What Is the Difference Between HD & HD Ready TV?

HDTV's display high-definition content.

HDTV, short for high-definition television, is a television standard that offers better picture quality than do traditional TV sets. If you're shopping for an HDTV, you may notice that some say "HDTV" while others say "HD Ready."

HD Ready

An HD-ready TV is fully capable of playing HD content, but it requires an external HDTV tuner to do so. An HD tuner is a device that receives and transmits HDTV signals instead of lower-quality signals. HD tuners are sometimes called HDTV decoders, HDTV receivers or HDTV set-top boxes.

HDTV

An HDTV is an HD-ready TV with a built-in HD tuner. Tuners that comply to Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards support all HD formats (such as 1080i and 720p) instead of just one format. As tuners are typically costly, HDTV sets are commonly more expensive than simple HD-ready sets.

Considerations

If your cable or satellite provider offers a set-top box (cable box) with a built in ATSC tuner, then you'll only need an HD-ready TV set. With a set-top box and an HDTV, you'd have two HD tuners, one in the cable box and one in the TV.

References

• PC World: HDTV Answer Guide
• Webopedia: HDTV tuner