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Choosing a flat screen TV

Oh the many choices when it comes to choosing the right flat screen TV for yourself. Don't make the mistake many others before you have done and buy the prettiest looking one available. Do your research, price match, be patient, and take these following tips to heart:

Tip #1
Just because the TV you like is a flat screen TV does not mean that it is a flat panel TV.


-What does this mean? It means that a lot of TVs on the market demonstrate a wonderfully flush and flat front to them but they are still a projection TV in the back. It's kind of like a mullet... business in the front party in the back, but this time the party in the back means you have about 100 extra pounds of TV to deal with and anywhere from 14"-36" deeper TV than you bargained for behind that wonderful screen.

Tip @2
Don't buy your TV online without having seen the actual product.
-Why? Because there is usually a reason it is priced so low and so readily available and easy for you to find online. It may be the size and style you are looking for, but it may be seriously lacking in smaller quality items such as available inputs, screen refresh rate, contrast ratio and more. My advice, go to a store or two and check out the TV you have found online and see how it really looks and feels. You might be surprised about its actual quality... or lack there of.

Tip #3
Be patient.
-That TV that you must have may very well drop a few hundred bucks by next month as the stores gear up for their Christmas specials, Labor Day sales, etc. A helpful internet site to check the price of a singular unit over the past year is www.nextag.com. You can track what the TV was selling for and its price jumps and falls since it was put into production. Also on this line of thinking, you can play stores against each other. Best Buy & Circuit City for example both claim that they will beat each others prices and take off an extra 10% from their competitors prices. So wait until one of them does and grab yourself a steal of a price.

Tip #4
Buy High Definition.
-Come February 2009 all TVs will have to be able to receive High Definition content. This is a mandate by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). What this means to you is that your Standard Definition TV won't be able to receive any over the air content without an addition unit to dumb down the signal to your TV. You'll have to pay for that unit eventually, so why not just buy a TV with a built in HD tuner? So should I buy 720p, 1080i, 1080p output you ask? My experience


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