One imputable law of the marketplace with regard to any new technology is that when competition increases, the price of the product inevitably comes down. After years of shopping for holiday discounts and special sales, high definition television sets have finally become affordable for the average family.

Believe it or not, it is even possible to find fairly cheap TVs , even under a thousand pounds. However, as any experienced shopper should and must know, there is always a compromise for buying inexpensive products. Sure, you might get lucky and find a set at a special sale or promotion. But the odds of that are much lower than you might think. The truth is that is large retailers and electronics stores often only offer a few units, even during large sales. They simply use them to as an incentive to get shoppers into their stores in the hope that they will buy something, anything.

But back to the issue at hand, how do you find a descent set at a discount price? Yes, it is possible. But if you are looking for a high-quality set, you might as well forget it. Stores know that consumers will pay for quality, so you will seldom see deep discounts on any top of the line set. That is why if you want to save some money, you should be looking at middle of the road sets.

In truth, the real challenge for consumers is not differentiating between high quality and low quality sets, that’s easy. No, the much tougher task is to separate the low quality sets from the average ones. What should you look for? Probably the most important thing to consider is the resolution. After all, that’s why you’re buying the set in the first place, right? To get the superior picture that many High Definition sets provide.

However, a little known fact is that many cheap tvs here have resolution that is only slightly better than the old analogue sets, which is why you should look for an affordable high definition set with a resolution of 720 pixel lines or better. That is right in the middle of the high (1080 pixels) and the low (480 pixels).

A word of advice for the frugal shopper: when you do purchase your new television set, make sure you call your service provider and investigate bundling options that will lower your bills for cable television, internet, and telecom (mobile and home).