LCD Flat screen tv's

To my eyes the Sony and Panosonic LCDs were the best looking ones at about 26" or 32". You should be able to do 26" for your budget. Samsung and Toshiba came next. After that I wouldn't bother. I'd save my money.

I bought a Sylvania 27" TV from amazon.com for 499.00 shipped a couple of months ago and I like it as well as most of the more expensive models I looked at. LCD TVs aren't great yet but tolerable. But, it looks amazingly good on high quality sources.

Tough call. The "unknown" brands can perform pretty well, but a lot depends on set up, etc. I think you might explore a Sony CRT, if you can find one in your preferred screen size; the last model Sony put out with the old technology got pretty good reviews. I bought a Sony LCD 40 inch and have been happy, although I paid more than your figure. Good luck.
BerkBob

I have a Viewsonic 27" LCD TV that I bought because I saw one at around $500 and I'd had very good experience over the years buying their computer monitors for my departments at work. I think it's really good right out of the box, as good as anything from other brands I'd seen in the stores, and my experience with the reliability of their other products makes me think it will last awhile.

The Olevia is highly recommended by Consumers Reports. Olevis in owned by Syntax-Brillant which is a parent company of Vivitar. Several of my colleagues have owned Olevias for 2 trouble-free years and several months ago I picked up a 37" LCD at Office Depot for $900. which subsequently went on sale for $750.
Before buying I compared it to several brand name LDC TVs and the only ones which exceeded its picture quality were the higher-priced Sonys. I am very happy with the Olevis
Olevis is a great bargain and definitely not a "low-end brand". Just relatively unknown. Do yourself a big favor and look at one at Office Depot, althoough their viewing conditions are certainly less than ideal.