The ultimate in TV.(Buyers Guide)

The TV landscape has changed dramatically in recent years, giving you the luxury and the challenge of unprecedented choice. Today's market offers everything from flat-panel plasma TVs that can be mounted on a wall to thin LCD table-top displays, wide-screen projection sets, and familiar picture-tube TVs in new sizes and shapes. Each has pros and tons, and there are vast differences in price. The main TV types now on the market are: Direct-view TVs. The familiar picture-tube sets containing CRTs (cathode-ray tubes),

Rear-projection TVs. Big-screen sets that beam images on to a screen from behind. The images are generally created by three small CRTs, making for a bulky cabinet. Newer, slimmer versions use an alphabet soup of technology--LCD (liquid-crystal display), DLP (digital light processing), or LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon)--to create the images.

LCDTVs, Like flat-panel computer displays, these thin sets have a backlight and thousands of red, green, and blue pixels that open or shut to let light through and create colorful images.

Plasma TVs. Flat-panel, big-screen TVs with thousands of red, green, and blue pixels that work somewhat like fluorescent lights, resulting in noticeably bright images.

The TV guide (below) gives a thumbnail sketch of each type to help you choose among them. Detailed product reports, starting on page 21, offer in-depth information and Ratings of more than 100 TVs, including 48 HD sets.

While new technology is appealing, it has drawbacks. Because the new TVs haven't been on the market long, they haven't established a track record for reliability. Of the four TV types covered in this section, we have a repair history only for direct-view sets and CRT-based rear, projection TVs--both known quantities with proven reliability. Also, because new technologies by definition aren't mature, they may not have reached their performance potential.

Keep in mind that newer technologies tend to start out high-priced and are likely to become cheaper over time as sales increase and economies of scale kick in. LCD and plasma TVs are still expensive, as are some of the newer types of rear-projection sets using LCD and DLP technologies. You're likely to see some price decreases this year, but don't be surprised if prices continue to rail for another year or two--perhaps precipitously for plasma and LCD sets in particular.