I am biting my tongue as I type these words. In fact, I am biting down so hard that I should have a physician standing by.

Here goes: Do not buy a plasma television.

Even if you buy champagne by the case, or if you use your Mercedes only when the Bentley is in the repair shop, just say no.

It hurts to say that. After all, I love gadgets. To make things even more nonsensical, the picture quality of a plasma screen is so good you can see the weave of an actor's shirt. And plasma is very cool. When I had a loaner plasma set at my house, I kept hoping the neighbors would drop in and be impressed. That big, wonderously brilliant picture stops you in your tracks when you first see it.

But, like I said, don't do it. Don't buy plasma.

Instead, suffer along for a while longer. The future of flat-screen televisions is spelled out in three letters: LCD. That stands for liquid crystal display. It also stands for the flat-screen television you will own someday.

Here's the irony. If you compare the two technologies today, LCD will come out the loser. Today's plasmas have a better picture and come in screen sizes that LCD can't match. Making an LCD with a screen size much bigger than 30 inches has been too expensive --- even in this high-priced market where folks don't blink an eye at 46-inch plasma sets selling for $6,000 or so.

But things are changing fast. That's why you need to keep your money in your pocket.

Let me explain why LCDs are the future and plasma is transitional. Plasma is the product that made the flat-screen era real, that created one of the most exciting consumer products since the DVD. Who wouldn't want a big-screen TV that combines high resolution suitable for HDTV with a screen so thin you can hang it on the wall?

Hey, me too. And when I first reviewed plasma, I said a lot of nice things about it. All of them were true. I mentioned some negatives, too --- such as the fact that plasma screens tend to run hot and that the long-term reliability of the set was in question. But I didn't spend enough time talking about competing LCD screens and what they have to offer. That was because truly big-screen LCDs weren't readily available.

They still aren't, but they're getting close. I saw a 46-inch model --- being sold to business users --- at a trade show not long ago. Big-screen LCD sets are now available for business users prepared to pay top dollar. But the buzz is pretty consistent now --- big-screen LCDs will soon be competing for your dollar at your local consumer electronics store. (Well, for your thousands of dollars.)

That's good news. The easiest way to show you is to compare LCD and plasma in a few key areas:

> Weight: The 46-inch plasma that I used during my demo period weighed 86 pounds. If you plan to hang one on the wall --- and that's the logical place --- you need to make sure the mounting installation is sturdy. An LCD screen of the same size will be about 13 pounds lighter.

One other factor to keep in mind is that a slight bend of the plasma screen will wreck it. That's sure a possibility if you can picture two people trying to manipulate a set weighing 86 pounds or more onto a wall mount.

> Life span: Experts are consistent when they say that an LCD screen should last for about 50,000 hours of viewing. A plasma set should last for about 30,000 hours. I trust those figures because one resource for them is Philips, a company that makes both plasma and LCD screens. That extra 20,000 hours of life amounts to nine more years of service for people who watch at television six hours each day of the year.

> Burn-in: Plasma sets are suceptible to burn-in. If you have a static picture on the screen, burn-in means the static picture will eventually permanently etch itself into the phosphorus coating of the screen. LCDs don't use phosphorus. Depending on who is talking, they are either immune to burn-in, or at least unlikely to suffer from it.

> Picture quality: Plasmas do a better job of displaying pure black, but LCD is catching up. Plasmas also furnish a brighter, more vivid picture in a darkened room. However, LCD is better in daylight.

That's my case for an LCD screen. If you are willing to settle for or even prefer a relatively modest screen size, you can buy one now. But I'd wait for a year or two. The same improvements that will make larger LCD screens affordable, in a relative sense, will also be a factor in lowering prices for all screen sizes.

I feel really confident in offering this advice. Why? Well, I mentioned my notion that LCD is the future to an acquaintance, and he agreed with me. What's the big deal? He makes a living selling plasma televisions.

tecbud@ajc.com