"I've never heard of that company, but look how cheap it is!"

You can get a great deal on that Polaroid panel, but you will probably end up regretting it in the long run. It might look fine for a while, but those cheep-o sets aren't exactly made to last. If you scour the ads, you can probably get a name brand panel for the same price.

"I probably have the right cables, and if I don't, they probably come with it"

That old yellow, red and white bastard you've been using for years just isn't going to cut it anymore. If you want high-def content you need high-def cables. HDMI is always going to be the best, but component cables—they look a lot like your old three prong cable, but they have three extra connectors—will work just fine, too if you run out of HDMI ports. And don't shell out for the cables at the big box stores, either. The same HDMI cable you would get at Best Buy for $50 is easily attainable on the Internet for less than half of that.

"I hooked it up to my regular cable box, why doesn't it look any better?"

It's amazing, at least to me, how many people just expect their old cable box to crank out HD content. You have to have an HD box, preferably a DVR, and it needs to be set up properly. It sounds simple, but it's one of the most common problems I get asked about.

"Hey, some of the channels aren't in HD!"

This Christmas my uncle got an HDTV as a gift from his family and called me at 11 AM to tell me that it was broken. "Some of the channels look great, but most of them look all grainy and crappy." They sure do, and they're going to for a while until the cable providers step up their HD game. It's especially noticeable with a 1080p display, which makes that standard def, 480p stuff look like garbage.

"I've heard LCD is the best so I'm going to get that for sure"

The debate about what kind of panel you should get can go on forever, and it does out there on the internet. But when it comes down to it, there really is no one clear winner when it comes to TV types. Here is a short breakdown:

Plasma: Great for watching sports since it doesn't get the motion trails LCD gets when there's fast motion on the screen. They're great for excessively big panels that would cost much more in LCD. They're bad for gamers since they can get burn in from life meters and other static images. They're not great in the long run as they lose brightness over the years as you watch them.

LCD: They're bright and have tons of contrast. Picture is sharp and cirsp. They put off less heat than plasmas and also don't lose brightness nearly as fast. It's the most common format at the moment so they're easy to come by.

DLP: Much cheaper than the other two, especially at bigger sizes. Once it dies, it usually only requires the replacement of one $150-$200 light bulb to get back in action. There's no burn-in during long gaming sessions. They don't have the same brightness or contras ratios as the others, so they work better in darker rooms. They're a lot bigger and heavier.