If you are in the market for a HDTV you probably are somewhat confused by all of the terminology used in the industry, but actually it doesn’t take too long to learn your way around, and be an educated television consumer.

When looking for a HDTV, you will no doubt run into a couple of terms that you will need to understand very well. You will see a TV labeled as “HDTV Enabled”, and then you may see others labeled “HDTV Ready” or “HDTV Integrated”. There is not usually much difference between the “Ready” set and the “Integrated” set. They both are ways of saying that the TV has a HDTV tuner already installed in it and is capable of receiving and displaying high definition broadcasts right away with just an antenna.

The “Enabled” sets on the other hand do not have the tuner built into the TV and so must rely on an external receiver or tuner to be able to receive and display high definition programming. What does this mean for you? Well, if you mainly tune into local broadcasts using an antenna, you probably want the tuner already built into the TV. On the other hand, if you are a cable or satellite subscriber, which many viewers are, you can just buy the set that doesn’t have the tuner built in and use the one provided by your programming provider instead.

As far as audio is concerned, the HDTV standard includes the capability to present sound in Dolby 5.1 surround sound format. If you plan on taking full advantage of that with a surround sound system you will need plenty of connectors on the TV to get the job done, so look carefully on the back and see how many connectors are provided and then match that up with the speaker system that you plan to buy. Basically, the more connector ports you can get, the better.

If you like to play video games, you will certainly enjoy the enhanced capabilities of high definition since it will also enhance all games played on Playstation 3, and Xbox 360. So check to make sure that there are appropriate connectors on the front or rear of the TV to enable you to connect up your video game system too.

And don’t forget the surge protector. It would really be a shame to get all of this great television equipment and then damage it due to an unexpected electrical surge. It’s actually cheap insurance for your HDTV.

Hopefully, this article has helped you learn about some of the terms used and the options that you have when buying your next high definition television set.

As with so many questions in life the answer to whether you neeed to buy a HDTV now or wait longer, is that it depends. It depends on your own viewing habits and how much television you like to watch. It also depends on how much you can afford to spend.

Currently, you can view pretty much all television programming with analog TV sets, but the FCC has made it necessary for all television broadcasting companies to switch over to being able to send their TV signals in HDTV format by 2007, and that is not very far away. The problem is that analog TVs cannot receive and display HDTV or digital TV signals. So when the time arrives that all programming is being sent in digital format, what is going to happen to your old, reliable analog TV?

Well, there are conversion boxes that can be bought for between $50 – $100 that will convert the digital signal to a format that an analog TV can display. Of course, the picture and sound will not be anywhere near the quality of even normal digital TV, much less HDTV. But at least you will still be able to view TV as you always have on your analog televison set.

So back to the question at hand, should you go ahead and buy a new HDTV soon, or just go along with your old analog one for a while? Well, keep in mind that a new HDTV will cost several hundred to a few thousand dollars to buy. If you simply can’t afford that expense at this point, then maybe keeping your current TV and getting the digital to analog converter is your best bet. Or maybe you just aren’t that much of a TV viewer anyway, so when you do watch, having enhanced picture and sound is just not all that important to you. Then once again, maybe you should just get the converter box and stay with what you have.

On the other hand, there is no good reason to keep waiting much longer to buy HDTV as the prices have already fallen quite a bit. They undoubtedly will fall further, but not all that much. And there is no advanced technology available after HDTV that is on the horizon that you should be holding out for either. So for those folks who can afford buying a new HDTV television, there is no time like the present.