If you are buying a PS3, or already own one of these new high definition gaming consoles, then it could be your old television that is letting you down.

Recently TV’s have got wider and thinner, but have they got any better ?

Sure, the latest trend is HDTV (High Definition TeleVision), promising stunning picture quality, but at a much higher price than regular CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) Televisions.

Have a look online, or in the electrical stores and you will see a massive quantity of High-def televisions available. Buzz words like plasma, rear projection and LCD will roll off the salemans tongue and then you will have to choose from a variety of screen sizes, shapes and brands. It's enough to make you give up before you even start looking for the perfect compliment to your Sony PlayStation 3 videogame console.

So what exactly is HDTV then ?

Putting it simply, it's all about small dots. Any television picture is made up of dots of colour. The smaller the dots, the more vivid the images will look. That is why HDTV images look great.

Why do HDTV cost so much ?

Currently we are still paying a premium price because the technology is new and cost a lot of money to develop. The reason for this is that the colour dots that make up the picture have to be 9 times smaller on the HDTV. This makes them very expensive to build.

The PlayStation3 is similar in that it cost a huge amount of money to develop, but Sony can afford to sell the PS3 console at a gross loss, purely because Sony know that the average owner will spend an additional $100 + on very profitable games and accessories for their next-gen games machine. HDTV manufacturers do not have this option, so we pay more until the development costs are covered.

So Do I need a HDTV for my PS3 ?

If the question was ‘will my PS3 only work with a HDTV’, then the answer is no. The PlayStation 3 comes bundled with a cable that will let you use a regular television, however the picture quality is so much worse than a HDTV that is makes your PS3 games look only slightly better than PlayStation 2 games.

If you are happy with a small screen, then the alternative is to hook your PS3 up to a computer monitor. You will need a special cable, and a monitor with a digital input, but this will work fine. If your monitor doesn’t have speakers, then you will need to buy some.

If you want a screen larger than 22 inches, then definitely get a HTDV, but make sure it has at least one HDMI connector on the back and has a resolution of 1080i or 1080p and a screen refresh rate of 8ms or less.