Let’s face it. The family wants an Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3 this Holiday, and you need a new TV to handle all that HD Ready horsepower. For some of you Playstation fans, you may want to start with the TV; Playstations 3’s are scarce if you haven’t heard. Some of you have heard about this Blu-ray or HD-DVD thing and want a piece of that action.  And what about this HDTV thing?  Well, whatever your motivation, getting the family an HDTV can be a bit mind numbing.

The industry is pushing technology so fast that, to one degree or another, we ALL will need a new TV eventually. In fact Digital Televsion is already being force fed to the US through legislation.  That will make every TV that is incapable of receiving a digital signal go black overnight. There's a good reason to get going if you were on the fence before.

In spite of this revelation, you might not need the latest and greatest, but rather what is late and great enough for YOU. The purpose of this article is to show you what is available today so you can decide what is “enough” and what is “too much”. Being forced to change your TV to pick up digital signals is no fun, but getting there on your own can be an entertaining experience.

High Definition…Defined…

So what is HDTV anyway? Simply put, High Definition Television is the combination of television, signal, and recording that provides you an image quality of 720 or more lines of resolution. We’re focusing on the television aspect today but I’ll talk about the others later in this article.

In order for you to enjoy the splendour that is High Definition, you need a High Definition TV. Trying to do so without one is like trying to listen to the radio without…well…a radio.

Sizing it Up

The first thing to consider is size. This decision will go a long way in helping you to decide what to buy. There are objective ways choosing your screen size, taking viewing distance into consideration. But size is greatly a subjective matter, and the screen you should get is the screen you desire. Do you want to feel like you’re in an IMAX theatre every time you sit in your living room or not?

Usually a good place to start is about the screen size divided by three, or multiplying your viewing distance in feet by three to get the screen size. That will give you a starting point for the distance in feet you should roughly be sitting away from your TV. There are other more scientific methods, but this seems to work well for the majority of people that don’t do much math and for regular viewing. This will also help you eliminate some options because some simply don't come in the size you need.

One big thing to consider is the actual source material you’ll be watching. If you plan to simply hook up a rabbit ear antenna to your set so you can catch the local analogue channels, from 3 feet away, perhaps a 65-inch DLP may not be the right thing for you.

Now let’s go kick some tires…err…screens!