HD Ready

The HD ready is a certification program introduced in 2005 by EICTA (European Information, Communications and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Associations), now DIGITALEUROPE.

There are currently four different labels: "HD ready", "HD TV", "HD ready 1080p", "HD TV 1080p". The logos are awarded to television equipment capable of certain features.

In the United States, a similar "HD Ready" term usually 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, but does not have a built-in HD-capable tuner.

The similar HD ready term in the US to the certification in Europe might falsely imply that a TV from one region works in another (for e.g. HD that differs by frame rate, if not the older non-HD formats); The consensus seems to be the American TVs do not work (fully) with European [HD] broadcast, while European TVs are multi-system (may or may not have or strictly need a US TV tuner, but will support those broadcasts [with an external tuner]).

The "HD ready" certification program was introduced on January 19, 2005. The labels and relevant specifications are based on agreements between over 60 broadcasters and manufacturers of the European HDTV Forum at its second session in June 2004, held at the Betzdorf, Luxembourg headquarters of founding member SES Astra.

The "HD ready" logo is awarded to television equipment capable of displaying High Definition (HD) pictures from an external source. However, it does not have to feature a digital tuner to decode an HD signal; devices with tuners were certified under a separate "HD TV" logo, which does not require a "HD ready" display device.

Before the introduction of the "HD ready" certification, many TV sources and displays were being promoted as capable of displaying high definition pictures when they were in fact SDTV devices; according to Alexander Oudendijk, senior VP of marketing for Astra, in early 2005 there were 74 different devices being sold as ready for HD that were not. Devices advertised as HD-compatible or HD ready could take HDTV-signal as an input (via analog -YPbPr or digital DVI or HDMI), but they did not have enough pixels for true representation of even the lower HD resolution (1280 × 720) (plasma-based sets with 853 × 480 resolution, CRT based sets only capable of SDTV-resolution or VGA-resolution, 640×480 pixels), much less the higher HD resolution (1920 × 1080), and so were unable to display the HD picture without downscaling to a lower resolution. Industry-sponsored labels such as "Full HD" were misleading as well, as they can refer to devices which do not fulfil some essential requirements such as having 1:1 pixel mapping with no overscan or accepting a 1080p signal.

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