Best Flat Screen TVs

When looking for an HDTV, a Flat Panel is hard to beat. Flat-panel HDTVs have the clear advantage of being, well, flat. They take up far less space and look great mounted on the wall.
LCD or Plasma
Previously, the choice between LCD HDTV & Plasma HDTV was easy. LCD was best for small screen sizes, and for anything over 32-inches, plasma was the answer. As LCD manufacturing has ramped up better, LCD panels have become available in larger sizes at lower prices, and the choice is no longer quite so clear. The arguments made by each side in favor of their technology tend to get very technical, and they can all be traced back to the completely different ways LCD and plasma TV technology works.
LCD is a better choice now because of the wide availability of full 1080p resolution sets and the incredible strides in picture quality that technology has made. You will usually have to pay more for a 1080p LCD than for a 720p plasma of the same size, but we think the extra cost is worth it. While plasma does offer a great picture with fantastic color and contrast, we think its higher power consumption and lower resolution makes plasma HDTVs less desirable than the latest generation of LCDs.
Screen Burn-in: One complaint about plasma technology has been that still images left on the screen can burn in and leave a ghost image. This was problematic especially for things like video games which tend to keep a stationary score counter on the screen, or sports on TV that tend to keep a box up with scores and stats. In recent years the major plasma manufacturers have introduced new technology to prevent this from happening, and burn-in is no longer a real issue in our view.
In screens larger than 40 inches, get as much resolution as you can afford–in most cases, this means stepping up to a 1080p set. There are great 1080i sets available (from Hitachi in particular) that offer a comparable picture for most viewing experiences. At sizes smaller than 40 inches, few people can see the difference between a 1080p set and a 720p set, so 720p is the more cost-efficient resolution.
Another argument you might hear in favor of 1080p is that buying a full 1080p set will future-proof you to a new standard. But how long do you expect a TV to last? Given the investment that broadcasters have made in the current 1080i signal standard, it’s unlikely they would be switching to a new standard again within the life of your HDTV.