Well that is the question that many consumers as themselves. I am making a large purchase, do I want to get a wide screen or a traditional aspect screen. Here are a few things to consider when choosing to buy a widescreen HDTV, a traditional aspect HDTV or regular TV.

Older Analog TVs versus HDTV. Older era televisions are analog televisions unless they have a digital receiver built into them. In February 2009, all television broadcast stations will be required to broadcast in digital. This means analog televisions without digital tuners will be unusable unless they are hooked up to satellite or cable. These are not a good choice to buy. Move along down the row to HD enabled televisions. Luckily enough, all television equipment sold after May 25, 2007 must either contain a digital tuner or be identified at the point of sale as not having one.

LCD or Plasma. HDTV comes in multiple types that can vastly affect price. The liquid crystal display (LCD) type of HDTV dominates the consumer market in small-size to mid-size and is typically cheaper. Plasma television models dominate the consumer market in large-size models. This consideration is generally not an issue when deciding between a wide screen and a traditional aspect. What is a consideration is life expectancy and cost. A widescreen has more visual area that can “burn out.”

Flat Panel Television versus Rear/Front Projection Television. HDTV designs that are plasma or LCD are generally found in the flat panel design. However, you can still find rear projection and front projection HDTVs sold for home theatre systems. In general a wide-screen version will add considerably to the requirements for room size, the total shelf weight and moving restrictions are your overall consideration when making this selection. Unless you have a dedicated home theatre room and plan on never moving again, it’s generally suggested to stay away from Rear or Front Projection wide-screen television.

Widescreen for TV Broadcasts and Movies. Over 90 percent of all broadcasts are in traditional aspect. Most are not in widescreen formatting or have been pre-formatted coming from the broadcaster to fit traditional aspects. If you mostly watch regular television broadcasts and do not routinely use a service provider that has widescreen broadcasts or movies using widescreen aspects, then widescreen is not for you.

Using your Widescreen for Gaming. The beauty of current of having a widescreen for computer gaming is the ability to use the split screen option on many different games without feeling crushed. This is especially true on many First Person Shooter games. If you are an avid gamer, a widescreen HDTV will only enhance your game experience.

Using your HDTV for Work. Here is another example of where the widescreen really can assist the consumer. Some HDTVs are enabled to accept input from computers and can be used as a monitor for your work. You can often get two or three documents on your desktop and view them much easier with a widescreen than on a traditional aspect. If you use your HDTV as both a television and monitor, here is where it can pay off in many ways.

For most consumers, the widescreen HDTVs are the way to go with very little drawback. Unless you are only watching sitcoms or are setting up a home theatre in a small confined space, they are the most versatile aspect. You can watch both traditional aspect and get the full widescreen aspect on the same set of equipment. They are more useful than traditional aspect HDTVs as they can provide additional workspace and even a greater gaming experience.

As with so many questions in life the answer to whether you neeed to buy a HDTV now or wait longer, is that it depends. It depends on your own viewing habits and how much television you like to watch. It also depends on how much you can afford to spend.

Currently, you can view pretty much all television programming with analog TV sets, but the FCC has made it necessary for all television broadcasting companies to switch over to being able to send their TV signals in HDTV format by 2007, and that is not very far away. The problem is that analog TVs cannot receive and display HDTV or digital TV signals. So when the time arrives that all programming is being sent in digital format, what is going to happen to your old, reliable analog TV?

Well, there are conversion boxes that can be bought for between $50 – $100 that will convert the digital signal to a format that an analog TV can display. Of course, the picture and sound will not be anywhere near the quality of even normal digital TV, much less HDTV. But at least you will still be able to view TV as you always have on your analog televison set.

So back to the question at hand, should you go ahead and buy a new HDTV soon, or just go along with your old analog one for a while? Well, keep in mind that a new HDTV will cost several hundred to a few thousand dollars to buy. If you simply can’t afford that expense at this point, then maybe keeping your current TV and getting the digital to analog converter is your best bet. Or maybe you just aren’t that much of a TV viewer anyway, so when you do watch, having enhanced picture and sound is just not all that important to you. Then once again, maybe you should just get the converter box and stay with what you have.

On the other hand, there is no good reason to keep waiting much longer to buy HDTV as the prices have already fallen quite a bit. They undoubtedly will fall further, but not all that much. And there is no advanced technology available after HDTV that is on the horizon that you should be holding out for either. So for those folks who can afford buying a new HDTV television, there is no time like the present.