HDTV Displays

To realize the maximum potential of HDTV, the display must be fully HD compatible. For most users, this represents the biggest challenge and largest expense in their HD migration budget. Picking the right HD display relies heavily on personal taste, while prices vary greatly from under $1000 to many thousands of dollars. Here are a few key points to look for in order to not only insure that your display is HDTV compatible, but more importantly, HDTV optimized :

Wide screen: Your display should be capable of displaying a widescreen (16:9) HDTV image. It should also be able to display a standard (4:3) SDTV image as well.

Resolution: Your display should have enough resolution to faithfully display an HDTV image. For many displays, this means a native resolution (the display's intrinsic resolution) of at least 1280 x 720 pixels. Higher native resolution is better, with so called "full HD resolution" being 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Video Inputs: Your display should have a full complement of both analog video inputs (such as composite video, s-video, and component video) for legacy components as well as digital video inputs (such as DVI or HDMI) for new HDTV and EDTV sources.

Note: HDCP support is a must for all HDTV displays. If you buy a display with a DVI input you MUST insure that it supports HDCP; if it doesn't, you may not be able to view HDCP-encrypted source material from cable boxes, etc on that display! If your display has an HDMI input, you're in good shape as the HDMI standard fully supports HDCP.

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