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You will by far get the most HD channels on DirecTv
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http://www.voom.com/
getting something smaller than 42" is criminal for hd unless you're sitting 1 foot away from the television. you want a large, clear picture and a wide viewing angle otherwise you won't be able to see the details, and details are the big deal. there's not much you can do with $1000. but if that's what i had to spend i'd get a 30" direct view widescreen crt with a builtin atsc tuner, should be in that range. it is gonna be really small for sd content though. since that's probably going to be the bulk of your viewing you could consider something like a 32-36" 4:3 set, but then you get to be slightly concerned about burning in black bars as you start watching more and more ws stuff and you're assured that your set will be not-so-desirable even for other rooms in your place when you've retired it. if your local cable company has good+local hd programming you can get by without a tuner.
the 'bad for video games' comments are ridiculously subjective because of the huge differences in the types of possible tvs (direct view crt, rear projection crt, front projection dlp or lcd, rear projection dlp or lcd, flat panel plasma or lcd, various crap like lcos, etc). they could be talking about brightness/contrast, burn-in, or god knows what and it's not applicable to every type of set. generally speaking it seems like most people in OOT don't know their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to televisions but talk about it authoritatively because they happened to buy one.
avsforum.com is great but it's not very well organized for newbies. i would hit cnet to get up to speed on the basics/reviews.