Home Theater Myths: Part One

As technology zooms ahead, we tend to get left behind. I was talking to some middle-aged relatives who were deciding on some new TVs for their house. They were confused, and I don't blame them. Each year, at places like CES, we get newer, bigger, better products in the brilliant realm of Audio Video entertainment� - but not without new sets of confusing jargon. New upgrades/features are always interesting, but we have to understand them first before we can have fun. This article is dedicated to dispelling some new and also very old myths about HDTVs, Speaker systems, surround sound etc. It covers a lot of basics, and is more directed at the new consumer than the tech veterans.

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Myth: Upscaling
Upscaling is always done by the HDTV. LCDs and plasmas are fixed pixel displays, meaning the panels are made of a fixed number of pixels. Generally it is 1920 x 1080 pixels for Full HDTVs and 1366 x 768 for HD ready TVs. This is how the market has coined the terminology, so this is what you will be seeing, regardless of the signal. Thus you should not give too much thought to your DVD player's upscaling claims, especially if it is a budget model. Having said that, there are debates going on for years on whether upscaling actually makes any difference, as its finally stretched to the native resolution of the TV. Thus if you have what they call an HD ready TV (generally 32- or 37-inchers with 1366 x 768), then there is no need to upscale to 1080p on your DVD player. It's redundant.