HD Primer (It's Not So Easy)

I still remember when it was simple to buy a television. It's not that long ago, really. For a long while, you only had to pick the size of the screen. If you had a video game, an extra set of RCA (red/white/yellow) inputs was nice, but you could make the coax (cable) connector work in a pinch. Not today.

If you're looking to upgrade to High Definition (HD), there are a number of factors to consider.

Televisions

Your television must have an HD resolution. There are a number of different resolutions available, but if you're planning on watching HD on a television that's 32" or larger, 1080p is the best option. For more details, here's a fairly definitive description of the standards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television

The modern equivalent of the coax (cable) connection for HD is called HDMI, which sends both HD video and audio over one cable. Make sure your television has at least one of these connectors - more is better. If you eventually upgrade to a Blu-Ray DVD player or a modern game console, you'll connect by HDMI. The cheapest cables I've found are at monoprice.com - but remember that you get what you pay for. (Mine seem to work fine so far.)

There are more specs you can obsess over, such as pixel size, refresh rate, and contrast ratio, but most of that stuff is imperceptible unless you're doing a side-by-side comparison.

Programming

This was the toughest decision. We had used Dish Network in the past and we liked it. We got rid of them for a while, though, because it was an unnecessary expense. When we decided to get a new television, it made sense to send an HD signal through it. There were lots of options, and it's surprisingly expensive.

We're 40+ miles from most broadcast transmitters, so the main local channels are snowy, even with the big antenna we put in the attic. UHF frequencies came in well, but VHF did not. When we got the new TV, it already had the ATSC* tuner so I connected the antenna to it directly. Suddenly, we got some channels in normal, analog resolution, plus some had extra channels in HD, plus some had alternative digital channels, too. Since

[* - Old TVs only had NTSC (analog) tuners which cannot decode a digital signal. New TVs have both NTSC and ATSC (digital) tuners. The digital TV converter box you've seen is basically an ATSC tuner you connect between your antenna and your older television.]

As for internet-based delivery of channels, AT&T basically repackages Dish content and I think Verizon is putting its programming together on its own. AT&T are still using copper to deliver the signal to the home, while Verizon is using optical fiber (much, much faster). Neither are available in my neck of the woods, though, so no option for comparison here. If it was available, and the price was competitive, I'd look into Fios. It'll be the standard in the future.

Rubber Meets Road

So, you got the new television, the Dish receiver is set up with an HDMI cable, and you're ready to rock. Why does it look goofy? There are a number of answers.

1. Lots and lots of content was shot in standard definition. When an HD channel plays a standard definition commercial, for instance, there will probably be "black bars" on the right and left of the picture. In some cases. there will be a black frame around the whole thing. If the station has converted a standard def commercial to HD, it might look like crap. Don't panic.

2. Your television will have options. I have options like "native" and "theaterwide1/2/3" for when I'm watching standard content on my big, wide screen HD set. Native shows it in its original format and size. SD is 480i (480 pixels/dots high) and 1080p (1080 pixels/dots high) is more than twice that, so it makes sense that the image will appear small on my large panel. "Theaterwide" stretches the 480i picture to fit the screen, but that almost always will distort the picture. Usually, it makes people look wider. If that's less annoying than black bars on the left and right, so be it.

3. Your content provider might also have options. Dish Network has a button on their remote to make a similar adjustment to the picture as my television. It can get kind of confusing, so I leave everything set at "native" or "original" or the like. When I watch something in HD, it fills the entire screen and looks awesome.

4. There are many different input options, but HDMI is the best. On our new television, I can connect with coax (old-style cable connector), RCA (red/white/yellow), component (red/blue/green video only), DVI (computer, video only), optical ("toslink" audio only), or HDMI.

If you have any questions, corrections, or other tips and tricks, please leave a comment.