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July 20, 2007
Dear CNET members,
Happy Friday! This week's topic, the confusion over all those HDTV terms, or as it was best said by member Nat C., "all the HDTV technical gobbledygook!" We covered similar topics in previous editions of this newsletter, but what the heck, as more and more people buy HDTVs and accessories, it always great to have refresher course. Nat asked for someone to "publish a document that ordinary mortals can read and understand." Well, I'm happy to say that in the answers provided by our members, though some are more technical than others, many people did a wonderful job providing just that: easier-to-digest info that demystifies HDTV. I'm going to get you started with a few selected answers, but please don't stop at that, there's lots of great advice to be found in the discussions, so read up and learn more! And Nat (or any of you), if you still find yourself confused, I'd love for you to swing by this discussion thread and ask for additional guidance and continue the conversation over the ins and outs of HDTV. Thanks for all the great submissions, and have a pleasant weekend folks!
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Member Question of the Week
I keep getting bombarded with ads about HDTV. When I go to a
store that carries them (for example, Best Buy or Costco) I
find that the clerks really don't know much about them. I
came across one that looks interesting, but the description
is nothing if not confusing. Perhaps someone can help me
untangle the technical gobbledygook. For example: the set I
was looking at is a 42-inch HD LCD set with a resolution of
1,920x1,080. It is compatible with 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i,
and 1080p. I think i means interlaced (like my analog TV set)
and p means progressive. What is the significance of these
designations, as a practical matter? Is i or p defined by the
TV station or is that a choice of the receiver? It is said to
be compatible to NTSC (I recognize that), ATSC, and QAM (what
are these?), and are there other systems out there that need
to be covered? What is Media Connectivity? Someone needs to
publish a document that ordinary mortals can read and
understand. Any suggestions?
Submitted by:
Nat C.
Vote for the most helpful answer
 Below are the answers we've selected for you to vote on. Click on the title to read the answer by the member.
Here are the selected submissions grouped in one post.
Time to vote! Now that you've read our members' answers, which would you consider the most helpful? Click on the button to weigh in on the decision.
 Answer by gingaskunk
Answer by crog_bad
Answer by orbital318
Answer by retiredtech
Answer by kentpaul_65102
Answer by vintonalan
Answer by Fenix6372
For the member whose answer was voted the
most helpful by our community, we will send
this member some cool CNET branded gear.
 Previous week's Q&AThe votes are in! Below is the answer voted most helpful by our community to last week's question.
I'm in the market for a new computer, and there are too many
to count in the market. I pretty much have the basic
understanding of PC components, but what throws my mind for a
spin are the processors available. There are names for the
processors such as Athlon, Athlon 64 X2 dual-core, Intel Core
Duo, Core 2 Duo, Celeron D, and the list goes on and on--ugh,
enough for me to grow more gray hairs! There has to be some
sort of simple explanation to all this madness, right? Can
you help me out? I don't want anything too technical to
digest, but I do want to know what I'm buying and how it will
perform. Should I just look at the speed of the processor,
like GHz, and not worry about the names, because I know a
2.4GHz processor is going to be faster than a 2GHz, or am I
wrong? Please help me out with this confusing aspect of
selecting a processor. Much appreciated.
--Submitted by:
Fredrica C.
Frederica, great question on processors. Let me try and help.
Within the same processor name, higher GHz means better performance. BUT, as soon as you move to a differently named processor, all bets are off. So, a 2.4GHz Core Duo is faster than a 2.2GHz Core Duo. But you have no idea how it compares to another processor (e.g., a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo or a 2.0 GHz Athlon x2) unless you look up the specs for all of them and that takes some real work...
(read more)
Congratulations to the winner!
Community Buzz
 Each week we take a look at topics discussed in the forums.
Have fun and enjoy!
More from the forums
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Check out next week's question:
First, thank you for this great newsletter and its helpful members. I was wondering about going through Windows Explorer and deleting unneeded files. In the past I've done this with some unfortunate results, creating panic and migraines. So now I just look at the extensions and figure I'll leave them alone, except many new files are piling up. What is safe to remove and what isn't? For example, recently I found a folder "minidump" and extensions .dmp. Is there a list out there so I know what file types are safe to remove? Others might want to be guided to removing and lightening up their computers, too. Is it worth messing with? Any advice on the best practices of removing unnecessary files would be appreciated.
--Submitted by:
Tom D.
We feature a new question every Friday, and if you have the answer for our member, you can submit it above. If your submission is picked by our members as the most helpful answer, you'll receive some cool CNET branded gear.
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