When selecting components for your home theater, you will come to a point when you must decide on which type and size of television you will need for the best possible viewing experience. With the dizzying array of TV's on the market today selecting the right set can be confusing and frustrating. This guide will attempt to remove the confusion so you can make the right decision on your new TV.

Unless you have lots of money to spend, what you do not want to do is buy the latest technology. The great thing about the constant introduction of new technology is that the older generation of TV sets are heavily discounted to make room for the new sets. This has been going on for several years and, with a little study and shopping, you can find a fantastic TV for about half of the price it was selling for just one year ago!

There are basically three types of television sets that you should consider for your home theater. The three types of televisions are plasma, LCD and LED. There are also rear projection sets available, but these are thicker and bulkier than the other three types. With the recent drastic price reductions on the thinner sets, it no longer makes sense to get a rear projection TV when you are just saving a few dollars.

Plasma televisions often provide the best quality when it comes to picture. Their designs make them ideal for watching movies formatted for wide screen viewing, and they have a much larger viewing area than traditional televisions. They also come in a wide variety of sizes in order to adapt to many types of home theater needs. With Plasmas TV's you need to make sure, if you pause playback, that you do not leave the image on the screen for a long time, as you can burn in an image on a plasma screen. While these screens used to be prohibitively expensive, the prices have fallen dramatically in the past year to the point they are not much more than LCD televisions of the same size.

LCD televisions are the most common and the current sets have made great strides in overcoming some of the drawbacks of the LCD technology. Early sets did not have sufficient contrast and image remnants could be seen in dark portions of the screen. Also fast motion was not smooth since the screen was not refreshed fast enough. The newest sets have excellent contrast ratios (although still not nearly as good as plasma) and 120 Hz refresh rates that provide much smoother fast motion playback. These TVs are also available in much larger sizes than before, so plasma is not your only choice for very large screens.

LED televisions are really LCD televisions with LED backlights. This noticeably increases the brightness of the screen and also allows the screen to be much thinner. Many of the newer LED screens are only 1.5 inches thick! Since this is a very recent technology the prices are highest on this type of television, but the prices have been falling rapidly and you may find a great deal on one of these sets if you spend some time shopping.

Whatever you end up selecting, make sure it is capable of 1080p HD resolution and can connect with components using the latest type of cable, which is called HDMI. If you go for an LCD or Plasma set, you will be able to save a lot over the cost of an LED. If you are looking for a very large set, above 50 inches, you can find plasma sets on sale for less than half the cost of the same size LED set.

Alan Gardner has been writing articles on many diverse subjects for over a year now. Although he specializes in diet, fitness and weight loss, you can also check out his latest website at Philadelphia Plastic Surgery which includes an overview of Philadelphia Facelift options.