New TV

Though they do not carry Sony LCD televisions, NewEgg.com usually has the best prices on most electronics. Many items also have free shipping.

I saved $100 on a Samsung 24" monitor from them compared to Best Buy and the shipping was included. Exact same model.

Other than Sony, decent brands include the aforementioned Samsung, Toshiba, Panasonic, Philips, etc.


When you shop, look for high contrast ratio above 2000:1 and a short refresh time under 8ms. Under 6ms is better. The higher contrast ratio will allow black to be displayed extremely dark instead of looking washed-out. You can find contract ratios as high as 10K and 15K

The refresh rate controls how much ghosting is apparent in an action scene or other fast camera work.

You want a minimum of two HDMI inputs for future purchases if you don't already own equipment using these outputs. A PC input, either VGA or DVI can be used for viewing on the computer. Most come standard with a host of external input jacks that you can hook a variety of equipment up to.


It should have a ATSC/NTSC/QAM tuner. The latter will allow viewing unscrambled digital cable signals. I found over 50 channels on my cable network that are unadvertised (for whatever reason) while viewing in digital cable mode. Mostly music, but still several showing sports among others.

Do your homework and don't rush the buy.

AVSForum.com. More info than you'll ever need. Also, do price matches at BB. I think the only thing in the store they will not price match is product from the cell department (for some reason Jawbone is overpriced there and they won't discount). Finally, what are you doing for sound? TV speakers? If not, you have the chance to jump into the black hole of confusion known as HDMI and all of their revisions of specs.

Samsung and Sony are good brands in this price range.

If you could save up the money, you could buy one of those bars that uses psychoacoustics to create a surround sound effect. Elegant and gives you surround sound (in its own way).