Love your icon.

Cheap? Probably after 12/25, no? Or maybe even right after the Super Bowl?

I went through this same process a little under a year ago. The biggest tip I can give you is a great way to figure out what size you actually want. Find the specs for a few tvs of the sizes you'd consider and cut out cardboard of the appropriate size. Prop up the cardboard in the place you'd put the TV and see how it feels. I thought I would want a 42-46" in our living room; when I cut out the cardboard I realized those would feel overwhelming and 37" was much better in the space.

As for 720p versus 1080p, in those sizes it doesn't much matter, at least for TV or DVD. 1080p will add to the cost without adding much to the quality. No clue about for gaming; others will need to weigh in. If you have any thought of using the display as a computer monitor, though, 1080p is useful since it gives you more pixels to work with. (1080i is no better than 720p and in any event not sold much any more.)

As for specs, you want LCD, not plasma. You probably want something with a decent contrast ratio (meaning closer to 10000:1 than 1000:1) — this will rule out discount brands like Vizio , Sceptre, and Olevia, but brands like Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony, and Sharp are all fine. You want at least three HDMI ports plus a range of other ones; pretty much any TV of those brands will work for that. I ended up buying a Toshiba solely because it was one of the few I could find with a matte bezel instead of a glossy one, but that's probably an idiosyncratic preference.

We have an powered antenna with our HDTV (RCA branded, has a gain control) and it's great. We get high def stuff over the airwaves without paying for digital cable. Sure, there's not too many channels, but there's something like 6 PBS stations and all the regular network stuff.

I recommend not too big. Our sofa is about 9-10 feet and a 32 inch TV is just fine. Then again, I don't prefer big dominating TVs, so take my opinion with a grain of salt :)

Oh yea, I forgot about antennas. There are good HD antennas that will give you better quality than cable, but unlike a lot of antennas they cost actual money. Personally, I say just get cable in your room.

I have to disagree - our antenna cost about $60, and does fine (every once and a while a station has issues, but it's no biggie). HDTV looks amazing, such as the Olympics or programs like Lost. Digital cable is at least $60/month once you're out of the $33/mo promotion that lasts 6 months (not counting the $9/mo for HD). Comcast sucks. We've had our antenna for almost 2 years, that's over $1000 in savings.

Unless there are channels that she can't live without and are worth that kind of money.

Oh yea, I don't mean to suggest that an antenna is as expensive as cable. I like cable. :)

Like rford said, 1080p probably won't make a difference for TV and DVD, and everything else at that size of television probably supports 1080i and 720p, which are the best resolutions anybody actually broadcasts at. I don't know whether any of the current gaming consoles actually uses 1080p mode if the set supports it, but it's possible future generations will. That said, it won't be required within the foreseeable future.

If you have a rooftop antenna for your broadcast TV now, at your location you can probably continue to use it to receive digital TV. Worst case, you have to buy and install a signal amplifier to receive certain channels. If you're using an indoor antenna now, Antenna Web can help you choose the antenna you need.