High Definition Television (HDTV) signals are received into the home by means of any of three broadcasts systems, over the air through antenna, cable, and satellite. Despite the fact that some obstacles involving digital broadcasting have yet to be addressed, they will be soon. For digital broadcasting, a program is first recorded in HD format using HD cameras and equipment. Then it is distributed digitally over the air, through cable or satellite. In order for someone to be able to watch it gaining the benefits of HDTV, they need an HDTV compatible television with an HDTV tuner or receiver to be able to decode the digital signal.

HDTV has 1125 lines of resolution as compared with 525 lines in the standard NTSC analog television signals. Therefore, HDTV contains more than five times the video information. This is both its greatest advantage as well as its tallest hurdle because HDTV eats up five times the bandwidth capacity of regular TV signals. Although they may be five times better than standard TV, they are also 50% more expensive.

1987 is when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made the ruling that said HDTV must be compatible with the standard NTSC TV service. Late in 1990 General Instrument Corporation proposed an all-digital HDTV system. In 1993 an alliance was formed with AT&T, GI, MIT, Phillips, Sarnoff, Thomson and Zenith, taking the best features of the four then-existing HDTV systems and from them developing a standard system, which was successfully unveiled in 1995.