[walkerbe]

What do I look for in buying a 55 to 60 inch TV < I want quality yet looking for under 1200.00 is that possible?

[JoshNichols]

For a TV that big in the price range you've specified you'd probably want to look at getting a plasma. You might find an LCD for that price but it wouldn't be the best quality, LCD's are generally better at 46 inches and below, its only recently they have started to develop bigger LCD's.

If you were willing to cut down the size a bit I'd recommend looking at a Sony HDTV. They have amazing quality, both normal LCD and LED, but they are fairly expensive. Sony has the Bravia engine to maximize the viewing picture quality. It performs way better than any other brand in contrast ratio, colour reproduction, screen brightness and reduces motion blur effectively.

I have a 46 inch Sony Bravia 1080p LED LCD HDTV and I'd recommend it to anyone.

If your not sure on what you want, try and decide on the basics. Screen size, LCD or Plasma etc... and then go window shopping. Don't let the sales people confuse you with all their fancy talk when they are explaining the specs of a TV.

The main things you should look for in the TV are:

Contrast ratio - refers to the brightest and darkest light values a display can produce at the same time. LCD's have a harder time dealing with the dark areas of a display. The higher the contrast ratio the better. Keep in mind LED's handle dark areas better than normal LCD's as well.

Aspect Ratio - refers to the screen width and height. Most flat screens come in 16:9 (Wide screen) which is what you want.

Video Inputs - Depending on what you want to connect to the TV. Look for HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), DVI (Digital Video Interface), VGA (Video Graphics Array, if you want to connect it to a computer), and S video or component video.

Resolution - I'd recommend looking at 1080p screen resolution. You could probably get away with 720p, depending on the screen size you decide on, but try and get a 1080p, especially if you go for a bigger TV.

Also if you're planning on watching TV, make sure it has a built in HDTV tuner so you don't need to get a Digital set top box or anything.

Any more questions or if you need to know anything specific, don't be afraid to ask. I'll keep an eye out for your next post.