by Mary Snyder

Created on: June 12, 2008

Let's face it, most people do not know the differences in the televisions of today. What you should know before you buy one is this:

SDTV is Standard Definition Television. These televisions have no special HDTV programming.They still have a great picture and can do the trick for you. While they are somewhat less expensive than the HDTV sets.

HDTV is High Definition Television. These sets have a sharper clearer picture and super high resolution.

Plasma Televisions use a Phosphor based electronic display which gives a great picture, but can leave a permanent ghost like appearance on the screen with prolonged use of a menu bar or other elements.

OLED Televisions are Organic Light Emitting Diode sets. These have a great picture, are very slim and use less electricity. But at this time are very expensive.

You should be able to decide at this ppoint which would be the best for you.

Now that you have narrowed down what you want, The next step would be to shop around. When looking for a big purchase like this, it really pays to look. The thing to watch for is sales. Many stores run sales on their televisions year round, others only towards a major holiday. When this writer shopped for her set, I saved about $550.00. How? Well the store had advertised a set for one price and they did the price match. So I found the same set and it was $300.00 cheaper. So the ad and I went back to the original store and pointed this out. They gave me the difference, plus twelve months same as cash, plus all the cords and the like needed to go with the HDTV set, a cleaning kit and $50.00 credit for finding the ad!

I mentioned that there are additional cords that you need for your HDTV, there are, your sales person should automatically recommend them and if not ask! This cord gives you the connectivity to the HDTV quality picture that you desire along with programming from your cable company. You will need to contact them and they will either by phone or service call come and help you set it up.

Our cable company came and programmed it so that we did get the best picture from our set. It just does not automatically appear. Many people think that when they purchase these televisions that they can take them home, pull them from the box and plug them in and it's there..not so with HDTV's.You may get a distorted or blurry picture at first. This leaves the buyer confused and angry. So be aware and shop carefully. One last tip, ask questions until you feel comfortable about the answers.

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