HDTV Best Price Blog

We already knew this was coming, but now we have actual pics that give a better sense of its scale. Philips introduced its new Cinema 21:9 TV with a wider-than-wide-screen display at a press event in London.

The Super Bowl is one of the must-watch TV events of the year, and it can be a complete viewing experience. On The Early Show on Tuesday, CNET TV Senior Editor Natali Del Conte presented super ways to make watching the big game as good as it can be for the serious living-room fan, showcasing some high-tech gadgets providing premiere ways to watch. She also showed those who don't want to purchase anything how to make the best of what they already have: The serious splurge: Panasonic 65-inch Premiere This model is the Ferrari of televisions, and it only began shipping last week. It is sold only through really high-end retailers, and it cannot yet be ordered online. It has a professional studio-quality monitor and the richest black detail of any TV on the market. The plasma technology offers clear motion reproduction, deeper blacks, and a wider viewing angle. Price: $9,995 There is no CNET review yet for this model. The more affordable: Vizio 37-inch television This model is not only affordable for a flat-panel TV, it gets great reviews from technology sites and magazines. It has accurate gray-scale and primary colors. This model also has one of the most important things that you should always look for in an HDTV--more than one HDMI port. This one has three, in fact, as well as one PC output. If you are looking for a solid and advanced LCD at a decent price, this is it. Price: $730

The displays of the world are getting wider. For those of us who work, this is not progress. Sure, wide-screen computer screens look cool, but in the real world of working on laptops, a wide-screen display is an ergonomic step backwards. Before I slam the move to wide-screen computers, I will gladly admit that for entertainment content, wide-screen works. Our eyes are side-by-side, after all, and having a story unfold in a way that more closely respects how we see gives a more engrossing, absorbing experience. Wide-screen plasma and LCD television sets make sense, as do CinemaScope movie theaters. But when we have work to do, the fact that our eyes are set up to spot a herd of jackals approaching us over the plain becomes irrelevant. For most people, the world of work is in portrait mode, and wide-screen displays offer scant benefits. Like reading a page of text or a book, most Web sites are set up with strong vertical orientation. That works for text-based material, since wide lines of text, longer than about 60 characters, become hard to read (the reader has a hard time finding the beginning of the next line).

Despite all the times we've written about how 1080p just isn't that noticeable, especially at small screen sizes, it's becoming a moot point. Just about every LCD is 1080p these days, and with models like the Vizio VO32LF, the price gap between 720p and 1080p is negligible. In fact, this 32-inch LCD replaces the 720p VO32L we reviewed earlier in Vizio's lineup, and costs the same at $599 list. The hallmark of our VO32L review was the display's accurate color, due in part to the ability to adjust the picture settings and particularly color temperature. The 1080p version improves upon that color accuracy, ditching the greenish tinge we noted in darker areas. When you add in decent black levels, the Vizio VO32LF is among the better small-screen flat-panels we've tested. But those test results have nothing to do with its 1080p native resolution. Read the full review of the Vizio VO32LF