If you're fairly new to the world of HDTV, one word you've probably heard a few times is 'compression.' Typically it's used in a very negative way, taking the blame for all sorts of picture quality issues. Unfortunately, compression gets a bad wrap most of the time, in fact, compression itself is really a great thing. In a nutshell, compression is exactly what it sounds like: taking something big and making it smaller, compressing it down to a smaller size. It's the thing that allows a full HDTV movie to fit on a Blu-ray disk, or for an HDTV program to be broadcast to your home for your viewing pleasure. Uncompressed high definition content is simply too large to be of any use to us consumers. Compression is the thing that allows you to store and transfer audio and video content that otherwise would be way too big.

Think of a beach ball...

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Yes and compression had been with us for a long time. Phonograph records had what they termed "RIAA compensation" which was a technique of compressing the bass so that the severity of the groove literally wouldn't pitch the needle and tone arm off of the record. So much for sonic purity you analog freaks ;-) That's why must must have a phono preamp to use a turntable properly.