With each high def television boasting picture quality measured in arcane measurements like 480i and 1080p, buying your first HDTV can be confusing. But determining what clarity you can expect from your new television can be greatly simplified if you remember that modern televisions are essentially just displays, just like your desktop or laptop monitor.

Like displays, resolution is the prime determiner of an HDTV’s picture clarity, and those crazy numbers roughly equate to vertical resolution. A television which is 720p, for example, will support video of up to 1280 pixels wide by 720 pixels tall. A television which is 1080p will support video of up to 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall. If you see a television boasting 480i, beware: this is not a high-definition television.

But what about the trailing p and i? They refer to the television’s scan modes, but the good news is that you don’t really need to pay attention to that. If you’re curious, they refer to progressive scan andinterlaced and refer to the way the screen is drawn, but virtually all modern HDTVs are progressive scan.

If you want an image with the utmost picture clarity and a television that is the highest definition, you should buy a set that is native to 1080p. A resolution of 1080p is the only way you will be able to enjoy the full spectrum of high-definition media, such as Sony’s Blu-Ray media format. Most television networks are now transmitting their programming in 1080i. It will also future proof you for quite a few years… at least until 2160p, or Quad HDTV, finally makes in-roads into consumer products.

That all said, if you are considering buying a smaller television, or even if you just want to save a couple of hundred bucks, 720p is a perfectly acceptable resolution that will still impress eyes used to the blurry appearance of standard definition television. All 1080p content will still be watchable on your 720p display, with a marginal decrease in quality. In addition, most streaming high definition media maxes out at 720p, as well as all Xbox 360 content. If you need to save some money or your HDTV is primarily aimed at gaming or streaming media, going down to 720p is a decent bang for your buck.