Are you HD ready?

At the latest edition of Gitex what really struck me were the number of HD ready displays on exhibit.

HD (high definition) ready means your set is capable of displaying video with much more clarity — up to four times than your standard TV — better resolution and sound. Yes, this also means you will need other equipment from service providers to display them which are not yet available here in the UAE.

But you can buy Blu-ray or HD DVD movies to play on them. The number of titles available is limited for now, but the shift is inevitable. HD movies will replace DVDs for sure.

More lines of resolution

You must have come across new HD ready televisions with ‘720p' and ‘1080i' lines of resolution. This is the number of horizontal lines displayed on the monitor. Compare this with the 525 that an analog TV displays.

There are a lot of reports on the internet on how users have been disappointed with the results of their expensive systems, in addition to the lack of proper tech support. HD sets need specialised connectors to handle the higher resolution images.

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is one such single cable that carries both video and audio information in compressed form. This is the modern version of the RCA cables that our TV sets today use.

Coming up

UHDV or Ultra High Definition Video, under trial and research in Japan, is capable of video with up to four times the amount of detail as HDTV. And hear this — the preliminary observation was so good, that it caused motion sickness in a few people who tested it because it felt so close to reality!

Small wonder then that a lot of other sectors now require newer technology to cope up with such clarity. For instance, cosmetics technology — how do you hide those blemishes now that they stand out more distinctly?

- The writer is a twenty-something techno-nut.