HD TV Buying Guide

To get started you need to consider what elements you are going to purchase and work this around your budget. Your new television is the obvious place to start, but you will also need to think about what you are going to watch on it. You should be thinking about a receiver for broadcast programmes and maybe a disk player or recorder too.

Some H D Televisions come complete with a Freeview receiver included, but others will need an external box for you to receive H D (High Definition) television signals.

To simplify things, many manufacturers are now providing complete HD ready systems bundled into one package. These provide a good starting point if you want to upgrade to HD all in one go. It's up to you to decide between a complete package and a more tailored solution.

The HD ready logo is designed to show you that a product is ready to handle High Definition television pictures. This not only applies to televisions, but equally to other equipment like games consoles, satellite receivers ("Sky Boxes"), computer screens, disk players and hard drive video recorders.

For all your new equipment, you will need to make sure the sockets are compatible with each other. When buying separate components, look for the HDMI logo as this is the standard across all HDTV kit.

Use the quick guide in the right panel to help you remember the most important points. Find out more about each type of HD product by using the links in the left navigation panel (or below) to read our free HDTV buyers guides:

We also have some simple pictorial guides to show you how to put together your own HDTV system.