The official definition of Full HD is a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, while HD Ready only offers 1280 x 720 pixels.  Next to both of them, good old-fashioned analog ‘Standard Definition’ SD is broadcast at 720 x 576 pixels.

After the appearance of the first Full HD TVs, HD ready models remained technically superior at scaling up SD images, and remained popular with viewers who had a large DVD collection or used games consoles a lot, both of which only have images at Standard Defintion.

Nevertheless, recent months have seen a noticeable reverse in this trend for several reasons:

• TV manufacturers have improved the quality of scaling, and Full HD TVs are now much better than the first models at fitting a small image onto a big screen.

• Recently, the market has divided, with Full HD screens in high-end models and HD ready screens destined for entry-level users.

• Full HD is becoming a reality.  Whether it’s piped into your home via ADSL or cable, or watched on  Blu-ray DVDs, there are now enough Full HD video sources to make it worth taking the plunge and going for Full HD instead of being held back by HD Ready equipment.  The arrival of HD broadcast digital TV in many countries will only add to the profusion of HD content.

These concerns are obviously vary from one viewer to another, and may also affect you differently depending on whether or not TV is broadcast in HD in your country yet. 

The quality of the screen that you require obviously depends on your own needs, but this also rests on the size of the TV that you choose.  More precisely, the key ratio between the size of your screen and how close to it you sit allows you to compare how big a screen you need.  The bigger the TV you install, the more detail you notice – and the more detailed the image, the easier it is to recommend a Full HD screen.