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Generally speaking the pro tint shops will have higher quality tints than most retail places will carry. Some of the shops may sell you the film, though. The higher quality films are guaranteed not to bubble, if you get them installed at a pro shop then you can get your tint replaced for free if it does bubble....
Tinting is a pain the first time or two, but is pretty easy when you get down to it. Definitely do read the previous post, it has very helpful information in it. One thing not mentioned was to clean your windows well before installing the tint, it helps to clean outside and inside, just to be sure....nothing more annoying than having dirt under your film.
One of the local shops around here use Johnson&Johnson baby powder, I believe....or maybe it was the baby soap. You don't need a lot of it in the water, they had told me their proportions once but I forgot them.
The pro shops also use heat guns to help make the tint bond and reduce the number of bubbles you get. Just make sure you use it on the outside of the glass, don't blow the heat gun directly on the tint.
If you do the install yourself, you will maybe get some water bubbles under the tint that will linger for a little while. Leaving it in bright sunlight as much as possible will expedite the process. The bubbles will eventually soak up and disappear, it's not the same as when you see old tint bubbling.
You also may want to check your local laws if you want Officer Donuts to stay off your back. In Austin, the minimum allowed on side windows of a car is 35%. For SUV's it's allowed to be blacked out totally on the rear side windows, but the front seat windows are only allowed to be down to 35%. Back windows are permitted to be blacked out totally. 20% is pretty dark. I've got 37% on all my windows, it's easy to see out of at night (although it does distort lights a little) and is dimmer during the day.
If you're doing it for looks, then get whatever darkness you want that's legal (if you care about that....). If you're doing it at all for heat, then get a high quality metallized film. The metallized films reject far more heat than traditional dyed films. The darkness of the film does NOT indicate how much heat it will reject since most of the heat is not due to visible light.
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