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As the price of big-screen HDTVs continues to drop, more people are giving up their bulky cathode-ray tube TVs for slim plasma or LCD TVs. 8220;Sets are already 25 percent cheaper this year and will continue falling through the holiday season,8221; said James L. McQuivey, the television market analyst for Forrester Research. 8220;It has gotten to the point where big retailers only carry a handful of non-HDTV sets,8221; he said.

The scarcity of tube sets is unfortunate for gamers and sports fans. Although flat-panel HDTVs are light enough to hang on the wall, high-definition cathode-ray tube TVs provide the best picture because they produce the blackest of blacks and the most contrast, and they have a fast response time.

Matthew Jones, 29, an IT assistant for Somerset Community College in Somerset, discovered the benefits of last-generation technology when he bought a 30-inch Sony XBR widescreen tube TV two years ago. Jones, an avid video game player, said, 8220;The picture quality is great, and I didn8217;t notice any problems with response times.8221; The downside? 8220;It weighs over 200 pounds,8221; he said.

Indeed, as the size of the screen increases, the depth and the weight also increase. It is hard to find HDTV tube TVs with large screens, so the choice for consumers who want a large screen comes down to finding the flat-screen technology that blurs the least.

Some manufacturers are marketing their TVs as a perfect fit for game consoles. Sharp, for instance, offers two LCD HDTVs intended for gamers. The 32-inch LC-32GP1U and the 37-inch LC-37GP1U feature 8220;Vyper Drive,8221; which Tony Favia, Sharp8217;s senior product manager, says is designed 8220;to reduce the lag time between the game console input and the TV display to imperceptible levels.8221;

But David Carnoy, executive editor of Cnet.com, which reviews TVs, considers this marketing malarkey. He said manufacturers fall back on such terms to overcome the idea that liquid crystal display TVs are not good for gaming or home theatre. 8220;Now, with all the talk of faster refresh rates, LCD TVs are losing that knock against them,8221; he said.

Rear-projection TVs using digital light processing technology, or DLP, can cause a 8220;rainbow effect8221; for some viewers when there is fast movement on the screen. Jones was one of those viewers, as he learned after he upgraded to a wider screen last year. He had chosen a 52-inch HDTV with a 1,080-pixel resolution. The TV, a Mitsubishi that uses rear-projection DLP, was not what he had hoped for. He returned the TV to the store and spent an additional 200 for a 50-inch Sony SXRD rear-projection HDTV.

More and more, manufacturers are promoting their models8217; refresh rates rather than response times. A desirable rate is 120 hertz. The refresh rate, the number of times an image is displayed each second, is expressed in hertz, or Hz. Higher is better.

Game players and sports fans tend to be early adopters of TV technology, so manufacturers are making an effort to please them. 8220;Improving the smoothness of motion for action and sports has been a major focus of manufacturers this year,8221; said Ross Rubin, who follows consumer technology trends for the NPD Group. Carnoy concurs. 8220;Most major LCD manufacturers are starting to put out HDTVs with 120-hertz refresh rates that deliver a 4-millisecond response time,8221; he said, adding that 120 hertz 8220;is sort of the 8216;1080p8217; of 2007, that hot new spec that8217;s featured on higher-end sets.8221;

Cnet reviewers recommend the Sony KDS-60A2020, a 60-inch rear-projection HDTV. The model is no longer in production. The replacement, to come out this fall, will be the Bravia KDS-60A3000, which Sony said is 20 percent slimmer than last year8217;s model. CNET also recommends an LCD TV from Samsung, the 46-inch LN-T4665F, which is high definition, with a resolution of 1,080 pixels.

But Mike Brady, editor of the HDTV review site DigitalAdvisor.com, warns in his buying guide that although 1,080 pixels is the pinnacle of HD, no TV channels broadcast at that level. So for a consumer who will not be using a high-resolution device like a PlayStation 3 or a high-definition DVD player, a 720-pixel HDTV would be a less expensive option and would still showcase high-definition programmes.

For such a model, Brady recommends an LCD unit by Syntax-Brillian, the 42-inch Olevia 342i. Cnet also recommends a relatively affordable Panasonic unit, the TH-42PX77U. The model, a 42-inch plasma HDTV with a resolution of 720 pixels, earns kudos because it displays a clear picture in a bright room, rivaling LCD HDTVs, which are known for their generally brighter displays.

Anyone hooking up game consoles and DVD players should also make sure that the set has enough HDMI ports. HDMI is the new standard for cables conveying a high-definition signal. But in the end, size also matters. 8220;If you8217;re trying to decide between two screen sizes, always go for bigger,8221; Carnoy said. NYT