Big-screen plasma home-theater bundle: $3,000

John Falcone
Senior editor

Updated February 10, 2006

Outside of CRT--and possibly Sony's SXRD line--plasma is the king of HDTV picture quality. It's got a reputation for being pricey, but we put together an entire home theater--with plasma--for just a little more than $3,000. Two products filled the bill: The V Vizio P50HDM delivers an impressive picture on its whopping 50-inch screen by forgoing such extras as a built-in HD tuner or CableCard slot (which are superfluous for most cable or satellite viewers anyway). And with the $400 or so that we had left, we opted for the JVC TH-C6 all-in-one home-theater system, which includes a five-disc CD/DVD changer.

Home-theater bundles for every budget:

$3,000: Big-screen plasma

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$2,000: Midsize LCD flat-panel

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$3,000: High-performance plasma

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$3,000: Big-screen LCD

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$1,500: Flat-panel HD

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$1,100: Bargain HD

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