Find out how the latest HDTVs stack up in time for Super Bowl kickoff

This weekend comes the half-day ritual called Super Bowl. For some, the game isn't the same without a TV the size of a left tackle and sometimes a price tag to match. Whether you're in the market for a high-definition TV or you just want to sound like you know what you're talking about when you ogle your friend's big flat screen, here's an intro to the world of HDTV, along with some examples and standouts from this year's International Consumer Electronics Show.

Plasmas

LG 50PC1DRA

Specs: This plasma sports a built-in high-definition digital video recorder that can hold up to 15 hours of HD content. The 50-inch screen displays in 1366 x 768 resolution. The set is 4.4 inches deep and weighs just under 97 pounds.

Price: $3,700.

Panasonic TH-65PX600U

Specs: At 65 inches, you'll probably notice the 1920 x 1080 resolution this plasma TV can display. It sports the widescreen-aspect ratio and a host of inputs for everything from your PC to your digital camera's memory card. It's about 6 inches deep and weighs 174 pounds.

Price: $10,000.

Bang & Olufsen BeoVision 9

Specs: The spec sheet for this art/status piece starts with the designer's name, David Lewis, before moving on to the numbers. It's a 50-inch, widescreen-plasma display with 1366 x 768 resolution.

The built-in center-channel speaker "allows for dispersion of sound at a 180-degree angle, filling a room with pure, clean sound," the Danish manufacturer boasts. The set also includes digital-surround-sound controls for up to 12 speakers. At 22 inches deep and 271 pounds, it's on the heavy end, but that includes a mechanical stand that adjusts the TV to your desired position and other high-end hardware.

Price: $21,900 with integrated media organizer and player; $19,900 without.

LCDs

Hewlett-Packard SLC3760N

Specs: The 37-inch MediaSmart HDTV has a host of features to link it with your collections of digital music, photos and video — content typically found on a PC. Not surprising, considering it's made by HP, one of the world's biggest PC makers. The LCD display has 1366 x 768 resolution, is about 7 inches deep and weighs 53 pounds.

Price: $1,400.

Samsung LN-S4692D

Specs: The 46-inch, 1366 x 768 resolution widescreen LCD boasts an optimized video-game mode with enhanced dark areas and faster image-processing response times "to take Xbox games to a new height of realism," according to the manufacturer. It's 5.5 inches deep and weighs about 87 pounds.

Price: $2,500.

Sharp AQUOS LC-52D62U

Specs: With a widescreen-aspect ratio, 1920 x 1080 resolution and 52-inch screen, this LCD has all the right numbers. Sharp likes to tout the factories where it builds its displays, and this one comes from the state-of-the-art Kameyama II plant completed in Japan last summer.

The set is about 5 inches deep and weighs 83 pounds. (You might have heard about the 108-inch — that's 9 feet — AQUOS LCD Sharp had on display at the Consumer Electronics Show. It was just there for bragging rights and is not in production.)

Price: $3,700.

Benjamin J. Romano: 206-464-2149 or bromano@seattletimes.com