What’s the difference between plasma and LCD TVs?
There’s no clear-cut winner on picture quality. Both are wafer thin, and will hang on your wall, so let value for money be your guide. As a general rule, if you want a really big screen, say 42 inches, plasma tends to be best value. The Philips 42PF7320 42-inch plasma retails for £1,499 (www.philips.co.uk 0870 900 9070). For medium-sized and smaller screens, LCD screens are usually cheaper. The Toshiba 20VL56 (www.toshiba.co.uk 08704 424 424) retails at around £400.

If you want big screen on a small budget, consider a rear projection TV. They’re a little bulkier, but picture quality is now almost as good as LCD or plasma, and prices are lower. If you’re a real stickler for visual clarity, note that rear projection screens tend to look best in dark rooms.

Should I buy a digital television?
Not necessarily, but you need to take notice of the digital revolution. By 2012, all television will be broadcast via digital signal only. That means a standard TV will need a digital set top box, such as a Freeview receiver (around £50). If you buy an ‘integrated digital’ set, the digital tuner is built in, so no set top box is needed. Integrated telelvisions carry a magenta digital tick logo, and are referred to as “switch over ready”. If you currently receive only the five main terrestrial channels, an integrated digital television will open up channels such as BBC4 and ITV3, as long as you live in a Freeview coverage area.

Is there a difference between digital television and HD?
Yes. To watch HDTV you need a high-definition television. The Panasonic 42-inch TH42PV500 (www.panasonic.co.uk 08705 357 357) currently retails for about £2,500, but prices are expected to fall. Most televisions capable of displaying an HD picture are now labelled “HD Ready”. That means that when HD broadcasts start, you can buy an HD set top box and view the high-definition picture. Standard televisions can receive high-definition broadcasts: they just display them with standard picture quality.

DAVID MATTIN