The bigger, the better – that’s the current trend in televisions – quips a dealer of televisions. We have moved on from the 20-21-inch screen size. LCD TVs in the 32-, 37-, 40- and 42-inch categories are hot selling and questions on HDTVs (high-definition televisions) dominate store enquiries. The hype on HDTV having settled pretty much – we thought it's time we talked about the hottest selling high-definition televisions and certainly our favourites. These are the Sony-KLV-32V400A/B,
Samsung-LA32A450C1, Sharp-LC-32A53M, LG-Scarlet 32LG60UR and the Panasonic-TX-32LX800. Before further details on these – a bit about HDTV.

HDTV, in simple terms, is a digital format of television broadcast offering very high resolution. HDTV also offers a purely digital audio experience. High-definition offers the best possible picture quality due to the resolution it offers. Resolution is basically the number of horizontal and vertical lines that create an image. HD video comes in three resolution flavours: 720p, 1080i and 1080p, each of which stands for the number of lines embedded within the signal. The letter describes the type of scan the television uses to display the picture. The ‘i’ stands for interlaced whereas ‘p’ indicates progressive. The lines are important because more the number of lines, higher the resolution and better the picture quality. Most of our home televisions offer only 480 lines. Doubling the lines increases the sharpness of the image.

Next up is contrast ratio. Higher the contrast ratio, better rated the television. In their mention of specs, some companies represent contrast ratio with the dynamic tag, which is usually four or five times higher than what static contrast ratio offers.

The scan is important too as it defines the number of times the lines are refreshed per second. Progressive scan doubles the number of times your television displays the image every one second in comparison to that of interlaced. While the difference between 720p and 1080i is minimal, 1080p is far superior than 720p and 1080i.