The world of TVs is expanding and shrinking all the time. No, it’s not some crazy cosmic vortex dueling it out – but universally speaking, the stars are definitely aligning these days to give you constantly better shopping options for big-screen TVs.

What’s shrinking is image artifacts, cabinet depth, excess frame width and, of course, cost. What’s expanding is screen sizes, 1080p choices, resolution and contrast, connectivity options and general decorativeness.

Plasmas are getting larger, and also getting smaller – Panasonic’s debut of the technology at the 42-inch size earned a Product of the Year nod by providing an alternative for plasma enthusiasts at a screen size dominated by LCDs. Other impressive plasmas at the slightly larger size include 60-plus inch efforts from Hitachi and Fujitsu.

Plasmas aren’t for everyone, though. Let’s just say the flat-panel competition isn’t slim (yep, I went there) from the LCD market, and we found plenty of good ones to honor from Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sharp, Syntax-Brillian and Toshiba.

Seemingly overshadowed by the flat-panel glut is another display avenue that presents a formidable buying option: the microdisplay. Generally, they’re not so micro, either. Here, too, cabinet size has gone on a diet and made huge DLPs and our award-winning Sony Bravia SXRD model quite tasty for high-def viewing that isn’t nearly the monstrosity in your media room that big-screen boxes were only a few years ago.

Of course, one of today’s trends is hiding your TV in case you really don’t want it to stand out against your room environment. The choice are expanding in this realm as well, including a nifty Magic Mirror from Media Décor that we thought was too cool not to showcase.

Check out other Product of the Year Award winners.