What is the difference between a true HD TV and an HD ready TV?

Answer 1

Many LCD and plasma televisions are labelled as HD ready. What it means is that the television will display an HD signal but the image may not be HD quality. All LCD and plasma televisions have a native pixel count. Many are 768 lines for example. In order to display an HS signal, the HD format of 1080 line or 720 line needs to be changed to fit the screen. While the loss of resolution from 1080 to 768 lines isn't particularly significant, there is still a loss of quality.

There have been LCD televisions sold as HD ready despite the fact that they only have 480 lines. Although the HD signal will be displayed, it is less than half the number of lines of 1080. As 480 line is the standard definition NTSC format, the quality can only ever be SD quality.

It is generally accepted that a true HD television will have 1080 lines (or sometimes, 720 lines). When displaying a 1080 image on a 1080 screen, there is no loss of quality but if the size needs to be changed, the conversion process always has an adverse effect on the image, even if very slight.

Beware - some retailers will suggest that a television is true HD even though it does not have a 1920 x 1080 pixel format. ALWAYS ask to see the specification before committing to spending a lot of money. If the retailer cannot or will not tell you the native resolution of a display, walk away and find another retailer. And a different answer, I think the HD ready set does not have a built-in tuner and needs to be connected to a cable or satellite converter box. The HDTV is a complete television set with a built-in tuner.