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Why You Should Not Buy that $699 Flat Panel This Holiday

Christmas is coming and numerous TV brands plan to unload truckloads full of $599 and $699 flat panels this holiday season. But beware; all is not as it seems to be according to David Berman, Director of Training and Public Relations of Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA). I agree that consumers need to understand the difference between 720p and 1080p, but I don't think anyone is getting screwed if they buy a 42" or larger 720p flat panel for under $699.

According to Berman, these TVs may look and feel like the real deal. But what salespeople at Circuit City, Best Buy and Wal-Mart won't tell you is that these models fall down on performance, reliability and warranties. Most shockingly, many of the TVs that are being presented as High-Definition (HD) aren't even compatible with most HD programming. HDTV in its best accepted standard has a pixel count of 1920 X 1080, producing a 1080p picture with 2,073,000 pixels. That's techno-speak for a drop-dead gorgeous, lifelike picture. Many of the TVs being dumped this holiday season are limited to 1366 X 768, producing a picture with approximately 1,000,000 pixels. That's less than half the pixel clarity of a true HDTV and only 8% of all HD programming comes across in this format.

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Posted by | Tue, Nov 20, 2007 - 11:54 AM