Everything about HDTV…part one
September 6th, 2005 at 4:58 pm by Nikki
…But are you ready for it? Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be telling you a little bit about HDTV in our blog. I hope it both educates and excites you…and most importantly, gets you ready for Beyond TV with HD!
The Basics
Why the hype?
High-Definition Television’s (HDTV or HD) major appeal is its sharper and wider image display accompanied by award-winning Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio. Once you have experienced the higher clarity, crisp digital sound and life-like pictures of HDTV, you’ll never want to go back to a Standard-Definition Television (SDTV or SD).
Adding Beyond TV’s HDTV support to your Personal Computer (PC) will empower you to intelligently record and playback your favorite HDTV programs. You can also ShowSqueeze your high-definition recordings to conserve hard drive space and transfer smaller files to portable devices. This guide will help you take advantage of this exciting technology by explaining the steps necessary to create an HDTV setup with your digital video recording PC.
A Sharper Image
There are three main reasons why HDTV is superior to SDTV: picture resolution, video clarity, and high-fidelity Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio.
First, the picture created by HDTV technology has a higher resolution than most consumers are accustomed to. The usual SDTV picture, as established by the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC), has 525 vertical lines of resolution (only 480 of those are visible). However, HDTV adopts a new format established by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) that provides for 480, 720, and even 1080 lines of resolution. As a result of higher density of scan lines, HDTV has approximately ten times the picture detail of SDTV!
In addition to enhanced resolution, HDTV uses the power of digital communications to champion over SDTV. SDTV is transmitted as an analog signal. Over time and through transmission, analog signals can weaken, degrade, and bleed. HDTV, however, is transmitted solely as a digital signal, which provides much more robust control over weak signals and is completely free of signal degradation and bleeding.
High-definition pictures are 6x the resolution of standard-definition pictures (click to enlarge)
Finally, no television experience would be complete without the crystal-clear and life-like sound provided by Dolby Digital AC-3 audio technology. With HD, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in your favorite television broadcasts as you hear bullets whizzing behind your head or hear the distant birds chirping as if they were right outside your window.
Seeing More
Aspect ratios in HDTV also differ greatly from standard analog or cable television. Aspect ratio is the width to height ratio of the picture displayed on your screen. The aspect ratio of digital television is typically 16:9, while the aspect ratio of conventional television is 4:3. When films are viewed on television, it is thus necessary to crop them, cutting off part of the picture (Panning & Scanning), or to letterbox them, relegating the picture to the middle of the screen with black bars above and below it. The aspect ratio of digital television is much closer to that seen in movie theatres, which means that digital television lets you see more of the original picture in its display of movies than do other formats.
→ 
With HD you see the full picture (left), rather than the cropped standard picture (right).
→ 
How it Works
Compression and Encoding
MPEG-2 encoding is used to compress the large amount of data needed for high definition pictures into the 6 megahertz bandwidth currently used for analog displays. MPEG-2 may sound familiar to some of you out there. As you may know MPEG-2 encoding is also used to compress the video on DVDs today. This is also the technology that SnapStream Beyond TV uses to record your favorite TV shows.
Next time, I’ll discuss what you need to setup your own HDTV with Beyond TV 4. Stay tuned for more on HDTV…"
September 7th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
I don’t want HDTV, I want it small … mp4 support to watch programs on the PSP !
September 8th, 2005 at 9:49 pm
My mid-size laptop has a wuxga+ screen, so I’ll all set, I just don’t know what the system requirements are. Any word on what kind of power this kind of recording and playback will require?
September 9th, 2005 at 8:18 pm
Are there any DVI/HD capture cards available?
September 10th, 2005 at 1:57 am
Will Beyond TV be able to capture the AC3 audio track? What type of sound card would be necessary to capture the audio in a format other than stereo?
September 10th, 2005 at 12:05 pm
I would like to use this with my DirecTV HD receiver. When will that be supported?
September 10th, 2005 at 3:42 pm
Two points:
- While HDTV broacast signals are free from ghosting and other analog artifacts, you will not always get a clear picture. Weaker and noisy signals will have decoding artifacts (blocks missing, frozen video, missing audio). Some stations are still not broadcasting digital channels at the same level as analog.
