When and if the FTC requires full time digital transmition of TV, Digital TV. All currents TV will be able to receive it via an adapter/tuner like a cable TV box, but at the current NTSC resolution of 525 interlaced lines, standard TV.
Most HDTV sets in the market at a reasonable cost less than $3000 are what they call HDTV ready with a standard NTSC tuner, (regular TV) and they can receive HDTV via an outboard tuner. This tuner can be a satelite HDTV capable, Over the air HDTV box etc. Most people with HDTV ready sets watch DVD in a progressive capable DVD player. The satelite HDTV programing is currently weak. Some markets are lucky enough to have over the air transmition of several channels. I am not in one of those.
Like Bmpnyc stated any of the new tv's can show your VHS tapes, and their internal line doublers will make them look "better". Remember the larger the TV screen the more the imperfections will show. Imagine seeing your gilfriends face through a 4X magnifying glass. As such VHS tapes are viewable through large screen TV's, but after watching a progressive scan anamorphically encoded DVD it is hard to go to VHS except for archival purposes. These DVD's give you only double the resolution of standard Tv, but about four times that of VHS. True HDTV is between three and four times as good as standard TV
Most HDTV sets in the market at a reasonable cost less than $3000 are what they call HDTV ready with a standard NTSC tuner, (regular TV) and they can receive HDTV via an outboard tuner. This tuner can be a satelite HDTV capable, Over the air HDTV box etc. Most people with HDTV ready sets watch DVD in a progressive capable DVD player. The satelite HDTV programing is currently weak. Some markets are lucky enough to have over the air transmition of several channels. I am not in one of those.
Like Bmpnyc stated any of the new tv's can show your VHS tapes, and their internal line doublers will make them look "better". Remember the larger the TV screen the more the imperfections will show. Imagine seeing your gilfriends face through a 4X magnifying glass. As such VHS tapes are viewable through large screen TV's, but after watching a progressive scan anamorphically encoded DVD it is hard to go to VHS except for archival purposes. These DVD's give you only double the resolution of standard Tv, but about four times that of VHS. True HDTV is between three and four times as good as standard TV