Simplistically full HD is 1080p but like anything else theres always other factors to take into account, LOL ive confused myself like crazy reading some of the stuff over at avforums with some of the uber geeks saying it's 1080p AND 24fps support, then talk about stuff like 1:1 pixel mapping, pull down ratios....................I tell you its a right laugh on those forums
What Hi-Fi have the best 37" tv as this Panasonic Plasma which picture wise is supposed to be in a different league to any other 37" and below screen on the market
http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/sto...duct&fm=12&sm=0&tm=0&sku=742220&category_oid=
Nabbed this
An HDTV ready TV set is just one without a built-in HDTV tuner. Now we have different types of HDTV tuners. We have a cablecard HDTV tuner that could be built into an HDTV set. A cablecard HDTV set would require you getting a cablecard from your cable company and also note that current cablecard TVs aren't two-way which means that you cannot get VOD or PPV with them. In the future you will start seeing TV sets that say they
support CableCard 2.0 and this simply means that they are two-way cable cards which will support both VOD and PPV.
Now we have another type of HDTV tuner that could be built into an HDTV set that is called a QAM tuner and this tuner is also a cable based tuner which allows you to just plug in your coax cable into the QAM input on the HDTV set and get all analog and digital/HDTV channels that aren't encrypted by the cable company. This doesn't require a cable card but you won't get most HDTV channels with this as many cable
companies are encrypting even local HD channels. This isn't a problem with cablecard though.
Now we have another type of built-in tuner that could be in an HDTV set called an ATSC tuner which is simply an OTA tuner that allows you to plug in an antenna and get any local HDTV stations over the air.
Now keep in mind that even HDTV enabled sets might not have all of these options but they will always have an ATSC tuner but that doesn't mean they will have a cablecard tuner or a QAM tuner for that matter.
All HDTV sets regardless of what they have built-in can accept HDTV signals using an external set-top box from both your cable and/or satellite companies via either the
HDMI or component inputs of the HDTV set. You can rent an HD box or an HD DVR and all HDTV channels including any local HD channels that are carried on your cable company will tune in on your HDTV in full HDTV quality. The same goes for both satellite companies if you use the satellite companies HDTV box.
The botton line is if you want HD channels such as ESPN HD, HDNets, HBO HD, Starz HD you must have one of these two options regardless of your HDTV type.
1. If your TV supports a cablecard you can get all the HDTV channels on your cable company as long as you subscribe to those channels of course.
2. You must get an HDTV box from your cable and/or satellite company. Also note that a cablecard will not work with either satellite company and as such if you want HDTV from the satellite companies you must use that satellite companies HDTV boxes no matter what HDTV set you have.
So I have a basic HDTV set that doesn't have any built-in HD tuners and I just today subscribed to Verizon FIOS TV service and I just rented their HD DVR box for 12.95/month and that gets me tons of HDTV channels in the best HDTV quality by far of all the cable and satellite providers as unlike those companies my HDTV channels a very little compressed and I have fiber from my central office all the way to the back of my house.
This HDTV box from Verizon gets my HDTV ready set with all of my local channels in HDTV plus ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, NFL
Network HD, Wealth HD, Discovery HD Theater, National Geographic Channel HD, MTV HD, HDNet, HDNet Movies, TNT HD, Universal HD, HBO HD, Cinemax HD, Showtime HD, The Movie Channel HD and Starz HD. I might have missed a few but I get everyone of these HD channel in pull HDTV quality on my HD ready HDTV set that doesn't have a built-in HD tuner all with that little HD DVR that costs me an extra 12.95/month.
Now if your buying a new HDTV set I would highly suggest that you buy an HDTV that has an HDMI input that supports HDCP as the new HDTV
DVD Players out in the market will only output in full HDTV using an HDMI with HDCP connection. If you have an HDMI input without HDCP it won't output in full HDTV. If you use component inputs it also won't output in full HDTV either. Without an HDMI input that supports HDCP it will just output in progressive scan format which is 480p (720p or better is considered HDTV so 480p is considered to be below HDTV or EDTV which is Enhanced Definition) so all cheap DVD players that say they are progressive scan players will do the same stuff as this player. So with that said if you don't have this specific input those HD DVDs and that HD DVD Player that you just paid for are overprised POS that don't give you anything more than a current DVD player playing a current
DVD movie.
I hope I didn't get too complex but these things I feel all new buyers should be made aware about.
