HDTV or High Definition Television is a digital broadcasting standard that only High-Definition compliant televisions can accept. The technology of an HDTV can accept its high bandwidth broadcasts through its built-in video compression to correctly display the image.

Generally, HDTV provides a more crisp picture than analog television broadcasts, because of its capacity to display motion and color on a grand scale. Additionally, HD broadcasts no longer suffer from "poor reception," nor do they display "static" or wavy patterns as its counterpart did.

Today, HDTVs are widely available as LCD (liquid crystal display), flat-panel screens. These screens display color by shifting color or monochrome pixels through the use of electric fields and polarization.