HD TVs what to look for???

[Kumagoro]

What should I be looking for in a HD TV?

I take it minimum HD ready with 1080i HDCP HDMI.

How many HDMI connections do you reckon is needed.... most seem to come with just one
only one i have seen had two.. None seem to come with DVI/VGA, am i unlikey to find major
brand ones which do? Actually I just found one which has DVI but then no HDMI.

What else should I consider and any features I should look out for? like scaling form low
res to high res?

The thing has to come from comet as they have refunded £900 for a tv that didnt work
properly. But as Ive never bought one before I havent looked much beyond their basics.

[chrestomanci]

1080i native will cost a fortune, you are unlikely to find it on a screen less than 40 inches, and even then it will be expensive. 720p native is a more realistic option.

All HD ready screens will accept a 108oi signal but will downscale it to a lower res.

You can get HDMI audio amplifers that take several imputs (Sky+HD box, DVD-HD, XBox-2 etc) that allow you to select one of the imputs to go to your TV, with the audio amplified and sent to your speakers. The Box speaks HDCP and maintains the copy protection chain. I think Yamaha do one for about a grand. Having said all that, multiple HDMI imputs are good. Make sure they can all speak HDCP, as otherwise your HD DVD player might refuse to speak to it.

You need to pay attention to the picture quality on low res as you will be watching a lot of standard def tv on it. In the showroom get them to show a regular TV chanell, (preferably something with lots of action) and look for combing or other interlacing artifacts.

[Nick F]

Make sure the TV states that its HD Ready and has at least one HDMI port. You can't go wrong from there

In terms of size it's all down to you really and how big your room is.