HD ready

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HD ready concerns the ability of television receivers to display high-definition pictures. The term has had official use in Europe since January 2005 when, EICTA (European Information, Communications and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Associations) announced the requirements for the label.

EICTA introduced the label as a quality sign for the differentiation of display equipment, capable of processing and displaying high-definition signals. It is awarded on the basis of minimum functionality requirements that are detailed in the "EICTA conditions for HD Labelling of Display Devices".

In the USA, "HD Ready" refers to any display that is capable of accepting and displaying a high definition signal at either 720p, 1080i or 1080p using a component video or digital input, and does not have a built-in HD-capable tuner.

1 HD ready caveats
2 CCC Alternatives to HD ready TVs
3 HD ready requirements
4 External links

[edit] HD ready caveats

The fact that a product bears the label "HD ready" does not necessarily mean that it can display the full picture resolution possible from a HD source. Most HD-ready sets do not have enough pixels to give true pixel-for-pixel representation without interpolation of the higher HD resolution (1920x1080) - or even the lower HD resolution (1280x720) horizontally (CRT based sets, or the plasma based sets with 1024x768 resolution).

The term HD compatible is also being used in Europe to indicate that a display device has HDMI capability but with lower than HD-ready resolution.

[edit] CCC Alternatives to HD ready TVs

Many PCs and laptops are actually more HD-ready, in the true sense of the phrase, than the HD-ready label requires. They will not, however, qualify for the HD-ready label, unless they also meet the connector requirements.

Any sufficiently fast computer with a 1280x720 or higher resolution display is capable of displaying HD video, even though computers are generally not advertised as such. This video may come from the Internet, data files, or a DTV tuner card. The Internet already offers some HD content, like movie trailers available for free download from Apple Inc..

[edit] HD ready requirements

In order to be awarded the label “HD ready” a display device has to cover the following requirements:

Display, display engine
- The minimum native resolution of the display (e.g. LCD, PDP) or display engine (e.g. DLP) is 720 physical lines in wide aspect ratio.
Video Interfaces
- The display device accepts HD input via:
  - Analog YPbPr. “HD ready” displays support analog YPbPr as a HD input format to allow full compatibility with today's HD video sources in the market. Support of the YPbPr signal should be through common industry standard connectors directly on the HD ready display or through an adaptor easily accessible to the consumer; and:
  - DVI or HDMI
- HD capable inputs accept the following HD video formats:
  - 1280x720 @ 50 and 60Hz progressive scan (“720p”), and
  - 1920x1080 @ 50 and 60Hz interlaced (“1080i”)
- The DVI or HDMI input supports copy protection (HDCP)

The following technical references apply to the above descriptions:

DVI: DDWG, “Digital Visual Interface”, rev 1.0, Apr 2, 1999 as further qualified in EIA861B, “A DTV Profile for Uncompressed High Speed Digital Interfaces” May 2002, furthermore allowing both DVI-D and DVI-I connectors, requiring compliance to both 50 and 60Hz profiles, and requiring support for both 720p and 1080i video formats.

HDMI: HDMI Licensing, LLC, “High-Definition Multimedia Interface”, rev.1.1, May 20, 2004

HDCP: Intel, “High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection System”, rev 1.1, June 9, 2003.

(NB: on DVI HDCP rev 1.0 will apply)

YPbPr: EIA770.3-A, March 2000, with the notice that the connectors required may be available only through an adaptor.