When this technology of Plasma was initially introduced they came with a resolution and in a ratio which was relatively smaller than the ones we get today. The resolution available with the first models of Plasma televisions was 840 x 480 pixels or 853 x 480 pixels and the ratio was 13:9 in sizes of 37, 42, 43 and 47 inches. This was mainly done to match the native display resolution. Well it may seem a bit confusing because we’ve haven’t stated any names yet, well the name of the early advancement in Plasma TV’s were known as enhanced definition Plasma television.
Now the native resolution was originally TV’s which already had digital cable devices fixed on them. The resolution of the incoming signal had to be scaled down to native resolution of the display panel of the Plasma’s. These are known as EDTV’s. since most of the broadcasters wouldn’t broadcast on a resolution of 853 x 480 pixels or the other alternative, such TV’s were useful since they could scale down to image in order to fit the display panel. But services that would send their videos in the same resolution were iTunes and some video games.
People also started noticing a fact that although these TV’s were not High Definition but due to downscaling done in order to fit the display panels, the image quality on these EDTV’s looked far better than the quality of a DVD on the same Plasma. EDTV uses the same connectors as a HDTV; one requires a progressive DVD player or a gaming console in which the component video cable is connected which consists of three RCA cables meant for video only. Since it has a device which can downscale the resolution for the display panel in case of an HDTV this cannot take place and since all the broadcaster do not broadcast their signal in HD, the image quality will become poor for those specific channels on a HDTV.
Similarly it is a money saver because although the signal provided will be HD, you will be getting clearer images on a EDTV by all the broadcasters since it is observed that all of them broadcast on resolutions greater than the general ED resolution. EDTV’s are a treat for gamers as well, since most of the consoles are EDTV compatible provided there was an component connection which most often provided by the producer of the gaming console. Even the latest gaming consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are EDTV enabled with HDMI or VGA components.
Although the EDTVs were the first ones in the line for Plasma technology to be introduced, it proved to be unsuccessful and that is why till today any new service has to be made compatible to an EDTV. Since they were the first ones to enter the market they got hold of a huge market share and it is impossible for every customer to switch to an HDTV when he owns an enhanced definition Plasma television.
