I am happy to announce...

[Weltall]

Allow me.

Normal TVs display interlaced scan. There are 480 horizontal lines of resolution, give or take a baker's dozen, on normal TVs. Thirty times a second, half of those lines are scanned, The other half are done thirty times a second as well, for a total of 60 frames per second. This is also referred to as 480i, or SDTV (Standard Definition TV), as opposed to HDTV.

480p is Progressive Scan. It scans all 480 lines 60 times per second, resulting in a smoother framerate and a smoother display.

This first image is 480i, blurred just a bit to represent the blurring that is native to a CRT SDTV. On the right is that same image in 480p, as it would be viewed on an HDTV.



Pay attention to curved surfaces, such as her panty line, and images which are at an angle (the desk). It's hard to blur a picture to look exactly like a TV, but you can still see the difference.

GR: You are correct. There are many HDTVs that are not widescreen. As far as I know, all CRT HDTVs are still in the old 4:3 size.