Buying A TV is not easy

LCD vs Plasma
720p vs 1080p
2HDMI vs 3 HDMI

I never thought these are the kind of decisons you have to make. I am buying a TV and I plan to do it the old fashioned way . Go to a store and "kick the tires".

I remember the time when we bought our first Tv in 1977 in India and we had no choice. I think we bought a ECTV ( company run by the Indian Govt) and I cannot tell you whats the screen size was but it was black and white. We were living in a middle class colony in Madras (now Chennai) India. As we were early adopters ( first to buy a TV) - we had a lot of company of people who would plan their visit to us after 6 p.m when the TV programs would start and it was such a novelty. Outside every TV owning house you would find crowds of people watching from outside the doorway.

My first TV when I setup home in Moscow in 1989 and it was a Panasonic imported from Denmark (At that time only foreigners living in Moscow could import foregin goods). So now I am pretty much partial to Panasonic . The 1992 set I bought still works fine in my parents house in Hyderabad India. A funny thing is when I was owup in India we had 2 TV channels and the US we were told had 100's of channels. Fast forward to today, I live in the US and subscribe to the basic TV package about 14 channels I think. I visited my parents last month in India and they have 100's of channels .

Back to my TV buying thoughts. I am seriously considering a Panasonic Plasma 50" TV ( 50PX75U) Its going on sale in Circuit City tomorrow. $2199 with a home theater and installation. For the bed room where we do our TV watching anyway I will probably go for the Panasonic 42" 42PX75U.

Both these are 720p resolution but many reviewers say that unless you look at the Tv from very enar you will never notice the difference.

I will keep you posted when I actually buy it.