HDTV will be compatible with the digital TV signals that are going to be the norm once the analog to digital switchover takes place early next year. Make sure that the television you buy has HDMI input. This is the one-stop-shop cable that gives you both high-quality high definition video and digital stereo and surround sound, making for a better quality home theater experience, not to mention less cable clutter.
HDMI also enables certain TV features such as video up scaling (a feature on televisions and A/V receivers that upgrades standard TV quality to HD quality); you'll want as many HDMI inputs as possible on your TV so that you can plug in all your state-of-the-art components, from cable boxes and DVD players to video game consoles.
A television with "HDMI 1.3,' is the most up-to-date version and can enable your TV to play the latest video technologies such as Deep Color and audio processing formats such as DTS Master Audio or Dolby HD (of course, you'll also need a television that's capable of showing this stuff and a surround sound home-theater setup to maximize HDMI 1.3). Now, to complicate matters further, not all versions of HDMI 1.3 are created equal, which is why even the HDMI association recommends looking for features -- Deep Color, DTS Master Audio, etc -- rather than HDMI version number .
Alternatively, you can connect these various devices via component video connections, but it's not always the same quality and it means you still have to find a way to connect the audio (via optical, digital audio, or traditional red-and-white cord audio connections). For anything older, such as that VCR you're still using, you'll likely connect via composite video or the slightly better S video connections, both of which are also on most TVs today . To truly enjoy HDTV, it should be capable of displaying in at least 720p resolution, which is the minimum HD resolution.
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