If a television set is on your holiday shopping list, then you had better take a few moments to make a list and check it twice. That’s because there are plenty of options when it comes to buying a new TV: digital, HD, plasma, cable-ready, LCD, wide-screen, flat-screen.

And that’s just the beginning. Will your television have to be set on a table or the floor, or is it to be mounted on the wall? Just because it is digital, does that mean it can show all the high-definition programming? Are there enough inputs to handle everything that goes into your television set?

Stop. Take a breath. Shopping for a television doesn’t have to be such a task.

“Most customers just want a good TV,” says Sean Lieder, who manages a Sears.

His words of advice are to shop around for the best price, make sure you know the type of room where the television will be placed and be aware of the kind of equipment that will be plugged into the TV.

To help make your shopping as painless as possible, here are a few simple tips:

¢ Money, money, money: It is going to cost you anywhere from under $100 to more than $4,000. Sure, that sounds like a huge range. But the cost depends on the size and type of set you purchase.

That’s why it is a good idea to have an amount in mind. Be willing to be a little flexible with the amount you want to spend. But at least have a ballpark number.

Prices of larger sets continue to drop. So if the set you want is just a little too pricey, you might want to wait until after the holidays to buy.

¢ Screen envy: The natural instinct will be to want the biggest screen you can afford. That might not be the smartest idea.

Evaluate the space where you will be watching. If the room is huge, go for a large screen. If the room is small and you will sit closer to the set, then consider a smaller screen.

When you sit too close to a large-screen set, even the digital variety, the picture won’t look as clear. The Web site www.myhometheater.homestead.com suggests a good rule of thumb is you should be sitting three to six screen widths away from the TV for the best viewing.

A 42-inch set, then, would call for sitting five to nine feet away from the screen.

That’s why a 30-inch screen, and sets that are smaller, are better picks when you are considering options for a bedroom, kitchen or other smaller room in your house.

¢ Location, location: Keep in mind the style of set when calculating TV size.

Plasma TVs aren’t a problem; wall-mounted varieties are only a few inches deep. But tube or rear-projection sets can take up to a couple of feet of space. Even a flat-screen television takes up extra space if you opt for a floor or table mount.

¢ Taking shape: There are two basic styles of screens. Most show a picture that is a 4:3 ratio, offering a picture only slightly wider than it is tall.

More and more sets now come in a 16:9 ratio, known as a wide-screen TV. That ratio is closer to that used to show a movie in a theater.

If you watch a wide-screen DVD or a TV show that has been produced in the wide-screen style on a 4:3 format TV, then there will be black bars across the top and bottom of the screen.

If you have a wide-screen TV, then there are black bars down each side when you watch a program that was produced in the 4:3 ratio.

With more and more DVDs and TV programs going to the wide-screen format, it is worth looking at a television set with the 16:9 ratio.

¢ Learn the language: You are going to hear a lot of terms thrown around when you go shopping. If the television set is analog, that means it cannot be used to watch progressive-scan DVDs or high-definition television.

There are several types of televisions that can be used to watch digital programming. A standard-definition television is an analog television that comes with a tuner. This tuner makes it possible to receive digital television broadcasts. All hope is not lost if you buy an analog television that does not have a tuner. External tuners, such as a cable box, will make the set work.

There is the enhanced-definition television set, which can be used to watch high-definition programming, either from a network or cable broadcast or DVDs, but do not produce the maximum quality. The quality is better than analog but not as good as it can get.

If you want the best quality, then high-definition sets are the way to go. They are the most common type of digital televisions being produced.

¢ Get a clear picture: You are going to hear the phrase resolution used a lot. Resolution is simply the term for picture quality.

TV signals are delivered electronically through a series of lines that zip across the screen too fast for the eye to see. This happens repeatedly to create the moving images we see. An analog set uses 480 lines to deliver its picture.

A high-definition set delivers pictures using up to 1,080 lines. It’s basic math: The more lines used to deliver an image, the sharper the detail.

¢ Getting connected: Take a look at the electronics stockpile you have around your set. Many homes have a VCR, DVD player, surround sound, cable box, gaming consoles or a variety of other pieces of equipment connected to their television sets.

When you look at new TVs, take a look behind the set. You need to make sure that it has enough places to connect all of the electronics you will be using.