Help Me buy a TV

[solidfoxhound]

As the title suggests, i need to buy a 40 inch TV for my family but i don't have any idea about the TV market.
# Where should i go to buy?
# What brand to buy and would be reliable in BD, well except SONY (bad experience with that.)
# How to keep my TV from electric damage?
# And also is there any real advantage of buying a DTH set top Box rather than local dish connection? If so what should i buy?

Please help me with these and Thanks in advance to all of you.

[tth]

As far as I know- mainly two types of product available 1. Through authorized channel, and 2. unauthorized channel.
To get authorized product, you can visit respective distributor showroom. For unauthorized product you can check local e-commerce site.
For me, I am using a Samsung smart tv brought from from Transcom, may be 3 years ago. Still running fine.