Can YOU tell the difference between HDTV and Analog tv?

Question

My sister, as well as other people i've talked to, say they cannot tell the difference. Maybe it could be a problem with their eyes, because the experts say that you can actually see the dandruff in someone's hair with HDTV. Plus, they say that there will be new channels with HDTV when it officially makes it's debut next year.

Answer 1

yeah one is more expensive

Answer 2

Yes, I can tell the difference.  A few disclaimers, though.

SD is analog TV that's been converted to digital.  It is the old squarish picture we are all familiar with.  Because it was originally analog, it will look no better than analog and in some cases worse (see below).

HD will be a wide screen picture.  If it isn't wide screen, it ain't HD.

Cable and Satellite systems must compress the signals to make room for more channels.  Compression removes resolution.  Over the air HDTV from an antenna is better looking for that reason.  If you are watching HD via a cable or satellite system, yes, the picture will look soft.  If you are watching SD via a cable or satellite system, it will look really ugly.

Broadcast (over the air) has some restrictions,too but no where near the amount of compression from cable/satellite.  

The best looking video would be from a HD source connected directly to the HDTV, like a Blu-ray disk on a Blu-ray player connected with an HDMI cable.  That is impressive.  But then again, the Blu-ray player has no restrictions on bandwidth (resolution).

I hope this helps.

Answer 3

Analog Television you have 2 tuning k***s, 1 for VHF Channels 2-13 and 1 For UHF Channels 14-30 and so on

Answer 4

I picked up a HDTV a few months ago for gaming and I can definatly tell a big difference.  You want to see the difference switch between the regular and HD version of the same channel, you would have to be blind to not see the difference.

Answer 5

Are you sure they're actually looking at an HD program?  

Many people have HDTVs, but haven't made the leap to _subscribing_ to HD programming, and in that case, they won't see any difference.

Answer 6

Yes, I can ABSOLUTELY tell the difference.  It is huge.  I just watched spiderman 3 on Blu Ray and you could see the pores on tobey maguire's face.  You could even see some shallow scars he has on one side of his face that are impossible to see on regular tv.

I also have a PS3 and the HD games such as Call of Duty look photo-real.  Some of the environments look extremely realistic and very detailed, there is no graininess or pixelated-ness at all.

Whoever cant tell the difference is probably seriously not paying attention or is not watching real HD... you need an HD source and an HDTV combined.  But if you still cant tell the difference there is something wrong with your eyes.... there IS a difference.

Answer 7

Sort of.  

Is it enough to bother me?  Nope.  I'm not usually that bored while looking at the screen that I go looking for dandruff -- I change the channel before that.

Is HDTV going to suck if you don't live in an urban/suburban area?  Perhaps, because the signals generally don't go as far.  I'm more concerned with being able to watch something than I am with how sharp the picture is.