HDTV's Are The New Norm For Televisions - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Chances are you're watching KX News on a high definition television.

Today more than 75 percent of people own a HD-TV, and nearly 40 percent have more than one in their home, In 2007 just 11 percent of homes had an HDTV.

Tonight we look into what's driving this new trend.

"Counsel TV's were a big thing, so you were buying furniture with a television inside of it," Clarence Sayler said.

Clarence Sayler has been selling televisions for 30 years, and a lot has changed the last three decades.

"One of the largest sizes when I started was a 27 inch television," Sayler said.

Now a 27 inch is one of the smallest sizes.

"The sizes that people used to buy like 27, 32 42, I mean those are slim pickings where people are hardly buying those anymore, I'd say 55, 60, and I think our hottest item over the weekend was the 70 inch," Jamie Stephens said.

While the sizes of HD-TV's continue to go up, the prices are going down.

"Prices have gone down drastically just in the last year, some prices have been cut exactly in half, which is amazing," Sayler said.

A lot of the TV's on the market these days are more than just a TV, in fact some of them can even be used as a web browser.

"And on the back side, it has where the mouse is so you'll control the mouse right there, it will run your TV and everything, it will turn your TV into a browser," Stephens said.

With prices going down and more features being added everyday to these slim TV's, its no wonder more Americans are purchasing new TV's.

"It's gotten to the point where nobody looks at anything unless it's a HDTV," Sayler said.

If you have an old television that you'd like to get rid off you can drop it off at the Household Hazardous Waste and Recycling Center.

The recycling center is located at 2111 N 52nd Street in Bismarck.

They're open Tuesdays and Thursday and every first and third Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.