There is a very wide range of different televisions available all with different feature and functions. So what are the best flat screen TVs, as a general rule the better the quality of the TV and the more features it has the more expensive it will be.
Arguably the most important feature to consider is the picture quality, most of the televisions available at the moment use LCD technology which is the successor to the now defunct CRT display. LCD has meant we can now have truly flat screens rather than the almost flat screen display or the high end CRT TVs.
The first consideration should be the screen, after all that is the part you will spend most time looking at. There are different technologies available at the moment including Plasma, Rear Projection, projectors, LCD and OLED. Out of all these the most common is now the LCD, this is the type of TV we typically mean when we talk about flat screen TVs.
After the type of technology the next thing you need to decide on is the physical size of the screen which is measured in inches as standard. One thing to consider is that if you are looking to buy a widescreen (16:9) or standard (4:3) screen television. The reason for this is that screen sizes are measured from corner to corner diagonally so widescreen TVs will have a smaller overall screen area compared to the same sized screen on a standard TV.
A relatively new technology that you should know about is HD or high definition also referred to as HDTV. This is a technology that gives you a more detailed picture, where standard TVs generally display 480 vertical lines the HDTV can display 720-1080 vertical lines, this means better picture quality. To get high definition you need to choose a television that is HD ready or HD capable. You will also need a cable service that provides HD programming otherwise your television will not benefit.
A less considered factor is the screens contrast ratio, this is basically the brightest and darkest the screen can display the picture at the same time. As a general rule the higher the contrast ratio is the better the picture quality will be. The amount varies from about 600:1 all the way up to 10,000:1 and beyond, expect the ratios to increase as the technology gets better.
The resolution of the LCD screen is also worth considering especially as you can connect your computer or even games console into many TVs. The higher the resolution the TV can display the better.