HD TV purchasing help

[SAMSAMHA]

hi, my old trusty CRT TV just went bad on me, the screen start to act all weird. Now, I am in need to buy a HDTV. I am new to this whole business of hdtv and I am so confused with everything and all the specs. I wonder can you guys make some suggestion on some good tv?

I am thinking of spending it under 1000 (of course cheaper the better) with expected budget of maybe 800 or less.

I also got a few question about the hdtv in general:

1-can I record the show as I would do with my old trusty TV? With VCT (what I have at the moment), if not, how should I record any thing?

2-what to watch when buy a hdtv?

3-I currently am not using cable or satellite, can I still watch regular TV with an antenna? (maybe jump to cable but not sure).

thanks a lot guys.

 

[MustISO]

#1 do some research BEFORE you buy. There are lots of great home theater sites.

In your price range you can get a pretty decent LCD HDTV (depending on screen size and resolution).

If the TV has a QAM and/or ATSC tuner you can start getting local HD broadcasts right away. With a QAM tuner you can get unencrypted HD from your cable co.

You can still record TV the same way you did in the past but I would seriously consider an HD DVR from you cable company. The other method is not going to be able to record an HD signal.

There should be some info here but there are tons of other sites if you want to know some of the basics of HDTV: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-DnkOcjBie4U/hdtv/