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The television industry would have you believe it’s the second coming. Retailers preach the scriptures of higher resolution and digital video and audio quality, while consumers are shepherded by consumer magazines looking out for their best interests, providing previews and coming attraction for the self-made home “theatre-phile.” What is the excitement about? High Definition Television or HDTV for short. High definition television broadcasting is sending ripples throughout the television industry’s pond. Since 1988, the industry has been developing a system of high definition televisions in order to receive digital quality broadcasts, the next revolutionary step in home entertainment. After a decade of research and development, the television networks thought that the world was ready for HDTV broadcasts--perhaps a bit premature; as yet there are still several bugs to be worked out. On November 8, 1998, America’s first HDTV broadcasts aired. CBS (through New York City affiliate WCBS-TV) broadcast a Buffalo Bills vs. New York Jets football game in the HDTV format, even though the number of digital televisions in the market could be counted on one hand. (The History of Color) Even though the viewing experience was well, less the revolutionary, an indelible impression was made. The idea behind HDTV is to increase the quality of the video picture by increasing the lines of revolution projected. The national standard for video display, the NTSC (National Television System Committee), uses 525 of interlaced video running at thirty frames per second. (Cripps 23) Interlaced video: Each frame of a video image is divided into two fields consisting of odd and even numbered lines. To display the frame, an electron beam scans each line of the first field across the face of the cathode ray tube (TV screen), then goes back and scans the line of the second field in between the lines of the first field.
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