By Adrian Whittle  

Getting the home theater room set up right is just as important as getting the right home theater components but in most cases you can't change the room much. It may be your lounge or a special room but you are hardly going to knock out a wall just so that you can watch movies. Thus it is important to make sure that the home theater components fit into the size of the room and the existing layout. One such component of the system might be an HDTV or high definition television. There are virtually hundreds of different makes and models of HDTV's so what do you go for and what considerations should you make so that it fits into your lounge or living room ? This article will help you decide.

The first thing to consider is the type of technology that is used to create the display. There are three types : Flat panel, projection and CRT technology

Flat panel technology - Plasmas and LCD

Flat panel technology is all the rage at the moment. Flat screens can attach to the wall so that you can save space in a small room. There are two types of flat screens that are popular at the moment. Those are Plasma and LCD. Both types have pros and cons. They have superior picture resolution to other types of HDTV s. However plasma TV's can suffer from burn in, whereby a repetitive image will leave a ghosting image after some time. This is supposed to be getting better with the newer models. LCD's have a limited viewing range before the picture becomes distorted.

Projection technology - Front and Rear Projector systems

There are two types of projection systems available : Front projection and rear projection.

Front projection is probably the most expensive HDTV you can get. It consists of a projector and a separate screen across the room. You would need a large room to fit this system in or maybe a room dedicated to your home theater system. With this system you can get large screens that have great pictures but the system is hard to set up and requires regular maintenance and tweaking to get the best picture.

Rear projection is a screen built into the HDTV. This is a considerably cheaper option. A rear projector system can be quite thin if it is using a micro projector but also suffers from limited viewing angles.

CRT Technology

The cathode ray tube technology is the one that most people are familiar with. Essentially they use a tube that makes them quite bulky but would be no bigger than a standard TV. In general a CRT HDTV would have a great range of color and a superior contrast ratio to the other types of technologies. The screen sizes are often smaller than the other technology types and the picture resolution is lower.

Selecting the best HDTV ultimately comes down to choice. If money and space are no object then a front projector system is your best bet. After that is comes down to how you prioritize the amount of money you want to spend, where the HDTV will go and what you plan to do with it (watch TV, watch movies or play games).