Overview High-Definition Television (HDTV) is one of the many (18) subsets in the DTV standards. It represents the premier method of transmitting, receiving, and viewing digital broadcasts. It is the highest-quality version of DTV providing a sharp, bright, and crystal-clear picture on a wide-screen TV set while sounding like a compact disc. HDTV began its commercial life in July 1997 when WRAL-HD in Raleigh, North Carolina, became the nation’s first commercial, over-the-air, HDTV station. HDTV provides resolution (clarity) of about twice that of conventional (NTSC) TV in both horizontal (H) and vertical (V) dimensions. Full HDTV signal requires a much wider bandwidth than a regular digital signal and is compressed before transmission. It has a picture aspect ratio (H x V) of 16:9 and is a wider screen or aspect ratio than does NTSC. High definition approved formats are 1080 horizontal lines of resolution (interlaced) and 720 horizontal lines of resolution (progressive). It supports dolby digital audio within the HDTV set. Market Research The market size for wide format and HDTV display systems is predicted by Stanford Resources to be on a growth track from 8 million units in 1999 to more than 14.2 million units in 2003. Market Trends HDTV is currently cost prohibitive to the average consumer, and there is no consensus among manufacturers that HDTV will even happen. Japan's HDTV launch has been stunted by lack of attractive programs, and Europe all but abandoned HDTV due to a failure in reaching accord with programmers, signal providers, and the public. While political bodies and manufactures wait for the marketplace to decide, the problem is that the marketplace has no basis upon which to make an informed decision since there have been no wide spread demonstrations of the new technology. There continue to be conflicts over broadcasting standards and this prevents rapid product deployment. Without a particular standard being accepted manufacturers may be locked out of the market for an entire product cycle. Xilinx Solutions The Xilinx Spartan-II programmable logic solutions offer the flexibility to build products that can be reprogrammed in the field at costs far below any programmable solution. Please view the presentation to see how Xilinx solutions can help you build products for this fast evolving market place.