Here's a great article featured from CNET's website by David Katzmaier, called "HDTV Resolution Explained" http://www.cnet.com/hdtv-resolution/?tag=buttonWrapper;menu1

While this is a couple years old, it's still very well written and we've added a few comments in RED to reflect our opinions.

Resolution is the main reason why HDTV looks so much better than standard television. On a high-def TV displaying a high-def source, a million or more pixels combine to create images that appear sharper and more realistic than TV ever has before. Resolution isn't the be-all and end-all of picture quality, however, and its numerous, well, numbers, can be incredibly intimidating at first. In this article we'll try to demystify HDTV resolution and help you cut through the hype that surrounds all of those numbers.

How important is resolution?
Not as important as you might think. According to the Imaging Science Foundation, a group that consults for home-theater maufacturers and trains professional video calibrators, the most important aspect of picture quality is contrast ratio, (above 10,000:1 is approaching the limit of perceptability), the second most important is color saturation, (A monitor with good color saturation can display subtle color changes distinctly so that the human eye perceives the differences. If similar colors blend together or if colors appear dark, they are oversaturated; colors that appear washed-out and faded are undersaturated.), (above 1 billion colors is overkill and HDTV's today routinely are over 500 billion colors!), and the third is color accuracy, (which comes precalibrated on commercial TV's). Resolution comes in a distant fourth, despite being easily the most-talked-about HDTV spec today.  The exception is large format TV's 58" or bigger being viewed from typical family room distances 10-15 or smaller TV's viewed from very close distances.  Then resolution becomes more important.

In other words, once you get to high-definition, most people are perfectly satisfied with the sharpness of the picture. All other things being equal--namely contrast and color--HDTV looks more or less spectacular on just about any high-def television regardless of its size or the HDTV signal's resolution itself. The leap from normal TV to HDTV is so big that additional leaps in resolution--from high-def to higher-def, let's say--are tiny by comparison.

Nonetheless the HDTV landscape is littered with resolution discussions, in regard to both sources and displays, so a little knowledge of how they interact is a good thing.

Native resolution:

For the rest of this article, we'll be talking about fixed-pixel displays like flat-panel LCD and plasma. . .

. . . All fixed-pixel displays have a native resolution spec that tells you how many pixels the display actually has. Native resolution is the absolute limit on the amount of detail you'll see.

Fixed-pixel displays follow a few basic rules:

• No matter the resolution of the source material, whether VHS, DVD, or HDTV, a fixed-pixel display will always convert, or scale, it to fit its native resolution.
• If the incoming source has more pixels than the display's native resolution, you will lose some visible detail and sharpness, though often what you're left with still looks great.
• If the incoming source has fewer pixels than the native resolution, you're not getting any extra sharpness from the television's pixels.
  

HDTV source resolutions
If you read those three axioms closely, you'll see that source is everything with HDTV. Or, as George Fueschel first said, "Garbage in, garbage out." There are two main HD resolutions in use today by HD broadcasters and other sources: 1080i and 720p. One is not necessarily better than the other; 1080i has more lines and pixels, but 720p is a progressive-scan format that should deliver a smoother image that stays sharper during motion. Another format is also becoming better known: 1080p, which combines the superior resolution of 1080i with the progressive-scan smoothness of 720p. True 1080p content is extremely scarce, however, and none of the major networks have announced 1080p broadcasts. The term 1080p today appears mostly in reference to the displays' native resolution, not the source.  Dish has for its internet connected boxes, Video On Demand in 1080p. 

 Despite the obvious difference in pixel count, 720p and 1080i both look great. In fact, unless you have a very large television and excellent source material, you'll have a hard time telling the difference between any of the HDTV resolutions. It's especially difficult to tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p sources. The difference between DVD and HDTV should be visible on most HDTVs, but especially on smaller sets, it's not nearly as drastic as the difference between standard TV and HDTV.

HDTV display resolution
Now that we've considered the source, let's look at the televisions. As we mentioned above, all fixed-pixel HDTVs scale the incoming resolutions to fit the available pixels, throwing away information if they have fewer pixels and interpolating information if they have more pixels than the source. 

Technically speaking, all of these numbers are accurate and useful, but don't put too much stock in them. In the real world, it's difficult to tell the difference between native resolutions once you get into high-def. For example, despite the fact that a 37-inch LCD with "only" 1,366x768 pixels has to throw away a good deal of information to display a 1080i football game on CBS, you'd be hard-pressed to see more detail on a similar 37-inch LCD with 1,920x1,080 resolution.

