I am in the market for a new 42" Flat Screen. I am leaning toward plasma, but could still be convinced to go LCD. I have speakers & tuner covered in seperate components, so do not need to pay extra for these features.
The room is sidelit to the TV (windows at a 90 degree angle) and almost all TV watching is done at night.
On cost, I am more concerned about "value" than "price." I.E I will spend more to get a better picture, but not just to have bragging rights or to get features I will never use.
I suggest to go with a brand name HDTV LCD. I have a Panasonic LCD and its HD/DVD picture is stunning. The one major good thing about brand name HDTV is that the Non-HD broadcast is much better compared to those cheap no-names (I have an Olevia HDTV 26" and can see the difference). Cable-card is a a problem source as you can see through out this forum. Integrated tuner is not really needed if you're a PC enthusiast.
1. If you go with Cable company, you will use its setop box. No need for a built-in tuner.
2. If you choose to go with OTA (Over The Air, free, no cable company) then buy a Desktop PC *and* a HDTV card and turn it into a TiVo. Its value far outweights the cost of buying a Tivo set and subscribe to its service. That's what I have. The HDTV card I am using is ATI HDTV Wonder and it is simply great in HD mode. Analog also works but not as good. Its cost nowaday is $130. Some time can be found on sale for $99 at CompUSA. The PC can be used as a DVD player as well and it plays every kind of DVD much better than those stand alone DVD players which often have a hard time playing recorded DVD. The connection from the PC to the HDTV can be done using a HDMI-DVI cable and the picture is a lot better when connecting DVD to TV via Components, unless you have a HiDef DVD player which is around $150 still. The ATI TV wireless remote control can be used as a remote control for the whole PC including DVD and mouse.
HD TV signal? DVDs? Standard Def TV? And will the whole family be watching at once or just one person? Do you respond more to contrast or to resolution?
These answers are key to getting the best display for you.
I am not a fan of plasma at all at least at the issue of power consumption and burn-in effect. Heat is the worst of all. Plasma has its brightness advantage compared to LCD but with proper room condition LCD still looks very decent. LCD is well proven in PC industry and has support from many big manufacturers and more work is in the progress which promises its future to last and improve.
I have not heard much about plasma technology lately.
By the way, both Samsung and Philippe are good brands, but I prefer Samsung.