The DTV format will provide more lifelike color and sound. It will allow broadcasters to transmit as many as four channels in the same amount of airspace that one channel currently uses by compressing the information contained in their signals. The main difference between your current television and DTV is the quantity of information transmitted. HDTV increases the sharpness of the TV screen, making the picture much more life-like than your current display. Well, if you look closely at your TV screen, you will see approximately 159,720 little dots called pixels that glow to display the picture.
More pixels result in a higher resolution, or level of detail possible in a picture.
It is not hard to see that a higher resolution results in an overall sharper picture. HDTV will also increase the aspect ratio of your television screen, which is the relative relation of its width to its height. If you look at most television screens produced today, you will notice that regardless of its overall dimensions, the width of the screen is only slightly greater than its height. The only way that an HDTV picture can contain so much information is through a DTV signal and the switch to digital will cost you. Unless you have bought a TV set this year and it specifically says that it is DTV-compatible, your current television set will not be able to receive DTV and HDTV signals.