High-definition television (HDTV) is a high-resolution digital TV format. An HDTV signal has twice the color resolution and imparts a picture that is six times sharper than that provided by a traditional analog TV set. The HDTV signal can also carry enhanced audio, such as Dolby Digital 5.1.
HDTVs must be capable of displaying at least 720 horizontal lines of resolution or higher. The pixels in HDTV screens are square, smaller, and spaced more closely together than standard-definition TVs.
HDTV screens are typically rectangular with an aspect ratio of 16:9 to support widescreen content, compared with the 4:3 aspect ratio utilized by traditional analog TV sets. However, there are some HDTVs that only have a 4:3 screen. Not all widescreen broadcasts are high definition; DVD's, for example, can display widescreen formats even though the content is 480i or 480p, which is not high-definition.
Make sure you have tuned to a HD channel
available in your area.
Ensure connections are correct.
Have a Cox customer support representative confirm that your
account is properly balanced and service
is authorized on the account.
If you have a Scientific-Atlanta set-top box, make sure that
your HDTV set has YPbPr (as opposed to RGB) inputs -
if your set has RGB inputs, you will need to obtain a YPbPr-to-RGB
adapter module and adapter cables from Cox.
Not every show currently
broadcast by a HD station is in HD format. You can assume
that if you are getting a picture on the HD channel, then
your equipment is functioning properly. You may want to check
your HD settings to "stretch" or "zoom" the picture to fill the screen area.
Yes,
it may take up to five seconds for a HD picture
to first display. This occurs because there are many more
pixels to be created, thus, more time is required.
Check
that your component
video cables are connected correctly. Make sure the
Y is connected to
Y, Pb is connected to Pb, and Pr
is connected
to Pr. Crossing these cables will mix up the
picture colors.
Make sure the connections
are secure; that the RCA plugs are pushed completely into the ports
Adjust the convergence and luminance
settings on your television
set.
Roughly half of prime time TV programs of the major networks is available in the (16:9) HD format. The other half is broadcast in the standard 4:3 format.
The
aspect ratio of the content is controlled by the content
providers, including HBO and Showtime. You can go to the HBO website
at www.hbo.com or the Showtime website at http://www.sho.com/ and see which programming is released in the 16:9 HDTV format.
Whether the HD signal
is in the 4:3 or
16:9 format,
the HD picture quality
will still be better than
an analog
or standard digital
signal. The reason
is that up to five times more information, or
data, can be displayed with the
HD broadcast
than with the standard
digital broadcast, regardless of the aspect ratio.
When
a standard-definition
(4:3 aspect
ratio) program is viewed on a widescreen (16:9 aspect
ratio) HDTV,
the HDTV centers the image on the screen with black
or gray
bars on either side (known as sidebars).
Widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) content
on
a 4:3 aspect ratio HDTV will typically
have black bars
on the top and bottom of the screen. This is called
letterboxing.
Viewing standard-definition (4:3 aspect ratio) programming
on
a widescreen (16:9 aspect
ratio) HDTV
-- resulting in sidebars --
over very long periods of time may prevent
your HDTV
from displaying colors evenly across
the screen.
Similarly, constant viewing of 16:9 widescreen content
on a 4:3
aspect ratio
HDTV -- resulting in letterbox bars -- can
cause the same problem.
Burn-in affects direct-view CRT or plasma flat-panel and CRT-based rear-projection TV displays and usually is not covered by the warranty.
To avoid burn-in, use the "stretch" and "zoom" HD settings to fill the TV screen area with the image. In some cases you can substitute gray bars for black bars to minimize burn in. You can also try turning contrast down to 50 percent or lower.
Burn-in does not affect LCD, DLP, or LCoS TVs.
Why
does picture quality vary across
different channels of HD programming? Some
programming even
appears to be "stretched."
The
picture quality
of the HD programming you receive is determined
by the content provider.
If you are receiving
video on an HD
channel, you should assume that your HD service
is functioning properly.
What is 4:3, 16:9, widescreen, and pan-and-scan?
The 4:3 aspect ratio is the shape of the standard television monitor: squarish. The 16:9 aspect ratio is the is the shape of most HDTV monitors: rectangular. HDTVs have been manufactured in both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios.
Widescreen is a term used for the 16:9 aspect ratio. Most HDTV sets are easy to identify because of their widescreens.
Pan-and-scan is a Hollywood technique for creating 4:3 content from a 16:9 master by selectively cropping the rectangular image (16:9) into the squared (4:3) format.
