Hi all,
Having just joined, I thought I would chime in where I can definitely be of help. I have done my share of home theater design and consultancy, having begun by simply wanting to make an informed TV purchase 4 years ago. The more I dug, the more I found and soon enough, it became the central preoccupation in my life.
Thus, I have waded through the morass, many times, that is maddeningly typical in purchasing a flat panel television or similar.
The AVS Forum is a great resource for information but can be daunting if you are not familiar with all the jargon. I've been a member there for a couple of years and ironically, the forum is best utilized once you've bought a display. There are innumerable owners who post their user experiences and provide tweaks, et. al.
To comment on some of the posts- It is not entirely necessary to have a built-in tuner unless you are solely an over the air viewer. A cable box or dish functions as your tuner.
As far as a simple reccomendation and a where to buy, it may be best to determine a budget and usage for your TV. If you are a cable watcher and occasionally throw in a DVD, which would be most common, I would likely steer you towards a 42" plasma, likely an EDTV set. They can be had in the thousand dollar range now. If you are looking to spend less, we can plan accordingly.
EDTV- Enhanced definition, i.e. 854 x 480 resolution.
For a 42" plasma, 1024 x 768 is considered high definition. If you view your TV from more than 7'-8' the difference in resolution is not distinguishable to the eye. More than this, many pundits feel that standard definition content, which will make up most of your viewing for at least a couple of years, as well as standard DVDs are shown in 480p or 480 lines of progressive information, so, the matching of native resolutions will produce the ideal image.
Most any new TV on the market today can display HD content whether the resolution is 854 x 480 on all the way up to 1920 x 1080. Resolution is not everything, in fact, now that "full HD" displays are here, the difference between these and their lower resolution brethren are often not discernible to the naked eye. Of course, the debate rages on, but what is irrefutable is that the "guts" of the unit tell the story more than anything.
I've owned plasmas, both ED and HD, LCD units, as well as three front projectors and have put them all through the paces so I'm happy to be of assistance where I can.
I hope this begins to help,
Dino
So, now that I've rambled ad nauseum in my first post, I will
