You probably know what HDTV is, but do you know about SDTV? I didn’t, until one Saturday a few weeks ago, when our TV unexpectedly quit working. My husband and I left to go shopping for a new one, having no clue what kind of television we wanted to purchase. We generally do some research, read reviews, and know exactly what we want before buying anything, but this time we were caught off guard. Our children were going to be home from school the entire next week, so we hurriedly shopped for a new set.
The sales clerk at the appliance store went on and on about the virtues of SDTV. If you don’t already know, which I didn’t at the time, SD stands for Standard Definition. As compared to HD (or high definition) “standard” is obviously not a big deal. My husband and I hate to be pressured and we felt like the sales clerk was giving us the business, so we continued looking.
We came across another sales clerk, in another store, who told us all about SDTV. Standard definition simply means that the television can receive both analog and digital signals. We finally found a TV, and it was incredibly reasonable in price. It’s a 27″ and it’s a respectable brand. We paid less than what we paid for a 19″ a few years back.
It gets a great picture, and it has some cool features, like automatic volume control. This feature keeps the volume from going up so high during action scenes in movies, or when commercials come on. I love it. I no longer have to sit with the remote, spending more time turning the volume up and down than I spend watching the movie. I can also push a button on the remote to switch from satellite to regional programming if I want to check the local weather forecast.
I just wanted to share this with you in case you are looking for a television. There’s nothing wrong with SDTV, but don’t let salespeople fool you with hype.