Short for Standard Definition Television it is a type of digital television operation method which is able to transmit and produce images which are of a higher quality than standard analog broadcast. SDTV is typically a 480i signal – where 480 represents the vertical resolution and i represents interlaced. Digital cable and digital satellite programming is widely available in SDTV format. While SDTV does not reach near the quality of HDTV, it is superior over traditional analog television.
* SDTV Minimum Performance Attributes:
- Receiver: Receives ATSC terrestrial digital transmissions and decodes all ATSC Table 3 video formats, and produces a useable picture
- Display Scanning Format: Has active vertical scanning lines less than that of EDTV
- Aspect Ratio: None specified
- Audio: Receives and reproduces usable audio
(* Adapted from Digital Connection)
