HDTV Primer ZDNet: Don't Buy an HDTV Without Reading This First.

This is a great blog post from George Ou. Here are a few of the highlights:

1. "The bottom line is that you get a lot of size for your money when choosing a projection model, but the quality can't compete with the quality of LCD flat panels."

2. "Another word of caution is that there are some really cheap smaller plasma displays that have 1024×768 resolution that might sound like a good deal but you're getting something that doesn't have square pixels. If you try to hook up a computer to it then it will look ugly and distorted making everything look fat. Any model that has a resolution of 1024×768 or less is obsolete and I would stay away from them."

3. "So for the cost of a 72" projection HDTV, you can get a 52" LCD model that has vastly superior image quality with none of the interlacing and over-scan problems."

4. "If the HDTV you're looking at purchasing doesn't have an ATSC tuner or it doesn't have HDMI or DVI input ports, then skip it. All you need is an outdoor antenna though indoor models can still allow you to receive most of the digital channels especially if you live in an area close to the broadcast towers. There's also no such thing as an "HDTV antenna" and any old antenna will work."

5. "There is zero difference in quality between the cheapest $12 HDMI to DVI cable versus the $100 gold plated "monster cable". Monster cables are a hold over from the analog era where signal leakage results in a degraded image or sound. In the digital world, a data cable either works 100% or it doesn't work at all and there is no degraded middle ground."