It wasn’t all that long ago that I spent $4,000 on a 43-inch plasma-screen television. It was a Panasonic with a beautiful picture. Problem is, the circuit board in it went bad after fewer than 18 months, causing a green band to stay on the screen constantly.

Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed. It was a lot of money to pay for a product that didn’t even make it two years. Nowadays, however, you can get big-screen HDTVs for a fraction of that price. Case in point: the Vizio VO320E TV, available for a little more than a tenth of that price.

It’s a little smaller screen, but the picture is better, with 720p HD resolution. This particular model is also eco-friendly, consuming less electricity than a normal HDTV, according to the company. It has all the inputs you’re likely to need, including component, composite, S-video, VGA and HDMI.

This is good news for those of you shopping for a new television; not so good news for those of us who shelled out four big ones for a plasma that kicked the bucket after less than two years.