RCA HD56W66 User Manual - Page 5

16:9 Aspect Ratio Introduction A regular, analog television only has a resolution of about 200,000 pixels (480 vertical pixels x 440 horizontal pixels = 211,200 pixels). The HDTV format is capable of more than 2 million pixels (1,920 x 1,080 = 2,073,600). More pixels equal more detail. In summary, HDTV is capable of resolution that is up to 10 times the resolution of the picture on a regular, analog TV! Feature Total Scan Lines Effective Scan Lines Aspect Ratio Max Resolution Sound Analog (NTSC) 525 480 4:3 720 x 480 2-ch Stereo HD Digital (ATSC) 1125 1080 16:9 (Widescreen) 1920 x 1080 5.1 ch Surround Aspect Ratio Aspect ratio is simply the width and height of the picture. Regular TVs use a 4:3 aspect ratio, which means the picture is a little wider than it is tall (a screen that is 20 inches wide is about 15 inches tall). When the standards were being developed for television broadcasting in 1941 by the NTSC (the National Television Standards Committee), it made sense to adopt the 4:3 aspect ratio the film industry was using at that time. As TVs dropped in price and people prospered in the 1950s, the movie industry had to find a way to get people out of their living rooms and back to the movie theatres. That's when they created the 16:9 aspect ratio (also called widescreen format). When the standards for HDTV were being developed by the ATSC (Advanced Television Standards Committee), the 16:9 aspect ratio was chosen as the format for HDTV. This widescreen format makes sense because it's much closer to the way we see. Our field of vision is actually much wider than tall because of our peripheral vision. Not only is it closer to the way we see, but the pictures are crisper and cleaner with more detail in the close-up and panoramic views. Digital Signal and Sound The analog television broadcast system that has been used in the United States for the past 50 years transmits signals as electronic waves. These waves can suffer degradation as the signal travels to your home. Additionally, the analog waves are susceptible to interference from planes passing overhead, weather, and household appliances. Digital signals, in contrast to analog signals, can be reproduced precisely because the images are transmitted and received using the computer language of 1s and 0s. Such precision yields a signal that is capable of displaying studioquality picture and Dolby Digital 5.1 channel sound. 3