For TVs, is HD-ready the same as HDTV?

[lazyturbo]

I'm planning to buy a TV. And I saw one from Sony that said it was HD-ready. Does that mean that it is a High-Definition television?

[ADS Ivan]

It means that the screen supports HD Resolutions like 1080i, but there is no HDTV tuner included.

[lazyturbo]

okay....so what does that mean? I have to add an after-market HDTV tuner or something?

[TerryG]

It means that to get a HD picture you will need a Set Top Box (STB) external HDTV tuner to pickup over the air (OTA) HD signals. These cost from $400 to $800. Some will also pickup up DirecTV HD signals with a DirecTV triple dish.

[hudsonf]

If you have cable check with your cable provider. They may provide HDTV cable boxes.

[RabidDog]

"half the people who bought HD tvs in America have no way of receiving HD TV" from the bbc website.

[djmattyb]

What is means is that it takes HDTV resolution ( 1,920 x 1,080 ) and scales it down to whatever the resolution of your TV set is. There are very few TV's that actually are good enough resolution to display REAL 1,920 x 1,080 resolution HDTV. I think it's crappy that TV manufacturers get away with labeling their TV's "HiDef" when technically they don't display hidef. The tv you currently have probably can display HDTV but you won't be seeing all the resolution that you cold with an HDTV. When you bought it, it didn't say "HiDef Ready", did it? So why do they get away with it now?

Sorry for the rant. There is the answer to your question.

[lazyturbo]

Oh. So all I need is a Digital Receiver from the Cable company that can support HDTV, and it'll work?

djmattyb, I didn't buy the TV yet, that's why I'm asking the question.

[MachineMan]

Yes, if you have an HDTV-Ready TV you will probably need an external HDTV reciever. Currently most HiDef televisions do not have a built in HDTV tuner. You can get one from Direct TV, Sony, Samsung.... but then you will also have to pay extra for the HD service. Depending on where you live you might be able to get a few Local HD channels free if you have the Reciever and HD antenna. Im waiting till better programing packages come out to get my reciever.

Also as stated before many Hidef TV's are not 1080i native so they will down convert the HDTV signal to there native resolution, 720P, 768, 788..... But still this is way better then regular analog or 480P.

Which TV are you looking at?

Note: Digital cable is not always HDTV.

[lazyturbo]

Just some Sony one at Costco I saw at the other day. Seemed like a pretty good deal.

$2000 CAD for 32", HD-ready and can read memory-stick.