider getting one that is "HD-ready." It is likely that all broadcasts will transition over to true HDTV format within the next decade or so.

Be advised, however, that you will need to purchase an external set-top box with an ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) tuner in order to receive digital HDTV programming. Many cable and satellite providers, if they provide HDTV content, may offer this tuner for free. One final note, you may want to consider buying a LCD TV, as most are HDTV ready, and do the best job of displaying those beautiful HD images..

And there are plenty of groups and individuals opposed to the Broadcast Flag who will attempt to have it delayed or cancelled. These groups include the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which believes that the principle of Fair Use, which says that individuals should be free to decide how and when they watch content for which they have paid, should apply to HDTV..

The best way is to talk to people you know - particularly those in the same apartment block. Failing that, user reviews on the Web are a good source.Amazon sells a number of antennae for HDTV and user opinion on them varies greatly. For example, this Terk HDTVi Indoor VHF/UHF HDTV Antenna gets slated by users, while this Gemini ZHDTV1 HDTV-UHF Digital Indoor Antenna, which is actually cheaper than the Terk, gets great reviews.As with any item of electronics, the key is to do your research. Find out as much as you can about the HDTV signal in your area, and if possible speak to people locally who are receiving HDTV via an antenna, before you buy..

Interlacing just means that every frame of video is split into two fields and each field is shown alternately. Although there are 525 lines in the signal, only 480 lines contain video, so it is sometimes referred to as 480i (480 lines interlaced). This is known as Standard Definition TV, or SDTV. While this has worked well enough for fifty years, as TV sets have got bigger and projectors more popular, the quality deficiencies have become increasingly apparent.The ultimate answer to improving the quality of the image displayed on your TV is HDTV, however, as a step on the road to HDTV, the industry came up with Enhanced Definition TV, or EDTV. This system contains the same 480 lines as SDTV, but they are progressive scan.

Hence EDTV is also known as 480p. Progressive scanning just means that instead of splitting the signal into two fields and showing half the lines at a time, all 480 lines of video are shown at once. This results in a noticeable improvement in the quality of video.The bad news in relation to EDTV vs HDTV is that you need a completely new TV or projector to display both EDTV and HDTV. Most DVD players on the market today are progressive scan, meaning they output EDTV signals, however, in order to view the progressive scan picture in all its glory, you need a TV or projector capable of displaying it and that, unfortunately, means getting a new TV.In terms of content, there is very limited TV content available in HDTV format, and there is still wrangling about the standard for HD DVDs. However, every DVD disc on the market can be displayed in EDTV right now.Bottom line? Pretty much every HDTV projector or TV on the market today will display EDTV as well.

So while there may not seem like a great deal of point in getting a new display for the limited HDTV content that is available today, it is worth it to watch your DVD collection in EDTV, the difference between SDTV and EDTV really is that big..

Codecs supported by Blu-ray include the H.264 MPEG-4 codec which will form part of Apple's QuickTime 7, and the Windows Media 9 based VC-1.The BDA says that although blue laser discs and players are already shipping in Japan, they won't ship in the US until the end of 2005 at the very earliest. It is likely that players will be very expensive initially, compared to DVD players. In Japan, they cost the equivalent of $2000. However, as with all new technology, prices will quickly fall - particularly as Blu-ray will be competing with HD-DVD for that space under your TV..