HDTV: Batteries Not Included

One of the worst feelings as a kid was opening up my Christmas presents and seeing the phrase "batteries not included". To my young and fragile mind, this was a travesty for which there was no equal. Requiring me to wait before I played with my new loot? It was unthinkable! Interestingly enough, many are experiencing the same thing when it comes to HDTVs. Same problem, different packaging.

Last month, we posted on the blog about the fact that over 50 percent of households have HDTVs. The more curious part of that article is the notion that of the millions that now have a high definition television set of some sort, 69 percent of HDTV owners do not have HD service of any kind.

Perhaps people are fine with just having a bigger — though not necessarily better — picture? Maybe it's a money issue, though often times adding an HD package onto your existing TV service isn't much more than a few extra dollars a month. I think the largest contributing factor, though, is that most people don't realize that for HDTVs, the "batteries" are not included, and there's no information to let them know about this in the retail stores. After all, they just want you to get the TV. Why would they bother to educate people about what else is needed to enjoy it and fully utilize your entertainment investment?

So, I've decided to put together a few pieces of information that might prove helpful. Tips on where to find the "batteries" for your HDTV, so to speak. Listed below is what you need in order to start watching high definition programming. Hit the jump to read on!

• An HDTV. Kind of a no-brainer, I know, but I thought we'd start with the basics. If you don't have a high-def set, where do you start looking? CNET's HD TV World is actually a great HDTV help center where you can research based on price, quality and any number of other factors.
• HD tuner/receiver. Some HDTVs come with an HD tuner inside of them, but this usually means you're paying a little more for the TV. With an HD tuner, you can get access to the over-the-air signals from local stations which are broadcasting in HD. Alternatively, if your TV does not have an HD tuner, you can get a receiver from your television service provider, which leads us to...
• HD Service. Simply hooking up an HD receiver to your TV won't do the trick. You also need to activate high definition service along with your TV package. What most people don't realize is that because of an HDTVs ability to sample higher resolution images, it actually makes regular standard definition programming look worse than it did before. To watch in HD, you need HD service.
• HD cables. HDTVs must be connected to the receiver (and any other device for that matter) by component or HDMI cables to dispay images at the right quality. Component cables are red, blue and green, while HDMI cables are typically black and look like over-sized USB cables. Connecting your HDTV with composite cables (standard red, yellow and white) will result in some poor quality pictures, making you wonder what the heck you spent your money for.

Hopefully these tips prove useful when connecting your HDTV (and service) in your own home. Feel free to leave any questions or share your own stories regarding your high definition experiences.