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About Satellite DTH TV in India

HD DTH Wiki, difference between HD and normal DTH TV

HD DTH TV is the short form for ‘High Definition Direct to Home TV’. Most of the DTH HD service providers in India only have a few HD channels in their package. The bulk of the channels in a DTH connection in India will be in ordinary SD TV(Standard Definition TV).

What the difference between HDTV and Standard TV is explained further down on this page. To enjoy watching HDTV you must have an HD or an HD ready TV. HD TV is wide screen TV as explained at the bottom of this page, but to summarise, the picture on the old picture tube TV of CRT TV has a width to height ratio of 4:3, that is if the TV screen is 40 centimeters wide then the height of the TV screen would be 30 cms; in an HDTV the width to height ratio is 16:9. So in an HDTV of same 30 cms screen height, the width would be 53.3cms instead of the 40 cms in an ordinary TV. Apart from the wider screen ratio of an HDTV the picture quality is much, much better as sown in the video below.

The video below was a news broadcast of 1989 when HD TV was being born. It will definatly convince you of the vast superiority of HDTV over the old Standard Tv or SDTV.

Birth of HD TV, 1989 News broadcast

When you watch Real High Definition HD DTH Picture on 16:9 HDTV (see at the bottom of this page for explanation of 16:9 Aspect Ratio TV) you will not see the people and objects in the HD Picture look out of shape, being fatter. Pictures made in the 4:3 format for the old CRT tube TVs when zoomed or expanded sideways to fit a 16:9 HD Picture, the people and objects look horribly fat. DTH HD Picture on DTH High Definition Channels or HD DTH Channels should be in 16:9 format, and as explained below, should have a high resolution of 1920x1080 pixels.

Best HD DTH TV in India, Compare HD DTH services in India, Which DTH has more HD channels in India

The best DTH for HD channels in India can be any one of the DTH service providers in India, Airtel DTH or Tata Sky DTH or Videocon DTH, since they all transmit almost the same HD channels like Movies Now HD, or Star HD, Sony HD, etc.

Some DTH companies claim to have more HD Channels and show 4:3 TV pictures. Dish TV claims to have 43 "Dish truHD" HD DTH Channels. TruHD or Real HD or Asli HD as it is known in India now, should be in the 16:9 format with 1920x1080 pixels resolution. DishTV, by claiming the 4:3 pictures they show as being HD, is not being straight and in a way fooling the people. Best HD DTH in India are those channels having real HD at 1920x1080 pixel resolution.

What is HD TV Channel

HDTV 16:9 Vs 4:3 Standard aspect ratio
4:3 Vs. 16:9 Aspect Ratio

Just so that you know how HD Picture compares with ordinary TV, we have picture here showing the comparison between ordinary SD TV and HD TV. HD TV picture has a wider aspect ratio of 16:9 ratio compared to the 4:3 ratio of older TVs SD (standard defintion) pictures. The wider picture is better because it is the natural field of vision for the Human eyes and for our brains to decode. This makes it much more enjoyable for us to watch.

Number of pixels in HD display, full HD and HD ready difference, full HD channels in India

Pixels is the short form of 'Picture Element' and is the smallest element which makes the picture. If you go close up to any television you should be able to see pixels which is like a mosquito-net on the picture like what you see in the picture below. The more the number of pixels in a TV picture, the sharper the picture gets. In HDTV these pixels are barely visible and you must go really close up to see them.

The number of pixels in HD display is 1920 horizontal pixels and 1080 vertical pixels. This is called the Native Resolution of the TV and is commonly written as 1920x1080 and it is known as Full HD resolution.

What are Pixels in a TV
Pixel squares on closeup view

Full HD and HD Ready difference is that in Full HD the resolution is 1920x1080 and in HD ready it is only 1280x720 or 1,366x768. In both Full HD and HD ready, the ratio between the horizontal and vertical pixels is 16:9 and thus both Full HD and HD ready TV will display HD picture in 16:9 format without any distortion. But the sharpness of the HD ready TV will be much less: a full HD TV will have 2.07 Mega Pixels and for HD Ready TV it will only be 0.92 Mega Pixels, which is less than half the number of pixels on a HDTV. Thus you can imagine the difference in image quality between Full HD and HD Ready TV. We have a sample picture for your comparison at the top of this page.

The term 'HD ready' was introduced by 'The European Industry Association for Information Systems' (EICTA). 'HD ready' means the TV has the minimum screen resolution (at least 1280x720) and digital sockets (HDMI or DVI) to receive and display an HD picture. HD ready is not a High Definition TV, but it can play HDTV to give a picture quality that is near the quality of HDTV. When you want to buy a full HD-TV, make sure that the 'Native Resolution' of the TV is 1920x1080. Also for an HD ready TV the minimum viewing distance is more than that for an HDTV.

The picture below shows the grid diagram or graphical representation of pixels in TV of different resolutions. Comparing the ratio of pixel resolution in the below TV formats you will see that 640:480 is the same as 4:3, similarly 1280:720 and 1920:1080 works out to 16:9. 1280:720 is for HDTV ready TV and 1920:1080 is for full HDTV.

Resolutions explained with grid graph lines
Pixel Resolutions of different TV displays

Aspect Ratio

This is the ratio between the width and height of the screen. The old tube TVs or CRT TV has an Aspect Ratio of 4:3. HD TV has an aspect ratio of 16:9. In India TV signals are transmitted in the 4:3 format. Hence when you view a normal 4:3 format movie in 16:9 format in full view, the picture stretches sideways, making people and objects look fatter. You press the 'Aspect Ratio' button on the remote control to correct this problem. When a 16:9 movie is squeezed and compressed into 4:3 format movie, people and objects look very thin. When widescreen video images are squeezed to fit a narrower aspect ratio it is called 'Anamorphic Video'. When expanded into 16:9 ratio they look normal. Here again you press the 'Aspect Ratio' button on the remote to view the movie in the 16:9 format.

For more on TV specifications and how to buy a TV visit our web pages www.WhatTVs.com

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List of Channels on Indian DTH TV

New DTH TV connection Plans & Price

How to get Indian DTH TV channels

How DTH Satellite TV works