It seems almost every day someone is asking me, "What kind of TV should I buy?" or "What do you think about buying this TV?". It's not surprising that I get these question with all of the options available today. Unfortunately, this one isn't a very easy one to answer.

Let's be honest. Most people can't tell the difference between two similar TV's sitting next to each other in a store. Picture quality is so advanced now, it's really more important for the average consumer to look at other considerations when choosing a TV. Hopefully, the following suggestions and guidelines will help make the decision a little easier.

1) Understand your constraints.
How much do you want to spend? Do you have size limitations based on where you are putting your TV (in a cabinet, on the wall, size of room, etc.). What are you connecting to it (e.g. a computer or just a DVD player?). With these questions answered, you can narrow your choices.

2) Do some research.
Based on the above answers, read this article to give you an idea of the type of TV to buy. (Don't worry, it's mosly bullet points and a quick read.) If you really want to learn more, read this article instead.

You should also talk to a knowledge person. Go to a speacialty store and ask for help. It's the best way to educate yourself on terminology and get you to see what different TV pictures look like.

3) Whatever you do, buy a widescreen TV that can display a High Definition (HD) picture.

All movies are filmed in widescreen and many prime time TV shows are also shown in widescreen. Over time, all programming will be in widescreen, so if you don't buy a widescreen TV, you will lose much of your picture. Same goes for HD. Very soon everything will be broadcast in HD and if you don't have HD, it will be like having a black-and-white TV when color TVs came out. The picture quality is that different.

4) Make sure you have enough 'high quality' connections.

If you are going to hook many video sources to your TV (e.g. TiVo, DVD player, computer, video game console), make sure that you have enough 'high quality' connection to support what you need. By high quality I mean make sure that there are multiple component, DVI, or HDMI connections. These types of connections will give you the best picture.

I could go on and on with this topic, but hopefully with these few guidelines, you'll be better prepared to buy that next TV.

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