Hello VG Community,

           I am sad to say that my CRT TV is at the end of its life.  It randomly started to turn off by itself and now does it consistently after a few hours of being on.  I've decided it is time to upgrade to an LCD.  However, I do not know much about what specs I should look for in a decent TV set.  I've been researching features such as response time, pixel count, contrast ratio etc. and would like to reinforce my knowledge with what other members know.  I tried searching for good gaming TV's (as I will  mainly use it for that) but kept getting results of high-end, 50-inch, gamers' wet dream TV's in the $1000 price range.  I will appreciate any advice on the matter.  Please keep in mind the following:

1) I am a full-time college student living on my own so I have a limited budget.  I'm willing to pay ~$500.

2) Size isn't that important to me as I live by myself.  Picture quality is worth more to me.  I don't mind playing on a 19 inch or so as long as it looks good.     

Thanks for reading! 

Finally, my Bachelor of science degree intelevision technology pays off lol

If you are going for a small one (under 32") you don't need high definition, you will not notice the difference. I will praettle on about technical features and what not, but I would go for an LG 19LG3000.

Seems pretty decent and it will only cost around $400-$450. It's 19" which is the spec you gave. And it is pretty verstile for gaming with 2 HDMI's (that's your PS3 and 360 and a component (stick whatever in that). But also you have a PC input incase you want to go for some PC gaming.

If I were you though, I would buy a 32" CRT, I know it's not cool to get one these days but I would wait to get a better $1000 one going via a cheap one.

i would get the biggest sony tv you can find!

Thanks for the replies!

@highwaystart -

Is this the one you mean?
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?zip=zip+code&oid=208986&userClick=STORE_PICKUP#availability

Do you know how a tv like that would handle movies? I watch a lot of horror so I was wondering about the contrast ratio aspect. I went into Wallyworld (where they wouldn't let me try a movie on it first) and bought this:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9106631

Needless to say, I returned it the following day. It was really BAD. I couldn't see anything at all during dark scenes and it made my Wii games look like N64. That's when I decided I should do a little research first. Unfortunately, for all the science majors I know, none of them know a thing about televisions.

Btw, interesting major.