Widescreen and High Definition

These new features both have things in common - they both require a digital TV signal, but often people think they have them when, in fact, they don't.

Widescreen
Widescreen televisions have now become commonplace in the UK, but just because you have a wide screen TV it does not necessarily mean that you are watching proper widescreen pictures. By default, Freeview and Sky boxes are usually set to provide a correct picture on a standard (4:3) television. If this picture fills a TV with a widescreen all that happens is that the picture is stretched until everyone looks short and fat. This is not what widescreen is about.

The set-top box needs to know that you have a wide screen and then it will provide the extra areas of picture so that you do not need to stretch it to fill the screen.

Widescreen in more detail

High Definition
In contrast to widescreen, the concept of High Definition is a much easier concept to understand, but follow this link for a brief explanation of HD-Ready, HDMI and Blu-ray...

High Definition - even more detail

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