» What Does HD Ready Mean?

HD ready is a label you can find in various video equipment, like television sets and DVD players. It refers to the ability of the product to handle high definition video. High definition (HD) video is a video standard of higher resolutions than those supported by older standards.

A display must be capable of resolutions of 720 to 1080 vertical lines for it to be considered HD ready. Such displays include computer screens, video projectors and modern television sets. Old television sets are only capable displaying video at a resolution of less than 720 vertical lines.

There are different labels used in high definition compatible video equipment, depending on the modes the product supports. Simply ‘HD ready’ means that at least the minimum resolution of 720 vertical lines is supported, while ‘Full HD’ and ‘HD 1080′ both refer to the resolution of 1080 vertical lines, which is the maximum of the standard.

Sometimes the resolution is followed by additional information. The letters ‘p’ and ‘i’ refer to progressive and non-progressive (interlaced) modes, respectively. A slash followed by a number tells the frequency. Therefore, 1080i/60 means that a piece of equipment supports resolution of 1080 vertical lines of interlaced video with a frequency of 60 frames per second.

For a video system to be able to display high definition video content, all products in the system must be HD ready. This includes the display unit, the source (DVD player or television broadcast) and all the connections in between.

When building a home theater system, you must remember to take care to find out that every piece of equipment is HD ready. Also the mode matters, so for best possible effect all the parts of the system should be full HD ready.