Top TV gifts to give for Christmas

Whether you’re scrimping or splurging, here are some of the top TVs being sold this season:

Panasonic Viera VT30

$2,500

Pros: Excellent contrast and picture quality. 3-D-capable. Plenty of Web apps.

Cons: Expensive. Plasma isn’t very energy-efficient.

Ideal for: A big, dark home theater.

If you watch a lot of dark movies or a lot of sports, you’ll want the sharp detail and dark blacks that plasma TVs offer. The VT30 is one of the best plasmas on the market. It doesn’t come cheap, but its picture quality, 3-D performance and Internet connectivity are hard to beat.

Samsung UND8000

$3,600

Pros: Beautiful design. Excellent 2-D and 3-D picture quality. Lots of apps, with a keyboard included.

Cons: Extremely expensive. Lousy user interface.

Ideal for: The spare-no-expense videophile.

Samsung’s D8000 TVs tick all the boxes: fantastic image quality, wireless capabilities, lots of Internet apps and a gorgeous design. If you can stomach the price, the D8000’s overall performance is as good as any TV on the market.

LG LW5600

$989

Pros: Matte screen is great for bright rooms. Good picture quality. Cool motion-controlled remote.

Cons: 3-D performance isn’t great. Internet offerings aren’t particularly robust.

Ideal for: The living room TV.

TVs look good only in the darkest of settings, but sometimes you can’t blot out the sun while you watch a movie -- that’s what the LG LW5600 TVs are for. They have matte screens, which don’t take on glare like glossy sets, and have solid picture quality and features for a reasonable price. The LG LW5600 even has a motion-sensitive remote, so you can control the TV Wii-style.

Vizio E3D0VX

$700

Pros: Cheap for a 1,080-pixel, 3-D-enabled TV. Plenty of Internet options.

Cons: Picture quality isn’t as good as it could be. Not a very good-looking set.

Ideal for: 3-D on a budget.

Vizio’s E3D0VX series TVs aren’t the best-looking sets you’ll see, but they have solid image quality, all the Internet features you’ll need, not to mention they’re as cheap as you’ll find for 1,080-pixel 3-D playback.

Samsung LNC350

Price: $430

Pros: USB port integrated. Very affordable.

Cons: Mediocre picture quality. Not a lot of inputs.

Ideal for: The budget-conscious TV watcher.

Believe it or not, you can buy a decent TV without paying an arm and a leg. The Samsung LNC350’s image quality isn’t the best, but it’s solid, and the TV even has a USB port built in so you can plug in your camera or music player and use your TV as the hub of your home theater.