Well I've started to go into the full swing of Television shopping. There seems to be a dazzling array of options out there, and its tough because I'm not really sure how much I should spend. So I figure if I post my options, one of a couple things might happen.

By typing out the options that I have, I can more easily weight the pros and cons of my potential decision.
If someone is actually reading this and has an opinion they can post a comment saying what they think.

So here are the options I can choose from.

Basic CRT Tube Television, No HD capabilities
CRT Tube Television with HD capabilities
Small LCD Television (26-27")
Larger LCD Television (30-32")

Option 1 The cheapest option and one which makes the best fiscal sense is the simplest, and cheapest option. Unfortunately, this option also lacks the features of future television viewing. HD capability is all the rage at the moment - and while I don't have an HD source just yet I don't doubt that I'll get one in the near future.

An option like this will cost up to $500 for a TV up to 32" in size. The TV would be a behemoth as any CRT TV greater than 27" in size is way more than a single person can lift and move.

Option 2 The next option is to get one of the few HDTV enabled CRT TVs. While more expensive than the non-HDTV CRTs, these TVs give the most future video viewing pleasure for the buck. While not as sleek and sexy as the LCD options, this is significantly easier on the pocket book. There is also a hidden advantage to the CRT HDTV in that LCDs still cannot display true black colour very well. But CRT TVs do not suffer from the same problem.

This option will cost roughly $1000 for a 30-32" TV. Less is possible with a 27" model from Toshiba. There aren't a lot of options in this category, but they tend to be cheaper than their LCD cousins.

Option 3 Option 3 is where we get to the fancy stuff - the sleek, sexy LCD monitor. As an aside, I don't really want to consider plasma screens as they are mostly offered in screensizes larger than my living room really justifies, and to my knowledge they are largely affected by image burn-in. So that leaves LCD technology which is really starting to take over it seems. I'm really really tempted to get one. The price on these beauties are really starting to come down which means I can possibly afford to pick one up. This is category one - the smaller LCD TV ranging up to the 26-27" range of television. My major concern is that some of the cheaper LCDs may not have the picture quality to justify purchasing them even at their cheaper price. The more expensive brands seem to be a lot better, but they're also rather expensive.

The price points for these TVs range quite a bit, but I've seen TVs reasonably cost in the $1000-$1200 range.

Option 4 Oh these are sweet. 30-32" of awesome screen space, but very thin and light in comparison to comparably sized CRT screens. The downside is the price. So the question is ... are these worth the high higher sticker price?

The lowest price I've seen these come is $1300 and they go up well over $2000. You're paying a lot for brand name and quality of the LCD screen I think. But its hard to say - I need to look at a lot more of these especially since if I pay for something here, I'm really looking for the screen to last me a looooong time.

Other Considerations My living room really isn't big enough to house a screen larger than 32" so that's what I'm looking at. A smaller screen might be a better option if it carries a nice lower price tag since then I can make it a secondary TV when I move to a place that can house a larger screen. I want something of quality that will last several years, wherever it is housed.

Thoughts? There's a lot more running through my mind with this issue, but that's kinda what I've got so far. The world of TVs is a vast and confusing place I'm finding. Ugh.

Heraldk