How much difference between SD and HD
We can't find a carry-out antenna that will support DirecTV HD. How much difference is there in the clarity between SD and HD?
Forum Discussion
Some food for thought:
All DVDs are standard definition (480P). You don't hear many people complaining how bad the picture looks.
Prior to retirement I worked at a TV station and was involved with much of the installation of the digital equipment. When the news studio was upgraded to high definition, the cameras were switched from 4x3 aspect ratio to 16x9 but remained standard definition for a while. At the time there was a Minneapolis internet forum dealing with local HD TV. There was a lengthy thread debating whether the cameras were HD or SD. Many people couldn't tell the difference.
In the larger metro areas most of the channels on TV are standard definition. Usually stations broadcast one channel in HD and have one or more sub-channels that are SD. Some have several SD channels only.
I did an experiment one time to see if anyone would notice a difference in picture quality. I dialed down the bit-rate of the HD program quite a bit and left it that way for a day. There were no comments on the forum. The next day I added a third channel. The HD program remained unchanged at the same bit-rate. This generated a bunch of comments on the forum complaining about degrading the HD channel.
So it boils down to: It's in the eyes of the beholder.
All DVDs are standard definition (480P). You don't hear many people complaining how bad the picture looks.
Prior to retirement I worked at a TV station and was involved with much of the installation of the digital equipment. When the news studio was upgraded to high definition, the cameras were switched from 4x3 aspect ratio to 16x9 but remained standard definition for a while. At the time there was a Minneapolis internet forum dealing with local HD TV. There was a lengthy thread debating whether the cameras were HD or SD. Many people couldn't tell the difference.
In the larger metro areas most of the channels on TV are standard definition. Usually stations broadcast one channel in HD and have one or more sub-channels that are SD. Some have several SD channels only.
I did an experiment one time to see if anyone would notice a difference in picture quality. I dialed down the bit-rate of the HD program quite a bit and left it that way for a day. There were no comments on the forum. The next day I added a third channel. The HD program remained unchanged at the same bit-rate. This generated a bunch of comments on the forum complaining about degrading the HD channel.
So it boils down to: It's in the eyes of the beholder.
