A digital TV tuner built into a HD Ready TV is not necessarily able to receive and decode HD signals. The tuner itself needs to be HDTV labeled and it is recommended to contact the retailer or manufacturer to be certain what type of tuner the TV has.

This may differ depending on the retailer in your country. To be completley sure please check with your retailer. This shows if an extra stand or cabinet is included from retailer.

What technology is the TV based on?

Tube- The tube TV has almost disappeared from the market giving room for the more slim plasma and lcd. The main disadvantage with tube technology is that most tubes are fairly cumbersome, so these types of TVs generally take up quite a bit of space.

Plasma tvs are thin and lightweight and capable of being mounted on a wall like a painting. Their main advantage toward LCD is that they are capable of showing a more intense black.

LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Displays. It is a flat panel technology which uses liquid crystals sandwiched between two glass plates. These TVs can be even thinner than plasma screens and they normally use less energy. LCD-technology is the most common technique today.

LED-tvs are newer versions of LCD-tvs that use light-emitting diodes as backlight. This allows them to show black and dark colors more intensively.

Projection-TV use three picture tubes instead of one. A red, a blue and a green cathode ray tube. The advantage is that you can easily project to a large surface area without too much loss of quality. One disadvantage is that it is still very expensive to buy.

Picture size is measured in inches.
An inch is 2.54 cm. The size of the screen is measured diagonally from corner to corner.

The filter shows whether the TV has the capability to receive a 24p signal. It is not certain the signal gets displayed in a correct way.

Film gets shot at a frame rate of 24 images per second. However, the most common TV-systems displays the image at a rate of 50 times a second (50Hz).

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs stores films in its original format, 24 images per second. Some DVD-Players have the capability to send this format thru to the TV and here is where this specification gets important.
In order to show that kind of signal properly, the TV needs to be able to display or at least support incoming formats such as a 1080p in 24fps.

The contrast ratio is interpreted in a wide variety of ways. Some retailers and/or manufacturers states the dynamic contrast while others choose to show the static contrast ratio. These two values can differ quite much. A TV can have a dynamic contrast ratio of 1600:1 while the static contrast is 800:1. We recommend that you look at the product for yourself if you want to be certain of its contrast ratio.

The TV can receive and display a minimum resolution of 1920x1080, also called 1080p.The expression "Full HD" is not a standard given by any organization, its just an expression set by the market to distinguish the different HD resolutions for different TV models.

The number 1080 represents 1,080 lines of vertical resolution, while the letter "p" stands for progressive scan or non-interlaced. 1080p is considered as true or full HDTV video mode.

The term usually assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a horizontal (display) resolution of 1920 dots across and a frame resolution of 1920 × 1080 or exactly 2,073,600 pixels.

The scanning frequency.
50 Hz - The picture is updated 50 times per second.
100 Hz - The picture is updated 100 times per second, giving a sharper picture with less obvious "flicker".

A television with progressive scanning can generate a picture in a single pass, in a similar way to a computer screen. A standard television uses an interlacing format, alternating lines 50 times a second, creating a full image 25 times a second. Through progressive scanning the television scans all the lines on the television in succession, and does a full screen with all lines 50 times a second, resulting in double the frame rate and higher picture quality.

4:3 Standard Displays

Code Width Height Ratio

QVGA 320 x 240 4:3
HVGA 640 x 240 8:3
VGA 640 x 480 4:3
SVGA 800 x 600 4:3
XGA 1024 x 768 4:3
XGA+ 1152 x 768 3:2
1152 x 864 4:3
SXGA 1280 x 1024 5:4
SXGA+ 1400 x 1050 4:3
UXGA 1600 x 1200 4:3
QXGA 2048 x 1536 4:3

16:9 and 16:10 Widescreen Displays

Code Width Height Ratio

WXGA 1280 x 768 5:3
1280 x 800 16:10
1366 x 768 ~16:9
WXGA+ 1280 x 854 ~3:2
1440 x 900 16:10
1440 x 960 3:2
WSXGA 1600 x 900 16:9
1600 x 1024 16:10
WSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 16:10
WUXGA 1920 x 1200 16:10
WQXGA 2560 x 1600 16:10
WQUXGA 3840 x 2400 16:10

The picture format of the TV.

4:3 - The standard picture format is 4:3 - which is the relation between the width and height of the TV screen. This is the almost square picture format that has been prevalent in the home since TV was first invented.

