Help me pick out a new television

I am in the market for a new television. I have narrowed my search down to a 20" flat screen CRT. I'd rather have a smaller flat screen than a big bubble one... and 20" is the most my budget can accomidate right now... Anyway, these are the best options in the local stores:

• JVC I'Art AV20F702
• Panasonic CT20SX11
• Toshiba 20AF42

The JVC seems pretty nice. I don't have any experience with JVC televisions though.

The Panasonic one also seems very nice and Panasonic usually makes great TVs.... but this one is black and I don't like the shape. I like the wide silver ones better... meh... shame because I'd prefer this one otherwise..

The Toshiba one seems nice and looks attractive, the picture looks decent in the store... but I have heard Toshiba is a bit of a dodgy company when it comes to quality so I am wary. I like how this one does not have a door hiding the AV inputs on the front..

Anyone have any advice/recommendations? :)

My current television is a somewhat older model JVC (20", composite input only, low horizontal res, no digital comb filter, etc.), but the picture quality is excellent and it was relatively cheap at the time.

Their newer TVs sport all kinds of cool features, for usually MUCH less than the competition. I'd say save yourself some cash and go with them. My next TV will be JVC, definitely.

JVC: I've owned a JVC 20" stereo model for maybe five years now, and it still sports a great picture, although it seemed to need a bit of time for the brightness to fully "warm up" this past year. But, it's been moved a lot, and my perception may have been distorted by my cable setup.

Panasonic: Unless that is something more than a TV, $600 is way too much to pay for that unit. I'm very happy with my 27" Tau which has most if not all of those features and also component input, and I got it for less than $500. EDIT - Just realized that's a Canadian site.

Toshiba: My brother has had a 20" model for six or seven years now, and it works fine as far as I can tell. Toshibas tend to cost the same as Sonys, though, and I'd either pay less for a JVC or Panasonic, or go with Sony and get true 16:9 widescreen. Although that isn't as much of a factor in a 20" TV.

The TV we have in the living room now is a 27" JVC bubble tube bought in about '94. The video quality of it isn't bad at all, especially with s-video. Using this as experience, they make quality TV's that last.

A friend of mine has the 20" flat screen Toshiba, and the video quality is excellent. I have seen a few TV's that combine the s-video and component video inputs into a single input selection (meaning it will probably auto-detect the component video if a component cable is plugged in), but thankfully, the Toshiba has the s-video input separate. Screen geometry is the only problem that I have seen so far, but this will probably be a problem with most flat screens. Basically the upper right corner is sometimes shaved off a tad, but it isn't very noticeable.

The comb filter, which separates the luminance from the chrominance, will only be important with composite and coaxial signals, as the luminance and chrominance are already separate with component and s-video signals.

Burgundy, the anamorphic widescreen mode only applies to WEGAs 27 inches and above. As far as I know, Sony is the only company that has the mode on non-high definition models, but it is on virtually every 4:3 HDTV.

If I were you, I'd go for the Panasonic. Quality name. I trust the branding a lot. Haven't had much experience with JVC but my Toshiba DVD player has been really good to me.

I just bought that Toshiba you're considering about 2 weeks ago. The picture quality is very sharp, even running a VCR through the RF connection looks great. I run my Dreamcast through S-video and it's never looked better. I have no idea why it's 500 bucks on that website, though. I got mine at Best Buy for $279. There is also a nice Sony 20" model that's about $20 more than the Toshiba, but it lacks an S-video input.

get # B!

I got the JVC. It is very nice, and I only got it for 240.

Panasonic, biz-lootch!!!

dude, go with the JVC.