How to evaluate digital oscilloscopes

DSO's are becoming one of the most versatile pieces of test equipment available today with the ability to make automatic parameter measurements on a variety of different signal types. Whether you look at sine, triangle, square or complex wave forms DSO's can measure just about any voltage or timing function automatically for you. With the advanced triggering functions you now can see waveforms never possible to by adjusting the triggering level alone. All the advances that have come with DSO's and the differences between all the manufactures make it difficult to do evaluation and comparison of different DSO's.