The old NTSC format uses rectangular pixels that are slightly taller than they are wide. The new HDTV format is composed of square pixels, just like most computer monitors. This will remove some of the image distortion seen on older televisions.

The digital pixels are also smaller. How much smaller? Well, in the area taken up by a single pixel on a standard NTSC TV, HDTV will have four and a half pixels. That's over four times the detail, and the more pixels in a given area, the better the picture (all other things being equal).

The Big Picture