Top TVs for Watching the Super Bowl

Jan. 24, 2008 Special to ABCNEWS.com — -- Boston - When the players line up for the Super Bowl kickoff in February, fans will want to catch every detail, down to the seams on the football or each individual blade of grass in the turf at the University of Phoenix Stadium.

For a cultural spectacle of this magnitude, only a high-definition television will do. But that doesn't mean you have to spend like a millionaire. Here are some tips on how to find an excellent Super Bowl HDTV without ending up dissatisfied or broke.

If you were to browse through an electronic store like Best Buy or Circuit City, you'd notice that HDTVs with 1080p resolution are touted as having the absolute best picture quality. The "1080" refers to the number of horizontal lines of pixels, while the "p" represents "progressive scan," meaning the TV will render an image line by line, creating a smooth final picture.

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Simply put, TVs with 1080p resolution have more pixels to work with, and thus are able to create very detailed images. Retailers are quick to point out how many more pixels 1080p sets have when compared with 720p televisions, falsely implying the 720p is inadequate.

But here's the catch: Super Bowl XLII is going to be broadcast by the Fox Network--and its high-definition coverage isn't being broadcast in 1080p. It's being broadcast in 720p. In fact, none of the broadcast television channels provide a 1080p signal because it's too difficult and expensive for them to do so.

This means that if you're buying an HDTV specifically to enjoy the Super Bowl, the extra pixels (and extra cost) for a 1080p simply isn't worth it unless you're going really big. For TVs measuring over 50 inches, those extra pixels are useful because the picture is so large you need more coverage to make the picture look good. On anything smaller, though, they're a waste.

When it comes to deciding between liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma or digital light processing (DLP) screens, there's less to differentiate them than in years past.