Numbers mean what

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