ANSWERS: 3
  • HDTVs contain an HD tuner allowing you to receive high definition, for example from your house antenna's over the air signal reception. HD_READY TVs contain everything necessary to display high definition except that HD tuner. To display high definition, you need a separate high definition tuner box (ca. $300) or cable (or other service) which provides a high definition digital cable box which does the tuning for high definition for you.
  • To be little more precise and to add a caution... An HDTV is a television that is designed to receive and properly display television signals in either of the two ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) broadcast formats: 720p and 1080i. The native resolution of the television should be either 1080 pixels or 720 pixels, but it might be lower in cheap sets (e.g., 480). A television with a native resolution of 1080 will upsample and interlace a 720p signal. One with a native resolution of 720 will downsample and deinterlace a 1080i signal. An HD-compatible television with a resolution of 480 will need to downsample both 720 and 1080 pictures. An HD-ready television is... a television. The term "HD-ready" means absolutely nothing in terms of television capabilities, although it certainly implies something better than the norm. Some manufacturers may produce a high-resolution television without an HDTV tuner, while some might label their run-of-the-mill television HD-ready because you can connect the output of an HDTV tuner to their inputs. This presents a problem to unwary consumers, who may not be aware that the television they buy has no special HD features. This kind of labelling is all too common, unfortunately, and misleads many consumers. When digital music - the CD - first appeared, many companies branded their amplifiers and speakers as "digital ready". These products seemed to offer something special, but nothing had changed except for the word "digital" on the label. Today you see photography equipment branded in the same fashion. A "digital tripod" is a normal camera tripod with the word "digital" added - it does nothing special to earn that moniker.
  • I asked that question in PC World (Silverlink Branch, Newcastle) and was told that the difference was that the FULL HD sets were merely a higher spec. than the HD READY sets - That both needed separate HD Boxes. This answer reversed my original thinking that the FULL HD sets did not need separate HD boxes. Unfortunately I was not able to talk to an English salesman. But I do wish for a final and definitive answer before I invest.

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