Dell's full-featured W3207C (left) is our Best Buy; the low-priced ($700) Vizio VX32LHDTV ranks second. Despite the hype surrounding them, gargantuan flat-panel televisions are not for everyone. People with smaller rooms and tighter budgets need a unit that will fit their resources. A 32-inch LCD TV is one good option. With a manageable price and size, it is a great entre into the world of wide-screen high-definition TV.

A 32-inch set can be a nice fit for rooms that lack the optimal viewing distance for 42-inch and bigger televisions, which is at least 7 feet (or about twice the diagonal measurement of the screen). In small rooms, you're more likely to be seated so close to the TV that individual pixels become noticeable on larger sets, making the images look grainy.

LCD TVs are wall mountable, as well, potentially saving considerable space over a bulky CRT. Another factor to be aware of with any wide-screen television is the height of the display--which in the case of these 32-inch models is equivalent to that of a 26-inch screen having a conventional 4:3 aspect ratio.

LCD TVs are also getting cheaper, fast. Riddhi Patel, principal analyst of research firm iSuppli, says that the average cost of 32-inch LCD TVs dropped to about $850 in the last quarter of 2006, with some sets priced as low as $599. The net result of these cuts is that 32-inch LCD models now cost only a small percentage more than similarly sized CRTs but are still significantly cheaper than their 37-inch LCD siblings, whose price averaged about $1400 in the last quarter of 2006.

Dell and Vizio Win

PC World gathered seven 32-inch LCD HDTVs and put them through a battery of tests that included the display of both high-definition and standard-definition video. In general, all performed respectably, although no one set's image quality blew us away. The differences had to do with the color warmth and brightness of the calibrated settings at which we test, but you can adjust those to your taste.

While the highest performers edged out the other TVs only narrowly, the price differences between sets were wide. The top-performing Toshiba 32HL66, for example, cost $900 more than the Vizio VX32LHDTV, but the Toshiba set outscored the Vizio in image quality just slightly.

In the end, the Dell W3207C earned PC World's Best Buy nod, racking up points for consistently well-saturated images and ample connectors. Its shiny black and silver cabinet with a swiveling stand provides a sleek look, even with its side-mounted speakers.

Budget-HDTV stalwart Vizio, with its VX32LHDTV, finished right on the Dell's heels. In tests at both standard and high definition, this model produced pleasingly saturated colors, sharp pictures, and nuanced details.

The Panasonic TC-32LX60, which came in third, offered good color and image quality plus desirable features such as a built-in HDTV tuner and a swiveling stand. Its $1200 price matched the median of this test set of LCDs.

HP's $900 LC3260 claimed last place in this roundup's image-quality tests, although its score was only six points off from that of our winner. It also earned marks slightly below average in the important high-definition and DVD tests. However, its low price and solid, if somewhat basic, design helped it take fourth place overall on our chart.

The number five Westinghouse LTV-32w6 was third in our screen tests, displaying sharp pictures with natural tones regardless of whether the source was high or standard definition. Though relatively inexpensive at $999, the unit lacks RCA audio inputs and offers only one HDMI port, one S-Video port, and a single set of composite inputs, when some other models provide two or even three of each type of connector. It does have two component inputs.

Two TVs we tested--the Sharp LC-32D50U and the Toshiba 32HL66--did not make the chart, largely because of their high prices. The $1700 LC-32D50U, from the company's premium Aquos line, scored fourth in image-quality tests and was the strongest at displaying DVD movies and standard-definition content. It also comes with a light sensor that automatically adjusts the backlight brightness, which is an unusual feature in this size and category of TV. Additionally, some consumers may like its unique titanium-hued cabinet well enough to shell out for this stylish set.

Toshiba's $1600 32HL66 earned the best overall performance score in our tests, but not by much. HD images displayed with punchy colors and pleasing contrast, and the set's picture quality remained consistent under different lighting conditions. However, our test model lacked extras--such as a swiveling stand and more than one HDMI input--that you would expect to find at this price.

Specs and Features

All of the TVs we tested support 720p and 1080i, the high-definition resolutions that all HD broadcast television programming offers.

None of them, though, support the 1080p resolution--also known as full HD--that HD DVD and Blu-ray players can output. Of course, those devices can convert 1080p sources to 1080i or 720p for viewing on the TVs we tested, as long as you use an HDMI connection (which all of the sets here came with).

Should you hold out for full HD on a set this size? No--iSuppli's Patel says it doesn't make much economic sense for LCD TV manufacturers to put 1080p HDTV resolution on smaller sets given the price pressures that they face.

The good news: LCD TV manufacturers have improved other specifications of their 32-inch sets. For example, the pixel response times in this group all range from 6 to 8 milliseconds--faster than the 16-millisecond response time of some models on our previous charts. One indicator of this improvement is that we noticed hardly any bothersome ghosting in fast-action sequences or camera panning. However, manufacturers measure this spec in different ways, so you shouldn't use it as a deciding factor in your purchase.

The LCD TV sets we tested are simple in design, though a few models have features that make them stand out. We discovered that buttons located on the side or top of the TV cabinets--as on the Vizio and HP-