Let's say you have around $2,500 to spend on a new high-definition widescreen television monitor. If you plan to put it in a small room, you'd be hard pressed to do better than the Sony KV-34XBR910 34-inch direct-view set that we reviewed in the November 2003 issue of Home Theater. In a big room, however, you need a big screen, and most big-screen HDTVs are more costly than your budget will allow.

If there's one thing that reviewing TVs as a profession has taught me, it's that there's a tremendous amount of really bad TV on during normal business hours (i.e., the middle of the day). It makes me glad that I have a job. At least I can argue that my job requires me to watch this crap while I critique new displays.

Judging by mainstream press coverage, you'd think plasma display devices were taking over the market. "Plasma" is the buzzword, even among consumers whose only sighting of a plasma screen was an airport "Arrivals and Departures" display. And that's about all that the pathetic $3000 (add $160 for delivery), 42-inch, standard-definition models being sold today to unwary, buzzword-bitten consumers are good for.

There's something ironic about a rear-projection DLP display. A front or rear DLP projector utilizes millions of microscopic mirrors that reflect light toward or away from the screen for each of the image's pixels. A rear-projection display reflects this projected image off of a large mirror, which bends the image so that it will fit within a shallow, confined space. Samsung's HLM617W makes good use of all of these mirrors in their first 61-inch rear-projection DLP monitor.

LCD monitors are undergoing something of a resurgence, buoyed by the popularity of LCD computer screens and the rush to ever-bigger plasma displays. From the front, big LCDs like this one look something like a plasma sitting happily on a table, though a peek around back reveals that they're not hang-on-the-wall thin. They're also quite a bit cheaper than plasmas. This one costs $5999 and is just 171/2 inches deep, compared to roughly $15,000 or more for a 60-inch, high-definition-capable plasma that is typically between 3 and 4 inches deep. So while buyers can get something like the feel of a plasma for about a third the price, they have to live with the technical limitations of LCD, just as plasma buyers live with the limitations of that technology.

The cathode-ray tube, or CRT, has been the mainstay of direct-view sets since Philo Farnsworth exclaimed, "Uncle Milty, come here, I need you!" And when projection television entered the scene, the trusty CRT stayed the course. While new technologies are beginning to make inroads on the market, virtually all of today's rear-projection sets still use three separate CRTs to produce an image. Despite its challengers, the CRT still provides the best combination of quality and affordability a consumer can get in a one-piece set. But CRT sets are complex, fussy, and, when used in the large screen sizes consumers now demand, massive. A typical 60-inch-diagonal RPTV can weigh 250 lbs and take up more space than a large refrigerator.

When I reviewed Toshiba's TW40X81, the smallest (40-inch) RPTV in Toshiba's first full line of HDTV-ready sets, I raved about its picture quality (SGHT, March/April 2000). I was so taken with it, in fact, that I bought the review sample. I still use it, but a lot of video displays have bobbed under the bridge since then, and Toshiba is now two generations beyond that earlier design. The company's smallest rear-projection set is now the 42-inch-diagonal 42H81. But the 50H81, at 50 diagonal inches, is only slightly more expensive, and has the advantage of a significantly larger picture in a still (relatively) manageable cabinet. Like all HDTV-ready sets, it can display hi-def broadcasts, but only with an optional, outboard HD tuner.