Let’s cut to the chase: Among the many video technologies available today, one of them has to be the best, right? Not so fast. Unlike a successful sports franchise that takes home the big-game trophy, there is no clearly distinguishable winner in front- or rear-projection technology. Each type of display has its pros and cons, and choosing one is largely about what features are most important to you.

To make your TV hunting a bit easier, let’s break down the technologies into two categories: analog and digital displays. The sole member of the analog group is the CRT (cathode-ray tube) display. This is the most common type of TV you’ll find in stores. The digital category, which might also be called the fixed-pixel or single-lens category, consists of LCD (liquid-crystal display), DLP (digital light processing) and LCoS (liquid-crystal on silicon) displays.