Flat panel televisions

I had been looking at flat panel televisions for about 12 months. I knew that the huge 36 SONY Wega was going to go anytime. So I wanted to be ready with what I wanted to purchase. Buying a new television is a special thing for the human male. Its like purchasing a car stereo when we were in high school. I can remember looking at car stereos for weeks and weeks. I knew I could only make one choice because I was limited on funds.

Well the same is relatively true now. So my first decision was between Plasma and LCD. LCD seemed like the safe choice. With everyone warning me about the glare that can been seen on a Plasma as well as the still image burn in issue, I was pretty scared off by Plasma. However LCD is more expensive. A 42" LCD will be several hundred dollars more expensive than its 42" Plasma counterpart.

So I found a 37" VIZIO LCD HDTV at Wal-Mart for $767.00. It seemed like a bargain. So I bought it and brought it home. I was excited. We went and got the HD receiver from Time Warner Cable. We hooked it all up and I was amazed. I was happy. Then I turned the TV on. There are two main reasons why VIZIO is able to sell their TV's so cheaply.

First they put the weakest and worst sounding sound system on the TV. It literally sounds like they took one speaker and stuck it in a box. The sound was terrible. Then B began to notice that when actual human beings would get really blown up close their skin began to look splotchy. This is where I learned about Contract Ratio.

Contract Ratio is probably the single most important aspect of a new flat panel TV. More so than LCD or Plasma or anything else. As it turns out the new TV I bought had an aspect ratio of 1000:1. Just as a comparison to real TV's the high end SONY flat panel TV's have an aspect ratio of 20000:1.

So I was still "happy" with the TV because it was very bright and did show HD channels. But the sound was crappy and I felt like I got ripped off. So just know what to look for when you are shopping for the next TV you purchase.