Widescreen - Otherwise known as 16:9. Just like the standard format it also indicates the relation between the breadth and height of the TV screen.
Widescreen is a format more adapted to the human field of vision, and a better format for viewing cinema films.

Type of sound
Mono - the sound comes through a single channel, even if the TV has two speakers.
Stereo - The sound comes through two channels and creates a more realistic, richer sound experience.
Virtual Surround - Thanks to modern techniques you can experience audio effects similar to genuine surround sound through only two speakers.
Dolby Surround - One of the most advanced and thrilling sound systems on the market. This is close as you can get to a real cinematic audio experience, with the sound coming from all directions, transferred through multiple channels.

Indicates the sound effect.
For example, 2x10W means that the model has two sound channels with a power of 10 Watts each. Watt - in short, the measure of the amplifier's power.

HD Ready
The TV can accept, process and display High Definition 720p and 1080i signals. To enjoy HDTV broadcasts it will need a device that can receive and decode the signals.
HDTV
The TV can accept, process and display High Definition signals (720p and 1080i). It also has a built-in device capable of receiving and decoding HD (720p, 1080i) Satellite, Cable or Terrestrial broadcast transmissions.

HD Ready 1080p
The TV can accept, process and display High Definition 720p 1080i and 1080p signals. To enjoy HDTV broadcasts it will need a device that can receive and decode the signals.

HDTV 1080p
The TV can accept, process and display High Definition signals up to 1080p. It also has a built-in device capable of receiving and decoding HD (720p, 1080i) Satellite, Cable or Terrestrial broadcast transmissions.

High Definition TV (HDTV) means that a TV can display high resolution images, at least 720p or 1080i. The "HD-ready" license is outlined by EICTA.
To qualify, the TV should meet the following requirements:
1. HD-reception both via analogue input and DVI or HDMI.
2. The DVI or HDMI input (digital inputs) must have support for HDCP.
3. The HD capable inputs must be able to transmit the formats 1280x720 at 50 and 60Hz progressive (720p) and 1920x1080 at 50 and 60Hz interlaced (1080i).

This is the digital equivalent of NTSC. A TV with an inbuilt ATSC tuner can receive digital TV broadcasting in US and Canada.

The three-jack (RCA/Phono) component video connection splits the video signal into three parts (one brightness and two color signals). Component video has increased bandwidth for color information, resulting in a more accurate picture with clearer color reproduction and less bleeding. A growing number of TVs include component video jacks to provide the best possible picture quality (better than S-video or composite video) when connected to a compatible DVD player. Special wide-bandwidth component video connections are capable of carrying wider bandwidth video signals, like progressive-scan DVD and High-Definition digital television. All HDTV-ready TVs include at least one set of wide-bandwidth connections for connecting a separate HDTV tuner (or progressive-scan DVD player). A component video connection can carry high bandwidth signals such as 1080i and 720p.

High Definition Media Interface. A type of connection for connecting Digital Video and Audio.

Short for Super-Video, a technology for transmitting video signals over a cable by dividing the video information into two separate signals: one for color (chrominance), and the other for brightness (luminance). When sent to a television, this produces sharper images than composite video, where the video information is transmitted as a single signal over one wire. This is because televisions are designed to display separate Luminance (Y) and Chrominance (C) signals. (The terms Y/C video and S-Video are the same.)To use S-Video, the device sending the signals must support S-Video output and the device receiving the signals must have an S-Video input jack.

A SCART connector is a physical and electrical interconnection between two pieces of audio-visual equipment, such as a television set and a video cassette recorder (VCR). Each device has a female 21-pin connector interface. A cable with a male plug at each end is used to connect the devices. (The 21st pin is actually not a pin but a ground shield contact.) Stereo audio, composite video, and control signals are provided in both directions. RGB video signals are input only. The interface is an industry standard originated by the French company, Peritel. Today, most new television sets and VCRs in the European market and other countries that use the PAL video standard come equipped with a SCART connector. SCART stands for Syndicat francais des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radio et Television. The connector is also known as a Euro-connector.

A connector for a computer cable in which the plug and socket are D-shaped so they only fit together one way. DB connectors are often used for serial ports. DB-9 connectors have 9 pins and are used to connect a mouse.DB-25 connectors have 25 pins and are used to connect a printer. DB-15 has 15 pins and is used as a VGA connection to monitors.