Plus: Answers to all your flat-panel questions
Toshiba
2. Okay, I know there are two kinds of flat panels, LCD and plasma. Are there any big differences?
There are a couple, but fewer and fewer as the technologies advance. Generally speaking, LCDs are brighter than plasmas. That means LCDs can look better in rooms with lots of sunlight (you need a bright monitor to outshine all the light in a room). The trade-off is that they might suffer poor contrast in dimmer lighting, where plasmas tend to fare well.

LCDs weigh significantly less than plasmas and can be thinner - both issues to keep in mind if you plan to mount your flat panel on the wall. If you go down this road, you need to mount brackets to the wall and have enough clearance so that the TV gets proper ventilation (another issue for plasma buyers, since those monitors run hotter than LCDs). Unless you're really handy, get a pro to install it.
Sharp
Sharp
Toshiba
Toshiba
Samsung
Samsung
Panasonic
Panasonic
Sony
Sony
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.