May 3, 2004

Guide to Buying HDTV

There is a nice guide to HDTV at the Extreme Tech website: From the opening section: bq. Buying a digital capable television is an exercise in frustration and anxiety. It's not unlike Alice's trip through the looking glass, surreal and inviting, with promises of digital nirvana and dead-end traps for the unwary consumer. This guide should help you cut through the confusing jargon and conflicting claims. bq. What this guide is: * A first step to understanding HDTV--as it is presented to the consumer. * A glossary of terms, defined in a way that's actually comprehensible. * A high-level overview of HDTV display technologies. bq. What this guide is not: * A guide to what technologies offer the best image quality. We'll touch on image quality issues, but your eyeball will be the primary judge. * A guide as to where to find HDTV source material and services. However, since the HDTV delivery vehicle may affect your choice of displays, we'll give you a brief overview of the main types of HDTV signal sources. * An in-depth primer on the ATSC (Advanced Television Standards Committee) standard for HDTV. bq. With these thoughts in mind, let's move forward. An excellent article follows discussing source materials, DTV v/s HDTV, display technologies, pricing and connection topologies. It also gives a collection of links to other resources. Very well done! Posted by DaveH at May 3, 2004 10:02 AM