TV: What's the diff between flat-screen and tube?

you have a standard tube, a flat screen tube, flat screen crt (Catha ray tube) for older big screens , then you have flat panels. A flat panel is like the LCD and plasma. How they work is there are electrodes along the side of the TV screen that send electronic impulses to the pixels (The little dots) and tells them when to turn on off and what color. More pixels or dpi (dots per inch) you have the better looking your picture quality will be. The life expectancy of a flat panel didn't use to be so good like 4 years or so but now they are getting really good and can last in excess of 10 years. That's good considering you could shell out over 5 grand for some of the better quality ones. Hope this helps if you have any more questions pleas email me.