Where Did High Definition Television Come From?
THE HISTORY of well-known high-definition television (HDTV) can actually be traced back as one of the major military gadgets of Russian military command officers before World War 2, and that the first TV system was called 'Transformer.'


According to research, the first television system was primarily intended for teleconferencing between high-ranking Russian officers. The system was not designed for commercial use like HDTV receiver's were.


However, in 1969, the Nippon Hoso Kyokai, otherwise known today as NHK, developed the very first commercial high definition television, which paves the way for today's HDTV receivers.


The HDTV receiver has slowly gained footing among consumers, through the marketing effort of a group of electronic companies.

A 1981 magazine article, detailing the difference between normal and DirecTV HDTV Receiver quality.

The first glimpse of maturity of this system came in 1981 when NHK and CBS Company presented the first High Definition Television demonstration in US, specifically at the Winter Television Conference in San Francisco. Click HERE to see an early magazine article demonstrating the new technology. After two weeks the new system was also presented in Washington and other governmental entities.



The system's demonstrations were quickly followed by a series of presentations in New York and Hollywood, wherein viewers were captivated by its salient features. The term 'high-definition' can refer to the resolution specifications themselves, such as sharpness, photographic film and digital video, which is why the HDTV receiver is so sought after.


Thus, from the old system of black and white television, it was gradually transformed from white dots to color. The process further involves the breaking down of different shades of red, yellow and blue.


It is reported that HDTV receiver saturation in the US has reached 30 percent or, in other words, three out of every ten American households own at least one HDTV receiver. The new hdtv receiver is also capable of 'theater-quality' audio because it uses the Dolby system format that can also support surround sound.


It should be noted that HDTV receiver is more like a theater in quality than conventional television. Not only the picture is enhanced, but the sound is DOLBY sound, which clarifies and reduce white noise.


Under the HDTV receiver standard, pictures have six times the resolution of current TV, and it has a full 60 frames per second temporal resolution which is twice the current NTSC images.


Motion is seen smooth and the picture will be clear enough to sit very close to a very large screen. The picture will be displayed in a panoramic horizontal-to-vertical aspect ratio in order to be more like movies.


Some of the features of HDTV receiver are: higher picture sharpness, larger picture, more colors, wider picture, and multi-channel digital CD quality sound.