While HD may be confusing to some, there's little debate over the quality of hi-def: the resolution is sharper, the images are crisper, colors more vibrant.

"It's dramatically better looking, hi-def TV has been said by many to be looking through a window as opposed to looking thru a TV, it's that life-like," Brian Cooley of CNET said.

Cooley, says the three leading HD formats all have pluses and minuses. while some are fat, others are flat, and prices vary considerably.

Understanding the differences between the types of HD sets can be difficult, so we'll try to keep it simple.

For starters there's plasma, LCD flat panel, and rear projection. The rear projection sets use different technologies including LCD, CRT, DLP, and LCOS, I'll tell you how you can get more details on each of these.

Let's start with plasmas.

"Plasma TV is the richest picture among the flat panels and it tends to be for larger sizes. It's a gorgeous way to hang a picture on your wall," Cooley said.

Another plasma advantage: when you view the set from the side, the picture offers one of the clearest views of HD sets.

On the flip side, plasmas are more expensive in smaller-size sets compared to flat panel LCDs and their glass screens can show more glare in direct light than some of the other HD sets.

LCD flat-panel televisions usually don't have glare problems, and are generally less expensive than plasmas in sets smaller than 40-inches.

LCD flat-panel televisions do have one disadvantage.

"It tends to suffer from slightly black grays, and when the blacks aren't really black, the colors are round-black and tend to pop a little less, that's why LCDs can look a little less vibrant," Cooley said.

The bulkiest HD sets are rear projection televisions, but they also provide the best value.

"In general, rear projections are a bang for the buck argument. You get a huge screen for not much money and really good daylight performance," Cooley said.

"A drawback of rear projection TVs is they have some depth ... so if you haven't got the room, you haven't got the room," Cooley said.

Another disadvantage: when you view the television from the side, the picture isn't as good.

So how do figure out which HD television to buy? Plasmas generally have the best picture, but are more expensive in smaller sizes. LCD flat panels have little or no glare, but the picture is less vibrant. Rear projection sets usually offer the best value, but viewing from the side may give you a poor picture.