Down the line: 2005 HDTVs

If you've tried to buy a television recently, chances are you've run into a frustrating barrage of technology terms and numbers, manufacturers, resolutions, and even general shapes and sizes that may be totally unfamiliar. That has a lot to do with the unrelenting march of technology, but another major reason is that, for TV manufacturers, a certain amount of confusion is a good thing. They count on the fact that many buyers will just throw up their hands at the insane amount of choices and go with their guts: a friend's advice, a brand they trust, or whatever happens to be on sale. Intentional confusion helps explain the sheer number of models out there, many equipped with dubious step-up features that are, in many cases, a waste of money.

That's where CNET comes in. While our top products lists are a great resource for individual products we've reviewed, we simply can't review every television on the market. So we've assembled many TV manufacturers' specs and information on a variety of 2005 models, focusing on the hottest products and brands. We can't tell you much about image quality here since we haven't reviewed most of these sets, but we can compare specs and give you our unvarnished opinion on proprietary terms, step-up features, and overall value. And if we do have a product review, you'll find it linked here.