If you haven't bought a TV in a while the one big difference you must be aware of is the use of pixels to produce an image rather than scan lines. Our familiar CRT televisions are known as analog displays. They use a scanning technology to draw the image, which is made up of a series of horizontal lines, onto the screen. If you walk right up to your CRT set you can actually see the horizontal lines that make up the image.

LCD, DLP, and Plasma displays are Digital, and use pixels to form the image. Pixels are a series of small boxes arranged in columns and rows. When viewed from a distance they appear to form one solid image. If you walk up close to an image produced from pixels you can actually see the pixel structure which appears as though you are looking through a screen door.

When buying a CRT set, the number of lines that the set is capable of producing will affect the sharpness of the image (the more the better). The same goes for Digital displays, the more pixels the sharper the image will appear and, the closer you can sit to the screen without the pixel structure becoming visible.