HD TV: Essential Toshiba tech

HD TV, or high definition television, to give it its full name, has come of age: there's now a myriad of machines capable of outputting gorgeous video and crispy sound for you to enjoy from the comfort of your sofa, and plenty of competing technologies within them. Read on and we'll break down which to look out for, and the best models, if you're thinking of making the pixel packed jump for the first time.

3D TV
3D TV can sound like a challenge to set up and pipe through, but it couldn't be simpler: check out our guide and you'll get bite size breakdowns of everything involved, and what it all means. Then when you're done, meet the Toshiba REGZA WL768, the company's flagship 3D TV line, which comes with 3D tech exclusive to Toshiba. We're talking dynamic brightness adjustment and upscaling of 3D video on the fly.

Of course, 3D TVs are sterling 2D tellies as well: our tutorial here explains all the crucial kit inside the WL768 which makes regular video sing too.

Internet TV
Don't just rely on Blu-ray boxes and Freeview to pipe through TV shows and movie to your HD TV. Toshiba's latest WL and VL series TVs come with an internet connection so you can hop onto your home network and play digital video files from any PC or laptop. Setting it up is a piece of cake, but in case you're feeling hungry, here are the instructions. For downloaders and laptop watchers, it's the ultimate in convenience. In addition you can get access to integrated online services such as YouTube.

Blu-ray boxes
If you don't subscribe for your TV and aren't in a Freeview HD region yet - or even if you are - your best bet for glorious full HD visuals is a Blu-ray player. Blu-ray players can pump out movies at a massive 1920x1080 resolution, putting millions of pixels in front of your peepers every second.

For all the basics on Blu-ray, be sure to check out our beginner's guide, but know that even entry level Blu-ray players come armed with extra tech to take advantage of. From internet connections for Blu-ray extra features to USB memory stick playback and crystal clear surround support, you can get the skinny in all of this in our advanced guide.