by Jon Price

Created on: November 18, 2008   Last Updated: December 17, 2008

Buying a new television can be quite a headache for most people. And since February 2009 marks the date where all broadcast networks will officially stop their over-the-air broadcasts, there's a lot of confusion out there. Words like HD, LCD, plasma, tuner, HDMI, inputs all seem like some sort of strange, sci-fi novel gone crazy. But the fact is, buying a new television doesn't have to be such a nightmare - in fact, it can be pretty fun! So read on and hopefully most of your questions will be answered.

Plasma VS. LCD

There are two main types of High Definition televisions out there: Plasma and LCD. Both of these have to do with the way in which the images are displayed. And historically there was quite a price difference between the two. However, due to advancements in technology, the price difference isn't so bad.

The term "LCD" stands for Liquid Crystal Display. LCD works by separating the colors red, green and blue through prisms and then converging the colors and projecting the image. Plasma screens, however, are basically made up of thousands of pixels each filled with Xenon gas in a plasma state. Inside each bubble there are three cavities - blue, green and red. When an electrical current hits the pixels, whatever information contained in that current is projected onto the screen.

There are inherent advantages and disadvantages to each type of television. One downfall of plasma is that since it's made up of so many individual pixels, if one pixel burns out then it can never be replaced. But, since Plasma screens are made up of so many individual pixels, rather than a series of prisms (like LCD), the picture is generally sharper and more clear.

HD vs. HD Ready

When television manufacturers says that a television is "HD Ready", they mean that the television is ready to accept an HD signal, but has no means to decode that signal itself. This means that the only way for this television to display in HD is if there is a separate converter box doing the work for it - like a HD Digital Cable box from you cable company or a BlueRay DVD player.

An HD television, on the other hand, has an HD tuner already installed in it. So if there are local television stations that are broadcasting in HD already, you may be able to watch those channels in high definition without the need for an HD Cable box. Also, some cable companies broadcast HD signals over their regular cable line and tv's with an HD tuner would be able to decode these as well.

Inputs!

Nearly all of these new HD

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