HDTV
High-definition television (HDTV) is a television broadcasting system with a significantly higher resolution than current standard formats allow.Except for early analogue formats in Europe and Japan, HDTV is broadcast digitally, and therefore its introduction sometimes coincides with the introduction of digital television, and the end of analogue services.
While a number of high-definition television standards have been proposed or implemented on a limited basis, the current HDTV standards are defined in ITU-R BT.709 as 1080 active interlaced or progressive lines, or 720 progressive lines, using a 16:9 aspect ratio.
The term "high-definition" can refer to the resolution specifications themselves, or more loosely to media capable of similar sharpness, such as photographic film.
Currently 12% of American households have HDTV's, with a lower percentage in Europe.
The Playstation 3 will be the first next generation console to natively support HDTV output. The PS3 will also include a blu-ray DVD player, which will allow for DVDs to be output to HDTV.
Nintendo have announced that their Wii console will not support HDTV, while the Microsoft Xbox 360 will support it with the addition of an upgrade pack (price to be announced).