The truth about 1080p
In the last couple of years, there has been a big influx of HDTVs with 1080p native resolution, which typically cost a good deal more than their lower-resolution counterparts. But as we've been saying all along, once you get to high-def, the difference between resolutions becomes much more difficult to appreciate. We've done side-by-side tests between two 46-inch LCD HDTVs, one with 1366x768 resolution and the other with 1080p resolution, using the same 1080i source material, and it was extremely difficult for us to see any difference. It becomes even more difficult at smaller screen sizes or farther seating distances--say, more than 1.5 times the diagonal measurement of the screen. We've reviewed a 37-inch 1080p LCD, for example, where it was impossible to see the separation between horizontal lines at farther than 45 inches away. . .

We're not telling you to ignore 1080p HDTVs. They technically do deliver more detail, which can enhance the viewing experience for more eagle-eyed viewers. Also, many manufacturers build other picture-quality benefits, such as better contrast and/or color, into their 1080p HDTVs simply because those sets are the high-end models. And given the continuing march of technology, we expect more and more 1080p models to become available at lower and lower prices. Today, however, the premium for 1080p is still pretty steep, and unless you're getting a very large set, say 58 inches or more, or sitting very close to a normal size TV, we don't recommend basing a buying decision on whether or not the television has 1080p native resolution.

This is the number of physical pixels the television uses to produce a picture. You may notice that few of the resolutions in the table match the HDTV source resolutions exactly. That's mainly because TV makers find it more cost efficient to make panels with the pixel resolutions in the table and then scale the incoming sources to fit the screen. It's true that ideally you'd like to exactly match the incoming source with the display's native resolution, but it's much less important in HDTV than in, say, computer monitors. That's because scalers in HDTVs generally do a good job of converting the signals, and because most HDTV is in motion and seen from a distance, as opposed to static text seen up close.

All fixed-pixel displays are natively progressive-scan, meaning that even if the source is interlaced, they'll convert it to progressive-scan for display. That's why, for example, you'll hear about a "1080p LCD" but never a "1080i LCD."

According to the CEA's DTV definitions, which, for obscure marketing reasons, actually include televisions that have fewer pixels than HDTV source resolutions in the section above.

The industry has taken advantage of people's lack of accurate information and lack of experience about audio and video standards, equipment and usable functionality.

We take a different approach. First we believe that you don't have to be an audio or video-phile to understand the basics of home audio and video. When it's explained properly in easy to understand terms you may be shocked at how easy it really is to understand.

You just need to understand that the immense amount of information is designed by the industry to support the needs of that very small percent of consumers that call themselves audio or video-philes.

An audiophile will obsess about every comparable statistic and measurement even if it beyond a human's ability to see it, hear it or use it. Does it really matter if a TV can display 659 billion colors, if the human eye can only see 223 million? Does it matter if a tweeter can play frequencies only dogcan hear? Does it really matter that your amplifier puts out 200 watts RMS per channel, when you neighbors would be calling the police at 100 watts?

You get our point, THERE IS NO POINT..

...other than you can say that this receiver is better, or this speaker is better, or this TV is better than another based on a statistic. The missing part of that lopsided argument is that most people want value and most people are willing to pay a little more to get it. Value is an equation made up of quality, sufficient but not excessive usable performance, ease of use and price.

I sat in a Yamaha training meeting once and listened to the trainer praise some incredible statistics that left the room of custom integrators sighing, oohing and awing.

What was this news? Their new top of the line receiver weighed over 98 lbs and had over 1 million user adjustable sound settings. I know. It's ridiculous. Ridiculous to you and me but not ridiculous to audiophile. To an audiophile 1 million sound settings gives them bragging rights none of their friends has, (at least until the receiver with 2 million settings is launched!)

So why does this ridiculous circle of technological one-upmanship continue between the major brands?

The root of this issue is based on a concept called commodization and a very old marketing model.

Commodization is what happens in a product lifecycle where competitors refine the product to the point that there's no benefit to choosing one brand over another. Take a 42" flat panelTV. Once the industry reaches a point that the number of colors, brightness, contrast ratio, and resolution exceed customer's needs, you have the start of commodization. Once a 42" flat panel becomes a commodity it becomes about price and quality. When manufacturer's match each other's warranty it becomes about price. When it becomes about price, reducing price is what garners market-share. Industry cannibalism starts and profitability suffers.

Manufacturers Avoid Commodization

1) They sell the customer on new features of their product.

2) They improve the product specifications over their competitors

In the first case, let's consider the manufacturer of a 42" flat panel TV. They keep selling the customer on additional features of their model flat panel. These can be real benefits or customer perceived benefits. So you can see what happens. The marketing department develops campaigns around creating customer perceived benefits of their brand or model. Some are real improvements. Pioneer's Kuro technology with blacker blacks.Sharp's 120MHz technology. Let me give you afew examples of perceived benefits: Phillips ambilight that flashed the major color of the screen on the wall behind the TV. Samsung's TV line with a hint of red color in the bezel.

