Are You 1080 or 720?

Hi All!

Cultural update: by now everyone has seen the commercial for DirecTV where the Jessica Simpson slaps down and subdues a randy cowboy with her spiked heel. The spot ends with the great line, "I don' know whaat 1080 DPI is, but Ah wahnnit."

No cheapskate, Jessica! Most HDTV is 720 DPI so far.

In the interest of keeping the readership up to if not ahead of the curve, I shall endeavor to explain.

High Definition TV is coming of age after a long gestation. Soon the ocean off-shore of China and the Malaysia, etc. will have new reefs created from big old American TV "tubes". Tubes. Imagine the backwardness of it all.

Soon every home will have plasma or LCD HDTVs hanging on the walls of rooms like paintings.

Without going too far into the details, suffice it to say that there are many types of "true" HDTVs and many "HD Ready" which will need a converter box. There are 3 main types and one of them is the huge floor honker the size of a refridgerator.

Folks, the big ones are plummeting in price for a reason -- they are totally Betamax.

Flat screen plasmas, which unlike all other big screens can be viewed from any angle without distortion. That technology is my bet to win, although LCD is cheaper and the screen doesn't throw off as much heat -- you heard that right, a big old plasma will keep a small room warm.

I know this guy who found a 46-incher plasma at a pawn shop. It was an off-brand name and they didn't know if it worked because they couldn't figure out how to hook it up.

The guy, who was definitely not in the market, threw caution to the wind and picked it up (well, actually it took two guys to pick it up) for a song.

Guess what. It not only worked, but it can to 1080 DPI!

Ok, enough suspense. DPI is "Dots Per Inch" (duh) so the bigger the DPI, the more detailed the picture. 720 is common and you'd really need to have super vision to tell the difference from 1080. But I predict that 1080 will be something of a short term status symbol until it becomes common.

So next time someone asks you, "Are you 720 or 1080?" You can say... "I'm waiting for the price to come down."

Cheers!