Hi Setanta,
I am also shopping for a TV and have come up against the same problem as yourself.
I looked at the Sharp Model you are looking at. (32P50) This is on sale at the moment in Power City for €1149 plus a free DVD player!, so the price is good. The guy I spoke to in DID with regard to this model said it is not HD ready, but HD compatible. I dont know the full technical jargon on this, but the jist ofwhat he told me was that when HD did come in, that you might not get a full size picture on the screen. I am not technical, so I don't know what that would entail, but anyway I decided not to go for that model on the strength of that.
The other model I looked at was LG 32L55. In Power City, they told me this was HD ready, the guy in DID said he wasnt sure, but it said on LG website that it was, but they had not advertised it as such, and finally the guy in Curry's said that this model was definitely not HD ready and that I would have to go for the newer model up from this for HD ready. So, three different answers from three different retailers.
I also looked at the Komplett website, which said both TV's (Sharp & LG) are HD ready. By the way, the next LG model up from the one I looked at was retailing at €1,499 in Curry's but only €1,299 on Komplett. So there are also large price variations to be had.
Venturing out again tomorrow to look at these things, sure I will be an expert by the time I have finished.