Excellent Flat Screen TV's

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Story Published: Nov 14, 2008 at 5:56 PM PST

By Heather Reese

Big, flat-screen TVs—both LCDs and plasmas—are usually hot sellers around the holidays. Considering the economy, this year might be different. But the good news is prices are expected to be 20 percent to 30 percent lower than a year ago.

What's your best bet? A plasma? An LCD? Consumer Reports, which tests some 150 TVs a year, says each has its advantages.

Plasmas give you a bigger screen for the money. And they usually deliver deeper blacks and better contrast. The 60-inch Pioneer PDP-6020FD has the deepest blacks testers have ever seen on a plasma TV. When you're watching darker movies, not only does it show all the detail in the dark areas, but instead of looking a bit grayish it keeps them nice and deep black.

But that Pioneer is expensive—$5,000. The $3,200 Samsung PN58A550 is almost as big and also delivers an excellent picture. Smaller plasmas can save you even more. The highly rated 50-inch Panasonic TH-50PZ800U goes for $2,400.

As for LCDs, Consumer Reports says they generally deliver brighter images, making them a better choice for a brightly lighted room. But most LCDs have a limited viewing angle. As you move off to the side, they tend to deteriorate in picture quality. And fast-moving images tend to look blurry. To help minimize that problem, some LCDs have a special feature called 120-hertz technology. The 52-inch Samsung LN52A750 has it and is one of Consumer Reports' top-rated LCDs. It costs $2,800.

Consumer Reports says if you're willing to scale back on the size of the big-screen TV you're considering, you can save hundreds of dollars—even more than a thousand. While that 52-inch Samsung costs $2,800, a 47-inch Vizio that earned high ratings in Consumer Reports tests costs less than half that. It's the Vizio model VO47LF for $1,300.

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