Understanding what the HD Native Resolution is

Almost every HDTV that is manufactured and sold today has a fixed-pixel display or fixed resolution. The term a fixed-pixel is the same as the native HD resolution or the main HD resolution that an HD TV supports. The HD TV or television uses a fixed number of pixels to produce image, this includes the various HD model types such as LCD, LED and plasma HD TV screens. Other HD TV types that use a fixed-pixel resolution include the rear-projection micro displays and front HD TV projectors that often use DLP, LCD, or LCoS technology.



Older Standard TVs such as CRT HDTVs and standard-definition TVs uses non-fixed pixel displays which meant instead of using a predetermined number of pixels to reproduce an image, the standard TVs assessed each picture image and displayed it according to the way the image was received. This made it difficult to have consistent picture quality throughout. With fixed-pixel HD TVs, the TV specification tells you the number of pixels that a display actually has. The native resolution is the maximum limit of picture detail that you are able to view. Some HD native resolutions include 720p and 1080p.



One of the benefits of a fixed-resolution is that no matter the size or resolution of the sourced content and the broadcasting format, whether digital or optical, an HD TV with a fixed resolution display will upscale (increase the perceived resolution) or convert the image to fit the fixed-resolution. This also means that if the content source coming into the HD TV with a higher resolution will be downscaled or its resolution reduced to fit the HD TV resolution. For example a 720p HD TV will not display a Full HD 1080p image correctly meaning you will lose some details and image sharpness. Even if the incoming source has less pixels this will not affect the image quality and its detail may not improve very significantly.



When the incoming source’s image matches that of the native (fixed-resolution)’s display, there is no need to upscale or improve the picture resolution and this type of content resolution matching is called "dot-by-dot" or "1:1". This is the native resolution.



When determining which HD TV to get, consider that the resolution is fixed and even if the HD TV is labeled HD ready, it may not correctly display another HD resolution. The real bonus may come when you can get an HDTV with a native resolution that is higher than your content source’s HD resolution as this will fool-proof your purchase.