MOVIE diehards will insist on a projector to beam their favourite titles onto a big screen.

For other mortals, a flat telly - like an LCD screen or plasma - will do.

Which should you go for? It's a toss-up, really. But I'd put my money on a plasma.

Why? Because they have better black reproduction and handle fast-action scenes better (read, no shadows or ghosting). They are larger than LCDs too, usually starting from 37 inches upwards.

LCD tellies, on the other hand, consume less energy and tend to be brighter. Sizes vary from 20 inches to 52 inches.

Screen that resolution

IF YOU have only $1,000 to spare, then a 32-inch HD-ready LCD TV is the way to go. These start from $800.

Plasma TVs cost more. A HD-ready 42-inch model costs $2,000.

HD-ready refers to the 'in-between' HDTVs. They have a good enough resolution of 1,368 x 768 pixels - higher than standard definition - but lower than what experts term full HD quality (1,920 x 1,080 pixels).

In any case, it takes an expert eye to tell the quality difference between a HD-ready and full HD display when the screen size is less than 50 inches.

A full HD TV, of course, costs more: The larger the screen size, the more you pay. This can range from $2,500 to above $10,000. (If money is no object, there's the Panasonic 103-inch full HD Viera plasma TV that sells for a cool $99,000!)

Sing the blu's

DVDs are so last century; get on the Blu-ray bandwagon.

As of February this year, the high definition optical disc format war officially ended when Toshiba announced it was giving up the HD-DVD disc format, leaving Blu-ray, backed by Sony, the format champion.

Because a Blu-ray disc offers up to 50GB of storage space, it can store video files that have up to five times as much information - and less compression - than DVDs do.

The difference can be as contrasting as comparing a painting to its photocopy.

Dedicated Blu-ray players are available from all major brands like Sony, Samsung and Panasonic.

Fans who dig using their computers as a media hub can consider the Sony Vaio VGX-TP2G or the Acer Aspire X3600 (from $2,099), which are computers equipped with Blu-ray drives.

Gamers can rely on the $599 Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) that doubles up as a Blu-ray player too.

Get surrounded

Given that Blu-ray and DVD movies - not to mention HDTV programmes and console games - offer soundtracks in surround sound, you might want to splurge on a home theatre speaker system to hear the sound effects whoosh around the living room.

Home theatre buffs with a fat budget will likely go for a dedicated amplifier that can decode even the newer surround audio standards like Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD-MA found on the newer Blu-ray movies.

Then, shop around for dedicated centre, front and rear speakers and a subwoofer to make up either a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound system.

Other folks on a tight budget should pick an all-in-one home theatre system. A decent one can be had for $500.

Alternatively, check out the top-end computer surround speaker systems from the likes of Creative Technology, Altec Lansing or Logitech and be wowed by their audio excellence.

This article was first published in Digital Life, The Straits Times on Jun 10, 2008.