"It's like buying a car in the old days. I bought a car for less than this thing costs," said Ben Zimmerman, 71, during a visit to a Best Buy in the Minneapolis suburb of Roseville. He and his wife were picking out the TV they were buying each other for their anniversary. They settled on a 26-inch Sony, which they planned to use mostly for watching DVDs.

He ended up paying about $1,800 for an LCD TV, and shelled out another $250 for an extended warranty.

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The big discount stores generally offer bare-bones service — you pretty much walk in and pick out the TV you want. Best Buy and Circuit City Stores Inc. sell installation packages, and increasingly those extra services help to drive profits. That's fine with them.

Haruki said prices drop even lower at online-only retailers. His survey of more than 40 resellers found a Samsung 50-inch projection HDTV selling online for $1,600 versus $2,500 suggested retail. He said some buyers are overcoming their reluctance to make such a big-ticket purchase online by looking at the TV first in the store.

"The consumer is not going to continue to ignore the pricing (difference), because it's just too vast right now," he said.

Upstart TV brands now fight for shelf space with established makers like Sony and Samsung Electronics Co. Some familiar names like Zenith and RCA have been bought by companies that slap those brands on Asian-built TVs. Semenza said 88 percent of TVs sold worldwide are built in Asia.

Shoppers are seeing new brands, too, such as Vizio TVs from V Inc. The company's headquarters are in California but like most sellers its TVs come from overseas. Haruki said V Inc. jump-started its Vizio brand by selling through Costco. Costco margins are thin but Vizio gained a national footprint quickly, he said. Vizio TVs are now sold at several other retailers as well.

Some of the early Vizio TVs sold for as much as $600 less than similar Panasonic models, said Haruki, adding that the Vizio may not have been quite the Panasonic's equal, but "bang-for-the-buck wise, it's very, very good."

But buyer beware:

Gerard Catapano, manager of audio, video and imaging at Consumer Reports, says performance on many of the newer brands is "typically inconsistent."

"We found very few did well, compared to a known name brand, like a Sony or Panasonic, which performed more consistently," he said. "We would shy away from them unless you have a specific recommendation."

Even with all the new TV brands fighting for shelf space, the price drops have had more to do with cheaper manufacturing costs than competition between retailers, said Crowell, Weedon & Co. electronics analyst James Ragan.

He guesses that retailers are still getting margins in the low 20 percent range.

"Over time, the competition will become even more intense. There will be a time when the margins are impacted a bit," said Ragan.

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