Full HD TV or HD Ready TV?
The introduction of digital television broadcasts has seen the popularity of high definition television rocket with older standard definition analogue televisions now resigned to the scrap heap. At the top of the home television experience is the Full HD TV, so let’s clarify what defines full high definition television viewing.
Firstly to experience full HD viewing you are going to need a 1080p television. This means a 1080p capable television set has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and uses the progressive method of scanning. This means that each line of pixels is refreshed for every frame that is displayed (as opposed to 1080i or interlaced, where alternate lines are refreshed for every frame).
A point worth touching upon relates to HD Ready televisions. It’s worth noting that HD Ready TVs and Full HD TVs are not the same thing. HD Ready covers the 720p, 720i and 1080i specifications of televisions, all of which produce lower quality pictures than 1080p full HD TVs. However when taking the next point into consideration, you will see that HD Ready TVs are perfectly suitable for certain applications.
The point being this, full HD televisions are frequently not used to their full potential. What is meant by this? Well most high definition television channels broadcast their signals in 720i, 720p or 1080i. This means that when viewing your favourite HD programs a HD Ready TV could be perfectly suitable for your situation which some might say makes buying a 1080p full HD TV an unnecessary expense.
Even when it comes to watching DVDs and playing some games consoles, a 1080p is not required to display the signal output by these devices. It is not until you start watching 1080p television broadcasts (which are not readily available yet), BluRay movies or playing games on 1080p capable consoles that Full HD TVs are used to their full capabilities.
Knowing this, before you consider buying a Full HD TV online or in your local TV showroom, you might want to consider its application first. Do you really need to go the whole hog and get a 1080p set?
Related posts: