Buying an HDTV — What you want

I know what you are thinking. You looked at the title above and said, "I want a REALLY BIG TELEVISION." Don't we all, but there are certain features and specifications that you want to make sure are present whey you purchase and HDTV.

One of the most important features you want in an hdtv is a digital tuner. In fact you want a digital tuner that will handle both ATSC and QAM signals. Almost all hdtvs that have a tuner will have an ATSC capable tuner, but only about half of the televisions out have a QAM tuner. A QAM tuner is a feature you will always want to have. This particular tuner allows you to pick up free HD programming from most cable providers. That's FREE HD PROGRAMMING!!. Most cable providers have digital content that is unscrambled. You can pick up this content with a QAM tuner so you will get extra channels, not just hd, all for free (man I love that word).

As far as picture quality goes when shopping for an hdtv, the list of important features in descending order are: contrast ratio, color saturation, color accuracy, and finally resolution. Obviously I cannot cover all of these items here but you can learn about them at cnet.com's HDTV World. It is a great resource for buying your television and has probably the most comprehensive hdtv guides.