SD content on HDTV

How does it feel when you think, legitimately or not, that the image on your TV set is well, horrible. Frustrating right? Well that’s one myth that is solvable and will instantly result in lower frustration levels and fewer trips to Best Buy.

Since not all of our TV programming is displayed in HD, we have to face reality and accept to watch at least some standard definition content if we don’t want to limit ourselves when it comes to the quantity of available shows.

In order to render SD content watch able on your HD set, you must restore its original aspect ratio and resolution by navigating through your TV’s settings menu. Aspect ratio refers to the proportions of the image displayed. In the case of HD signals it is native at 16:9 where as standard definition is displayed natively at a ratio of 4:3. The un parity of the ratios along with the screen size deforms SD content to fill the screen, resulting in squashed images. The resolution refers to the amount of lines that constitute an image. Standard definition content is broadcast at 480 lines while HD content uses either 720 or even 1080 for Full HD. When watching an SD channel, switch the aspect ratio to 4:3 and the resolution to 480p. This will result in a much cleaner and crisper image. But beware of dark vertical sidebars along each side of the picture as the screen fills unused pixels with black or grey. Some advanced set top cable boxes automatically sent signal specs to your TV eliminating the need for manual calibration.