HD Ready TVs Buying Guide
HD Ready TVs
You will, no doubt, have heard a lot about HD TV recently. HD TV stands for High Definition Television. Often, people refer to HD TV as the most significant thing to happen to television since the invention of colour technology. All you need to know is that HD TV offers amazing quality pictures, up to five times as sharp as traditional screens. However, it's important to realise that there are differences between 'HD-ready' and 'Full HD'.
What is HD TV?
HD TV offers viewers incredibly clear and sharp pictures on their HD ready TV (usually a plasma or LCD screen). You can't receive high definition on a standard television. HD contains more information than traditional digital TV, using up to five times as many pixels to create an image. In a CRT TV there are 625 'lines' of pixels, but in an HD ready TV there are 720 or even 1080 lines - giving you a crisp, life-like picture.
What can you watch in HD?
At the moment, HD is broadcast by Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media. Freeview HD is being introduced in early 2010 and will be available to 49% of the UK population in time for the 2010 World Cup.
Are you HD Ready?
To make sure that you can receive and watch HD TV, you need to check to make sure you have the following:
A screen that is 'HD Ready'
It needs to have an HDMI or a DVI connection.
An HD TV set-top-box or integrated receiver
This can be from Sky or Freesat for satellite-based systems, Virgin Media for cable TV or Freeview HD for terrestrial broadcasts (through your TV aerial).
A device that has a minimum resolution of 720 physical lines
Here's the technical bit: All broadcast HD TV is either 720p (progressive) or 1080i (interlaced). Any TV that is marked as 'HD Ready' should be able to accept these signals. 'Full-HD' TVs are even higher resolution - 1080p, but you can currently only take advantage of this when using pre-recorded material from a Blu-ray player or the Internet.
A surround sound system
It's not essential, but to get the most from HD TV's enhanced surround sound (on certain programmes), you will need to have a Dolby or similar home cinema system installed.
Once you have checked all of these off the list, you're ready to receive HD TV and experience razor-sharp pictures and amazing rich sound for yourself
HDMI
HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface. This is the first all-digital audio and video interface, which means that it delivers perfectly clear images and sound through a single cable. HDMI is ideal for use with HD TV.
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