When playing casino games on your TV, hardware makes a big difference. The kind of TV you use to connect to live dealer games or online poker rooms has as big an impact on the way the game looks as the casino software or any other single feature of an online gaming site. No matter how good a casino’s live software is, a TV with poor picture quality or other flaws is just not going to give you the kind of high-quality game you can expect from TV casino play.

Here are three of the best TVs you can invest in if you want to make your television a part of your online gambling experience. None of these TVs is particularly light on the wallet, but if you’re trying to build a top-notch at-home casino experience, sometimes you have to spend a little cash. Each of these TVs has its up and downs, but all are great choices for the at home casino gambler.

1. Panasonic VT50 (Plasma)

This TV has by far the best picture quality of anything on the market right now. Yes, it sells for around $2,000, but if your TV gambling is important to you, this is the best-looking gadget for the experience. One of the best features of the VT50 is the depth of black colors available from the plasma screen – online gambling, whether animated or broadcast via live dealer, incorporates a lot of shades and textures that look a lot better when black and dark colors are rich. The VT50 is the most crisp looking TV, the one I personally use when I do my TV casino gambling. One downside – in brightly-lit rooms, the picture quality is highly compromised. So this TV is best for casino games in media rooms or other places where the light quality can be controlled.

2. Sharp Elite PRO (LED)

In the world of LED displays, Sharp’s Elite PRO are some of the best. However, there’s a big downside – expense. You won’t spend less than $4,000 on one of these TV sets, making them prohibitively expensive for most gamblers. But if you want to build an in-home casino with a beautiful display, a Sharp Elite PRO set will give you a picture quality almost as good as the Panasonic plasma mentioned above, and on the bright side, it performs better than plasma displays in rooms with light pollution. If you can afford it, this is one of the best TV casino setups you can find.

3. Sony XBR (LED-LCD)

Sony’s combination of LED and LCD displays on their XBR line of TVs is unique – it also means that this model actually outperforms the Panasonic plasma I use, in terms of the quality of black and dark color displays. However, you’ll spend at least twice as much on this Sony model than on top-of-the-line plasmas. For gamblers looking to incorporate their TV, Sony’s XBR is a beautiful way to display your favorite game, but it comes at a fairly steep price tag and has a few off-angle issues, which distort the display if you’re not sitting right in front of it.

If you’re going to play blackjack or live dealer roulette on your television, you may as well invest in a piece of equipment that will show off your casino’s software as beautifully as possible. Connecting your TV to your gambling account using any of the above three TVs is ideal.