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What kind of big screen TV do I buy? The debate rages on!!

Many home theater enthusiasts prefer a big screen TV to the bulky projection systems. They sacrifice screen size for picture quality and space requirements. There are many types of televisions to choose from but we will cover the Plasma vs. LCD TV debate first.

Plasma TV is by far the coolest and most expensive. They are extra thin, (only a few inches) and very lightweight. They're great for small rooms or apartments since they can be hung on the wall like a picture. The superior contrast, brightness and wide viewing angle of color plasma TV's, have made them an excellent choice for viewing HDTV programming. The price of Plasma TV's has been dropping recently with prices starting at around a thousand dollars all the way up to 20K for a top of line huge plasma TV.

LCD (liquid crystal display) TV's are very similar to LCD computer monitors and offer video reproduction quality approaching that of plasma displays. LCD models generally cost less than comparable plasma models. They are extremely lightweight and thin and come in sizes from 7 inches to about 32 inches and more.

Of course as the big screen TV debate continues, we must not forget the standard CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) TV's. These deliver great picture quality and are the most affordable by screen size. The negative is that they are very heavy and bulky. That is why they are losing ground to the slimmer, lightweight Plasma and LCD TV's.

High Definition TV is becoming the new standard for TV's. The current format for television broadcasting in America, as well as much of the world, is the NTSC format. While analog NTSC may have been the format of choice for nearly 50 years, digital broadcasting is revolutionizing the broadcast industry. High definition digital television broadcasting (HDTV) provides a much higher image resolution than NTSC. While NTSC could only provide around 650 lines of information per image, HDTV offers up to 1080 lines. This allows for much more detail and clarity.