In the second case, only some of the above mentioned improvements are really discernable by the customer. The rest is just puffery!

OVERVIEW

Infra Red Remotes

Remote controls have traditionally used IR (infra red) which uses line of sight communication between a remote and a device using a bandwidth of light that is undetectable by the human eye.  These remotes have some type of memory that store the IR commands for each button and sometime a database of IR codes for thousands of other devices made by other manufacturers. These remotes that can control other devices are usually cable or satellite remotes, AV receiver remotes or programmable universal remotes.

UHF & Radio Frequency Remotes

Some new devices are using either UHF (a TV broadcast frequency band) like Dish or some version of a radio frequency using any of several FCC approved bands for such devices).  Typically the only codes that can be shared between these different transmission methods are IR codes.

Why USE an RF Remote 

If components are kept in line of sight (or behind glass and even some material or metal mesh) and you only need to control the devices when you are in front of them, an RF hub is not required but is still recommended.

When a remote is programmed, multiple commands may be programmed into a single button called MACRO’s.  When a MACRO is executed, it may take 3-10 seconds for all the commands to complete.  This means aiming the remote until the macro completes all the commands it’s programmed with.  Even simple commands like turning on a system may surprise you with the level of complexity. 

For example, “ON” in a typical system we install does the following

1)  Turns on the TV

2)  Selects the correct input on the TV

3)  Turns on the receiver

4)  Selects to the default device you watch by changing the receiver function (like cable)

5)  Tells the receiver what default sound setting to use

6)  Tells the remote to become the cable box and brings the cable remote screen onto the remote

If someone picks up the remote and hits “ON” and throws it down on the couch, not all the commands may execute creating inconsistent results and aggravating the user.

When the RF hub is used, not only can components be hidden in a cabinet, closet or another room, it ensures MACRO’s execute properly every time.

RF Remote Control System Components

An RF remote control system is made up of a RF/IR programmable remote and a RF hub.  The hub is made up of 3 basic parts.  The radio frequency antenna (which may be a separate piece on better hubs), the RF hub itself that converts the RF signal into IR, and little emitters or flashers that adhere over the IR eye on each device.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Preferred Remote Styles

If you go to a local retailer you will find many choices in remote controls from simple IR “4-In-1’s” to fancy futuristic looking touch screen models.   As appealing as these high tech models look, take from a company that’s installed thousands of remotes and listened to aggravated customer complain about their remotes they bought elsewhere.

First size does matter.  A cool triangle shaped remote with a color touch screen may look like it was used on a recent Star trek episode, but regular use reveals some interesting considerations.  Do you regularly fast forward through commercials on your cable or satellite DVR.  Having to use two hands to operate a large remote and having to look at the location of the touch-screen button every time you use it can be a real pain.  We prefer a simple remote you can hold in one hand; with nice color icons next to hard buttons you push to activate devices, (not a touch screen).  We prefer a remote where your thumb can easily switch between play, fast forward, channel up, channel down and the volume.

Consumer Programmed Remotes

You will find both retail versions that use a USB cable and an internet interface AND installer versions that use a laptop and special software.  If you have never programmed a remote or you are not particularly technologically savvy, steer clear.  You’ll want to throw it against the wall.  While everything should be as simple as the manufacturer says, I can assure you it isn’t.  Manufacturers claims they have all the IR codes stores for nearly every device made, (except of course the DVD/VCR combo player you got 5 years ago.)  To proficiently train an installer it takes us about 60 days, how do you think you’ll do in one?  There are so many subtle things you would never know unless you dealt with thousands of customer service calls like we do that has made our remote programming one of the easiest and trouble free.  When you provide free lifetime customer service, you’ve got to get it right the first time or it costs.

Installer Programmed Remotes

Most installers prefer computer programmed remotes for a simple reason.  I’ll give you a hint.  Computer programmed remotes are called the remote with the continuous revenue stream.  You see every time something changes (cable company comes out with a different box when yours dies, kids get a Wii for Christmas, you’ve got to call a $125/hr remote specialist who also has a 2 hour minimum.  What’s your choice?  Spend $250 or don’t use the device?

Hand Programmable Installer Programmed Computer Remote

This sounds like a mouthful, but what it means is while preprogram our remotes with a PC at our warehouse and office to save time, it also means we can send any installer on site to solve a problem and they don’t need a laptop.  In fact many problems we can instruct you right over the phone and have you up and running in 5 minutes.

Addressable RF Hub

This is a fancy way of saying you can have your entire house remotes look and work the same and through a simple method of using hub addresses our remotes know which system to turn on when.  It’s a cool feature for any house with multiple TV’s.  Once a person learns one, they can run most any TV in the house.

RECAP

Countdown to Digital Television Conversion and what it means.