- Many stations are not broadcasting anything beyond stereo. Even shows recorded in 5.1 surround are sometimes only broadcast in 2.0 channel stereo.
September 12th, 2005 at 6:36 pm
QAM! QAM! QAM!
September 12th, 2005 at 7:16 pm
When it records from the firewire port on my receiver I will buy it.
September 12th, 2005 at 8:15 pm
When it records in QAM and integrates Beyond Media, I’ll think about buying it. Not before.
September 13th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
Is that really what Nikki looks like?
I’m going to have to totally rethink my mental picture of the Snapstream staff… Huh, oh yeah, HDTV is great, when is BTV4 coming out again?
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:42 pm
how do i get digital hd signal into my coax only ati hdtv wonder card . my hd box doesnt have coax out.
October 12th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
What about SKYPE support on SnapStream Beyond !!!!
http://share.skype.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=217&Itemid=125
October 13th, 2005 at 10:10 pm
when is btv4 supposed (ballpark guess) to be out?
November 5th, 2005 at 10:44 pm
[...] The addition of high definition support is something we’re very excited about. Read our first HDTV article to see the difference for your own eyes. If you hav [...]
January 2nd, 2006 at 8:24 pm
I have set up hd using an ATI All inwonder HD with remote and a pny nvidia graphics card with DVI out. I had some problems initialy getting the form factor 16×9 to display properly but a lot of tweeking finally got it right. I am using an intel motherboard with 2.4 ghz P4. It seems to be working fine with no other problems yet. Great HD. Get a LARGE hard drive. One hour of HD mpeg2 is over an 8 Gig. file.
March 16th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
I think that it is good! I read it evry day $)
March 21st, 2006 at 12:24 am
WOOOOOOW awesome web design!! coool i just wanted to tell u that but this page is so awesome i just cant believe!!!
:D 
March 24th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
nice page!! i willl bookmark it and i will show it to all my friends! so cool
well done
March 24th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
Thanks for giving such a useful information.
March 25th, 2006 at 3:00 am
nice page!! i willl bookmark it and i will show it to all my friends! so cool
well done
March 25th, 2006 at 10:14 am
HEY!! i just seen this page and i’m really impresed, its really well done!! its really friendly and usefull
keep going my friend!
March 25th, 2006 at 11:24 am
I would complement yo
March 27th, 2006 at 9:54 am
Glad to see other hams into model railroading. I operate on all the ham bands 160 - 10 meters. As for the model railroading, it’s all N-scale. See ya a bit later maybe on the radio.
March 27th, 2006 at 10:37 am
I must say that in the swedish song contest, why are not marina on teh picure om bwo - temel of love? she is a part of bwo to, right?
March 27th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
nice page!! i willl bookmark it and i will show it to all my friends! so cool
well done
March 29th, 2006 at 12:13 am
Good design!
March 29th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
I must say that in the swedish song contest, why are not marina on teh picure om bwo - temel of love? she is a part of bwo to, right?
March 31st, 2006 at 2:09 pm
Thanks for giving such a useful information.
April 1st, 2006 at 11:58 pm
nice page!! i willl bookmark it and i will show it to all my friends! so cool
well done
April 2nd, 2006 at 12:16 am
Good design!
April 2nd, 2006 at 12:19 am
HEY!! i just seen this page and i’m really impresed, its really well done!! its really friendly and usefull
keep going my friend!
April 6th, 2006 at 12:41 am
What search engine do you use?
April 7th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Your disine is good, but content is poor
April 7th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Thanks for giving such a useful information.
April 7th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Thanks for giving such a useful information.
April 7th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
I think that it is good! I read it evry day $)
April 7th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
What search engine do you use?
August 18th, 2006 at 6:58 am
The pictures that are used for comparison are very good
March 20th, 2008 at 4:47 am
To capture HD footage using a PCI card, use AJA’s Xena cards for PC or Kona cards for Mac…sheer quality!! You can also use a Gefen unit to extend HDMI from Sky HD or Virgin Media HD or even PS3 to PC/Mac…
For DVI/HDMI out, check out Stealth Graphics Cards (up to 4 DVI outputs on 1 card!) or the new Intel graphics card (see http://www.theregister.com)!!