Advice on technical requirements to switch to HD TV

The local electronics emporium on the High Street is home to a vast array of stylish, slim, and big high definition TVs, each one promising more than the other.

But how on Earth do you decide which one should take pride of place in your living room?

A good start is looking out for the European standard logo with "HD Ready" which guarantees your display is up to the job.

Buyer beware

Also, a good common sense approach should begin with this mantra: "Do not get taken in by the technical gobbledegook".

Signage quoting hertz, refresh rates, pixel count et al are made up by the marketing men to impress you, but will bewilder more than inform.

So let your eyes do the judging in the first instance. Oh, and giving your wallet a say in proceedings is also a good idea.

In fact, if you are not putting much HD content through the set, then the old fat CRT television you bought 10 years ago may well be up to the job.

A lot of the old debates which excited TV purists in the past are disappearing. Plasma versus LCD? Well, at the budget end of the market there is now little to choose between them.

LCD viewing angles have improved so you can sit at an acute angle to the TV, and plasmas no longer suffer image burn as they once did.

LCDs are still more expensive "bang for buck" - if you are after a TV over around 42 inches, then you will probably want to look at a plasma.




Sporting events like the World Cup are pushed
as a reason to upgrade to HD


Resolution

HD-ready in the UK means that if you want to squeeze all the extra detail offered by hi-def pictures, then your TV is capable of showing it.

Thing is, there are different variants of HD. Some offer only 720 lines of vertical resolution; others can display 1080 lines - and even here there's a debate as to whether 1080 is appreciably better with all types of footage.

There's full HD, giving 1920 lines, but precious little content today supports it. Also, bear in mind that the further away you are physically sitting from the display the less you will notice any difference in pixels.


Hooking up

Another thing to look on the set for is connectivity - go for a healthy selection of inputs, for instance three digital High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) ports.

These will help future-proof your set to accept more hi-def sources. But even one or two HDMIs is not terrible, as you can always attach a small external switching box to add extra inputs.

Audio output is worth looking at - is there a way of connecting your TV's sound to external speakers? It's easy to forget that TV isn't just about the visuals.

An analogue audio output to connect it to your hi-fi is a good low-cost way of greatly improving the sound - and beats buying a a dedicated surround sound system.


No guarantees

A lot of buyers unpack their gleaming new hardware, turn it on and find their picture is actually worse than they were used to.

Unlike your modest 24-inch crate, the 42-inch panel can just appear to bring out all the horrible compression used by broadcasters in their standard definition broadcasting.

Short of moving your chair back, the other thing really worth doing is actually to put some hi-def content through the display.

An HD TV does not miraculously improve picture quality. You need hi-def content to make use of the improved pixel count.

This can take many forms - a Blu-ray movie shown through a Blu-ray player (either standalone or through the Sony PlayStation 3) will impress you the most, as its images are compressed the least.

Failing that, you could stream HD content from your laptop, hooking it up directly to the set.

Next up, get tuned in to HD broadcasts. In the UK, satellite provider Sky has a wide range of HD channels, and now even the digital service Freeview has gone HD - you'll need to buy a new Freeview HD terrestrial receiver or its satellite-oriented equivalent FreeSat.

Sometimes the compression on these broadcasts is quite aggressive, so again, don't expect to be blown away as you were in the high street emporium (where no doubt they were displaying Blu-ray content).

HD is still very much a maturing area, so improvements are never far away. But as with everything in the world of technology, it's up to you when you jump on the wagon.

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