Generally, buying an off-brand HDTV is a bad idea unless you can see one up close. They often use cheap parts which cause the colors to look "off," the upscaling to be poor, or any number of other things.

Also, don't buy refurbished. They have a much higher failure rate than non-refurb.

If you really want a good HDTV in your price range, I'd go for specs over size. If you're considering something smaller, I wouldn't bother with 1080p, since they only come in 40"+ sizes, and that size upgrade will come with a pretty steep hike in price.

If your limit is $550, you should be able to get a quality 23"-26" Samsung or Sony for about that price with a little shopping around.

Things to look for:

1) At least 8ms response time. Anything more and you'll probably experience slight "ghosting" effects, but anything less you'll probably be overpaying for. (And, no, 8ms will not give you "ghosting." My 23" Samsung has 8ms response, and I've never experienced anything of the sort.)

2) A high contrast ratio. At least 3000:1 will give you the best results, and I wouldn't settle for anything less. The higher, the better. (So, in other words, 4000:1 is better than 3000:1).

3) Lots of inputs, especially if you're not hooking it up to a receiver (and with a 26" TV, I'd imagine you won't be.) I wouldn't settle for anything less than 2 HDMI and 2 component inputs.

The big dark secret of HDTV manufacturers: for a given size of TV, 1080p (and really any resolution) has a specific range of viewing distance in which the true resolution is visible. For some of the smaller TVs, you have to be within 3 feet of the TV to really experience the HD.

"The big dark secret of HDTV manufacturers: for a given size of TV, 1080p (and really any resolution) has a specific range of viewing distance in which the true resolution is visible. For some of the smaller TVs, you have to be within 3 feet of the TV to really experience the HD."

Thats what almost everybody says, but I can tell if a TV is 1080p or 720p from across the best buy floor (at least 50 feet)

Call BS all you want, but some people can tell.

OK thanks for the help guys. I guess I'll save up some more and buy a better TV later on.

It's not a question of whether you can discern if a TV is 1080p or 720p from across the floor. The question is if your eyes can detect the detail in the 1080p picture. Physics and mathematics will tell you that you cannot. 

 Also, to the OP, I'd say if you have a limited budget, don't worry about buying a TV so much. Just go to a store and pick the best looking one in your price range. If the colors look "wrong" on a specific set, try adjusting the brightness, contrast, etc. Many manufacturers do not ship their TVs with the optimal settings for the unit, so it can be hard to tell if the TV really looks like that or if its just bad settings. At Best Buy, you should be able to get one of the salespeople to help you adjust it to the optimal level.

For people who are looking to spend ridiculous money on their HDTV, don't forget to look at the TV when it is rendering black. The better a TV is, the less you can tell it is on when the screen is all black. The newest, greatest plasmas can render a truly dark black. If you get an LCD, you will not get that black range, but you can make up for it with higher resolution, response time, etc. plus the big bonus of spending a more conservative ridiculous amount of money. :)

What I personally say to people who haven't bought an HDTV yet but are currently considering it is this ...

In 12 to 24 months organic crystal LCD displays will become far more affordable and you will see an increase in size, and increase in quality, in all LCD TVs for the same price. In Christmas 2009 you will be able to buy a very large HDTV that is noticeably better than anything on the market today for (about) $1000 to $1500 ...

Do you really think so? Sony just debuted its first OLED TV in the US in this month (it was out in Japan previously). It is a 27" for $2500. I think we won't even see a 40 or 50" OLED TV until Christmas 09, and I expect it to be priced around the $5000-$6000 mark at that time. In 2010-2012, I could see there being affordable OLED sets. Is there any particular reason why you think OLEDs are going to come down in price so rapidly?

From day 1 when organic crystal LCD displays were announced they were promoted as being able to be much larger (I believe they can manufacture over 100 inch displays) and much less expensive to produce than a conventional display. Many of the manufacturers of these displays will look to make a good profit but are going to get into a two way "arms race" to increase the size of their TVs and to decrease their price. For Christmas 2009 I expect that these companies will be pushing their 60 inch to 80 inch TVs with price tags between $2000 and $6000, and their 32 to 60 inch TVs will be priced between $750 and $2000 ...

To answer your question no its not worth it. I know your probably used to standard measurements, but when you move to wide screen you definitely need more inches then you think you need. Factor in the price for such a small screen and you understand that it is somewhat excessive. Last year I purchased a 37" flat panel LCD for seven hundred dollars before taxes.

I highly recommend that you hold back or continue your search. You can definitely get more for less, and you can probably get a decent product you could be proud of in your home.

My best advice is ignore these people telling you about name brands. Frankly all these products are made in China. All made using the same standards and practices. There is no guarantee with these products beyond the warranty. Which I usually recommend that consumers who cannot sustain the loss buy into large extended warranties rather then trust in a name brand, and if your going to buy a warranty buy the less expensive product if its the same on all fronts.

Honestly name brand hasn't meant squat in years if it ever did. I have purchased from all the companies listed, and have gotten lemons from all of them. Make use of peer review wherever possible. Off brand products aren't necessarily crap, and on brand product aren't necessarily gold.

I would also recommend you ignore these 1080p promoters. The reality is this if you ditch it, and its far from needed you can get a bigger screen with the money you save, or save the money outright. To tangle the issue further high definition channels prefer 720p and since it has been the standard for so long its doubtful to change since not all high definition screens do not support it. Last time I looked you had to give up nearly a foot of screen space to get that particular feature for the same price. The trade off isn't worth it, and you almost get same progressive screen with 720p if you go with the larger screen.

First of all it wasn't OLED's that he was talking about, it was LCD's.  I can see them coming down in price sometime by the end of next year, where they are affordable to the average consumer.  They are already half of what they use to be 2 years ago, that is comparing 20" and 26" tv's. I use to see 26" tv's selling for 800-$900 two years ago, now they are ranging between $400-$500.

Plus with the whole digital switch in February next year (2009), I think LCD sales will increase which we will see prices starting to fall, because demand will be up.