Audio Systems: What is a siundbar, inexpensive speakers, sony bravia tv

Question
This is a very basic question.
I am in the market for a couple of inexpensive speakers for my 32" Sony Bravia TV (about 8 years old), simplair to the small speakers used for my desktop PC.
Radio Shack did not carry what I was looking for but did stock "soundbars". I may be out of date, but is a soundbar a replacement for conventional speakers. Or does it have additional capabilities.
Thanks for volunteering.

Answer
Soundbar speakers that I am familiar with refers to their shape, not any fancy technology.  The speakers are packaged in a long box that will fit under neath or along the bottom of the tv for the sound.  Some of them have a center speaker built in if your tv has a center channel output.

But, if you go to any pc store such as BestBuy you can find various kinds of pc speaker systems that will work just fine for a tv.  You may have to find an adapter to convert the rca outputs or headphone outputs of the tv to work with the input plug on the pc speaker set.  You can find them for $20 and up.  I use a $20 pc speaker set with a tv that works just fine; it has a subwoofer and two satellite speakers and has good sound quality.  Since it has its own built in amplifier it is very easy to connect.

Good Luck,
C