Recently, Panasonic held its annual line show for members of the press to give us an early view of televisions and video equipment coming out this fall. While high-definition TV was the major theme of the show, Panasonic continued to underscore its view that flat panel plasma displays are the future. Indeed, the company is betting heavily on it, building state-of-the-art factories. Panasonic hopes to produce nearly 11.5 million plasma sets next year.

While Panasonic’s robots noiselessly press more and more panels each day, competing technologies, such as LCD and DLP continue to improve—and lower their prices. I believe LCD sets will ultimately replace conventional TVs in most American homes, but the question is, what should you buy now?

There’s no such thing as the perfect TV. There are advantages and disadvantages to each technology. To help you decide, here are the tradeoffs:

LCD: Liquid crystal displays are flat panel sets based on the same technology used in laptop displays. This technology offers some of the brightest pictures, making them great for brightly lit rooms. The drawbacks: poor contrast ratios mean that it’s difficult to see details in dark scenes in movies; some models have trouble reproducing green.

Plasma: Flat-panel plasma sets offer good color reproduction and wide viewing angles, making them a great choice for movie watching in normal or dimly lit rooms. The drawbacks: Images can look soft, most cannot do full 1080p resolution, and brightness is an issue.