What on earth is the average shopper wanting to buy a television or video player to do when faced with a range of technospeak – and even talking to sales staff may not elucidate the issues particularly. It is really useful to understand the difference between HDTV programming and the Blu-Ray disc format.

There are several issues around HD – High Definition

Resolutions of HD: there are three types of HD resolutions available – 720p,1080i and 1080p-where the numbers give the number of lines of vertical resolution, with 1080p being full HD. One with a lower resolution will also support pictures of a higher resolution and vice versa.

Cable and satellite companies offer HD programming at an extra cost and HD television comes in 720p and 1080i, but few yet in full HD. For those that do the quality is much less than a blu-ray disc.

A blu-ray disc is the latest format in home movies, and a single Blu-ray disc holds a massive 50GB of information. The sophisticated electronic components that are used to construct a Blu-ray disc and Blu-ray player ensure an entirely superior viewing experience. As well as this the hugely increased capacity over the HD-DVD format allows for uncompressed video and several channels of HD audio. [Read more...]