To help you get the best TV at the best price the day after Thanksgiving, we've scoured countless Black Friday circulars, websites, and online forums to find the best deals available.

You may want to begin your shopping before Friday if you have time. As we've noted, a number of retailers have already jump-started Black Friday with pre-holiday specials—like a $99 price for Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD DV, an offer that was immediately matched by Best Buy, and Sears' $770 price on a 42-inch Hitachi "1080" (1280x1080) plasma (model P42H401). Other such deals may crop up before the doors open on Friday; check retailers' websites.

Without further ado, here are our best Black Friday deals on HDTVs. We list only brands that have had one or more recommended models in our Ratings over the past year, though untested models, of course, may differ. In some cases, as noted, we've tested the model, and comment on its performance. (Note: Our test results and comments on those models are accessible only to ConsumerReports.org subscribers. Click here to subscribe and get instant access to that detailed information, as well as to our latest LCD TV Ratings, plasma TVs Ratings, rear-projection TV Ratings and Ratings for front projectors.)

LCD HDTVs

• Olevia 32-inch LCD (no model listed) for $420 at Kmart
• Vizio 32-inch LCD (VXLHDTV32) for $599 at Sears
• Olevia 37-inch LCD (537H) for $600 (a tested model, image above, that we recommend) at CompUSA
• Olevia 37-inch LCD (237T) for $549 at Target
• Vizio 37-inch LCD (unspecified model) for $600 at BJ's
• Sharp 42-inch 720p LCD (LC-42D43U, a larger sibling to a 37-inch Sharp that performed decently in our tests) for $800 at Circuit City
• Olevia 42-inch LCD (242T) for $700 at MicroCenter and BJ's (unspecified model)
• Sharp 46-inch 1080p LCD (LC-46D64U) for $1,300 at Circuit City
• Sony 46-inch Bravia LCD TV for $1,500 at Sears. LCD sets from Sony have consistently been among the best performers in our tests.
• Olevia 47-inch 1080p LCD for $1,000 at BJ's
• Westinghouse 47-inch 1080p LCD TV (TX-47F430S, a tested model with very good picture quality) for $1,300 at Best Buy
• LG 47-inch 1080p LCD TV (47LC7DF) for $1,500 at CompUSA
• Vizio 52-inch LCD TV (unnamed model) at Sam’s Club for $1,889
• Sharp 52-inch 1080p LCD (LC-52D64U) for $2,200 at Circuit City

Plasma HDTVs

We saw a lot of deals on Panasonic models. Though we have not tested all of the sets on special, models from this brand have consistently been among the best in our tests.

• Panasonic TH-42PE7U 42-inch 720p plasma for $900 at Best Buy
• Panasonic 42-inch TH-42PX75U 720p plasma (its 50-inch sibling was a CR Best Buy) for $1,000 at CircuitCity
• Panasonic 50-inch 720p plasma (unspecified model) for $1,200 at MicroCenter.
• Panasonic 720p 58-inch plasma (unspecified model) $500 off at Costco

Other good deals in plasmas:

• LG 42-inch 720p plasma (42PC5D, a CR recommended model) for $900 at Sears
• Philips 50-inch 720p plasma (unspecified model) for at Wal-Mart for $1,398
• Samsung 50-inch 720p plasma (HP-T5044) for $1,300 at CompUSA ($100 cheaper than Best Buy, Circuit City, or Sears)
• Vizio 50-inch 720p plasma (unnamed model) for $1,000 at Costco

Rear-projection HDTVs

• Mitsubishi 65-inch 1080p DLP rear-projection HDTV (WD-65733, a follow-up to a discontinued model) for $1,500 at Best Buy

It's likely that many retailers will follow Black Friday promotions with still more sales. If you don't get the deal you're looking for, keep checking our Electronics Blog, ConsumerReports.org site and others for new deals, additional promotional events, and online specials as we get closer to Christmas. And next year, it will likely pay to start checking for Black Friday bargains two weeks before the actual holiday.

—James K. Willcox