The Difference between EDTV and HDTV
Confused by EDTV vs HDTV?
We don't blame you. The number of acronyms floating about with
regard to digital TV is frightening. What's even more worrying
is that very often they are used by people who have little or no
knowledge about what they mean. If the person selling you
doesn't know the difference between EDTV vs HDTV, how are
customers supposed to decide which TV or projector to go for?
In our guide below, we've tried to distill the technical info
into as few words as possible and make it as straightforward to
understand as we can.
To properly explain EDTV vs HDTV, we need to step back a bit.
Traditional TV has 525 lines of video which are interlaced.
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.