Numbers mean what

G

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Just bought a Sony KDF-42WE655.
It's a projection LCD with a 16:9 screen.
Picture is great. Wife and I love it but we're new to HD
so I've a couple of questions.
When you tune to an HD station a box pops up with image info.
But what do those numbers mean? 1080i? 720p? 480 something?
Why is the screen size of the image different even when the numbers
are the same? For example, Sundays football games all said 1080i
(I think it was i and not p) and 16;9 aspect ratio and were full screen.
But as soon as the game was over the next program (which had the same
numbers and aspect ratio) was not full screen. It had black bars on both
sides. Same station.
DVD movies that say they are "widescreen" or "optimized for 16:9 screens"
don't fill the whole screen.?????
We are using over the air signals from an external antenae on the roof. All
of the stations in this market except one have OTA HD and since we're only
about seven or eight miles (max) from the towers the signals seem strong.
One of the menus I found while playing with the controls had a signal
strength
indicator and all stations were in the 95 percent or better range.
Long post. Sorry but long story short.....can anyone point me to a tutorial
on
HD that explains this stuff to me.
Thanks
 

DC

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Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

"Gary Stanley" <gstan@pacifier.com> wrote in message
news:10ocnva2k7mvl99@corp.supernews.com...
> Just bought a Sony KDF-42WE655.
> It's a projection LCD with a 16:9 screen.
> Picture is great. Wife and I love it but we're new to HD
> so I've a couple of questions.
> When you tune to an HD station a box pops up with image info.
> But what do those numbers mean? 1080i? 720p? 480 something?
> Why is the screen size of the image different even when the numbers
> are the same? For example, Sundays football games all said 1080i
> (I think it was i and not p) and 16;9 aspect ratio and were full screen.
> But as soon as the game was over the next program (which had the same
> numbers and aspect ratio) was not full screen. It had black bars on both
> sides. Same station.
> DVD movies that say they are "widescreen" or "optimized for 16:9 screens"
> don't fill the whole screen.?????
> We are using over the air signals from an external antenae on the roof.
> All
> of the stations in this market except one have OTA HD and since we're only
> about seven or eight miles (max) from the towers the signals seem strong.
> One of the menus I found while playing with the controls had a signal
> strength
> indicator and all stations were in the 95 percent or better range.
> Long post. Sorry but long story short.....can anyone point me to a
> tutorial on
> HD that explains this stuff to me.
> Thanks
>

Gary,
This site might be helpful for starting out
http://www.avsforum.com/hdtvfaq/HDTV-FAQ.htm
You may want to review some of the older posts in this newsgroup for more
detailed answers.
Good luck.
DC