I just did a ton of research because I wanted to upgrade from tube to flat panel. Main difference between plasma and LCD is you start to lose the ability to view from an angle. However, you can still see the picture at angles greater than 45 degrees, so unless you plan to sit way off to the side of the set, you will be able to view the picture. Upside to LCD is it uses slightly less power than plasma. Downside to plasma is slightly higher energy costs/heat produced by the set and also if you end up watching a lot of the same channels and they have the annoying little bug at the bottom of the screen, then you can actually burn that image into the screen of the plasma. One final upside is that plasma will give you a slightly better picture in higher light settings in the room the set is in.
LED really is the cream of the crop right now. Very well defined picture with it's contrast ratios (truest blacks). Plus they are only about 2 inches thick and use much less energy than LCD or Plasma, but you can't touch one for less than about $1500 right now. A 46" LED will run close to 2k.
Here is a little tidbit about broadcast "hi-def". Most stations only broadcast at 720p. There are a handful that broadcast at 1080i and unless you have dish network and are able to get the handful of stations they broadcast at 1080p, then all the hype about 1080p resolution in a tv set is just that- hype because no signal out there is even at that resolution. We have the "hi-def" box from Direct TV and did notice an improvement in the quality of the picture, but that was seen when the new box arrived and was hooked up to the tube TV and not when we switched to the new 1080p LCD.
I have no idea if broadcast TV has any plans to go to 1080p anytime soon and most flat panels are 1080p anyway, so my whole beef about hyping it is probably a mute point now, but I just found it funny how 1080p was such a big hyping point for TV sellers and almost none of the signals broadcasted were at that level. Sort of like when digital cameras were hyping "digital zoom".
The deal with the frequency of the refresh of the TV (60 Hz, 120 Hz and 240 Hz) is that most American movies are shot at frame rates of 24/second. So a TV that has a refresh rate that is divisible by 24 (120/240) will match up perfectly with the frame rate that the footage was shot in. That is suppose to give you a better picture. I'd say that most folks would probably not notice the difference so it is not worth paying extra for, but a lot of the newer sets are running at 120 Hz. I don't think there is an improvement from 120 to 240. Probably just another way to get you to spend more.
Now, where you will see the difference in 1080p is BlueRay. Holy Crap! I bought a BlueRay player the same day I bought the new LCD. I also picked up a few BlueRay DVD's. The only one I have watched so far is Planet Earth, but man-o-man, what an awesome picture. For those that are prone to motion sickness, some of the fly-over shots in that DVD will get you to need a barf bag! The picture is so clear it almost looks 3D. So the BlueRay DVD player was probably the best investment of the whole bunch. Can't wait to run through the Band of Brothers set in BlueRay I got as well.
Hope this helps. You want to stop by and check the setup out Chris, drop me a line.
-John
