Hi Pennington,
Sorry for the delay, just been unusually busy recently. Agreed your CRT (SD) has a SD tuner in it. The thing with HD broadcasting is that we to some degree still in it's infancy.
There's no freeview HD signal going through the airwaves, and a TV manufacturer wouldn't know if you'd be going with SKy or Virgin etc so wouldn't even know if you'd even need an HD tuner - A product for which there is no signal being broadcast for.
It makes little sense for the TV manufacturers at this point in time to make a
tuner now as Digital HD TV across the airwaves for free just isn't happening at the moment and not even sure if it's going to (There's a petition online somewhere trying to hassle the goverment into keeping some free frequency range/bandwidth for free HD service signals rather than selling off all the licences to all the frequencies
).
Adding an HD Digital Tuner would be an unacceptable risk and cost for a manufacturer, though I do agree all the logo's and terminology is pretty confusiong and in some cases misleading.
I'd say it's partly the responsibility of the retailer to ensure that the customer is aware of what the client needs in terms of equipment etc & setup in order to be viewing HD signals etc. This is one of the reasons you'd use a local retailer (Sevenoaks etc) over an online one, but many people choose to buy a product on the internet without getting an informed view over it.
I'd personally suggest that if you've bought your HD TV online then you must also take much of that responsibility of not having taken a face-to-face route by sacrificing the inherent value in a local retailer against the cost factor. Perhaps you did buy from a local retailer, I do not know. I don't mean this to come across the wrong way, but I find my retailer provides excellent support, informed knowledge and not once have I had finance, extra warranty, or even a sale even remotely pushed on me.
I do agree the whole subject is a minefield of logo's and acronyms etc, something which many do not understand which is also partly a fault of the whole HD terminology. 'HD Ready' I feel is an awful thing, in the sense that is suggests that the TV is high-definition and doesn't suggest that a TV with this logo may be missing a number of things you'd be expecting of a TV and there's nothing to suggest you need to look into further.
Hope this provides food for thought. If an HD freeview service gets launched, I would certainly expect to see manufacturers starting to put HD tuners into their TV's, although initially you'd probably pay a premium for a TV that does this, but that being said the Early-Adopters will pay the premium which allows the price to drop through economies of scale etc.
The TV you've got is an HDTV. That is to say it can recieve and display HD signals. Yes there's more to it, but yes you have to look into things more. The important thing is that you're happy with the image quality etc and the product seuits your needs. AT the moment no HD freeview service is being brodcast / or is even set up. Therfore having an HD tuner in a TV wouldn't be possible, after all the standards have not yet even been set to my knowledge.
Here's a useful link about the 'HD Ready' logo
Hope this post comes across ok, some of it is attributing responsibiility to you the buyer, but otherwise the rest is the minefield of acronyms and logos and in many cases lack of high-street large-retailer product knowledge and in some cases honesty.
I must also reflect that if you see a logo on something (ie, a builder you're considering has a 'Member of x or y guild of master somethings'), you'd be wise to take a closer look at what it is and the same goes for elctronics, a notorious area of confusing terms etc
Fortunately you're in the right place to ask these questions at AVForums. I found myself in a similiar position when I first got into proper hifi etc a couple of years ago, but I'm kind of niggly on research etc and did all of mine in advance.
I'd like to suggest now you're here you're in a much better position to find out about your next electronics purchase so there is good that comes from here.
At the end of the day also, isn't it about product ownership satisfaction at the end of the day? There's plenty of Pioneer owners with screens that only have a resolution of 1024x768 or 1024x1024 (widescreen with rectangle pixels in case you're wondering) who are extremely happy with their products. End of the day it's the case to Demo Demo Demo, use a reputable retailer and do your homework.
I'd still be surprised if when you get an HD source (Sky HD, £200 for a box and £10/month extra. Or Virgin Media V+ Service (£75 box, some free HD channels) that you weren't impressed. HD can be great and I'm ometimes a set can produce quality beyond it's pixels would suggest and at the end of the day it's all bout the end result and not always the spec if the spec isn't full HD.
Pennington, if there's any more questions, please ask away. I'm happy to help.
Dan