What is HD? - General Discussion Forum

Lan · 2013-05-19T07:17:13+00:00

There seems to be a lot of misunderstandings about what HD means, mainly in regards to video games. Sure, we all know it's an acronym that means "high definition", but all it is referring to is the resolution. Stuff like 1080p, 480p, etc. Now, "HD" generally refers to any image with more than 480 horizontal lines. I see people all over the internet, and in real life, who seem to think HD automatically equals good graphics. It just refers to the number of little dots that make up the picture, or pixels. Here are a few "HD" screenshots of games, followed by some non-"HD" screenshots. As you can see, the bottom images have much higher graphical fidelity, but they are not HD. They are just 480p. The top images are N64 games running in an emulator in HD. These are 100% HD. Does that mean they look amazing? No. Should you make such a big deal about an "HD remake" of something? No. HD does not mean good graphics. And fun fact, the Wii U's gamepad's resolution is 854×480, which is not HD by any stretch of the imagination. If you play your "hd console games" on the Wii U gamepad, you're not playing an HD game. Don't make such a big deal about a game being "omg hd such awesome grafix", HD is just a resolution. Odds are, if you played a game on a PC in the last ten years at least,, it was in HD. No one made a big deal about games being in HD then, because companies didn't throw the term "HD" around like it's the greatest thing ever. Pretty soon "Full HD" will be phased out for 4k, which is just 3840 × 2160. Still HD, just with more pixels. Won't automatically make your games look better, that depends on the graphical fidelity. Shaders, high-poly models, good physics, high quality textures, these things make your game look good, not the fact that it's HD. Hope this clears things up a bit, HD is not some amazing thing that revolutionizes the way games look, it's just pixels. Also if I've made any errors in my formatting, any of my facts are wrong, etc, feel free to point them out.

Topic: What is HD?

Posts 21 to 25 of 25

21
LzWinky
Mon 20th May 2013

Of course they wouldn't. They overstate the necessity of a 4k TV and hype people up for a piece of junk (imo). Apple does this every year.

Current games: Everything on Switch

Switch Friend Code: SW-5075-7879-0008 | My Nintendo: LzWinky

22
Lan
Mon 20th May 2013

@Wheels2050 I refuse to idly sit back and let the English language evolve simply due to stupidity and misleading advertising. I'm at least gonna try to educate people on the subject.

Lots of censorship here...
3DS: 1676-4603-1823
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23
OptometristLime
Mon 20th May 2013

You might think you're being proactive, but your stance is likened more to a crotchety old grandpap!

Accusing people of stupidity is tacky.

You are what you eat from your head to your feet.

24
Lan
Tue 21st May 2013

OptometristLime wrote:

You might think you're being proactive, but your stance is likened more to a crotchety old grandpap!

Accusing people of stupidity is tacky.

I work at Walmart. I know firsthand how stupid people are.

Lots of censorship here...
3DS: 1676-4603-1823
Dragon friend safari

25
Jaz007
Tue 21st May 2013

OptometristLime wrote:

You might think you're being proactive, but your stance is likened more to a crotchety old grandpap!

Accusing people of stupidity is tacky.

It depends, there is a difference between widespread corruption and something becoming kosher.

Jaz007

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