Alright dude, trust me on this one. Don't go with sony. Samsung is the leading HDTV manufacturer. They now make the best tvs at the most competitive prices. I'll try to get you a link but in 2008 there was an article on cnet stating how samsung had dethroned sony.
They have tvs that look as good or better than their respective sony counterparts for usually 100-400 dollars cheaper. I just bought an HDTV in febuary of 09. I was leaning towards sony because of the brand trust they have built in the tv buisness. However, I was determined to get the best tv available for my money. I looked into all the technologies, LCD, PLASMA, DLP and even OLED. The best for now out of these are plasma and LCD. They are about equal.
I went to 10 different electronic stores and looked at all the models. Samsung and Sony were always head and shoulders above everything else. At least in the LCD department. Samsung tvs seemed to edge out the counterpart models sony had to offer 9x out of 10. Best part was that they were always a bit cheaper.
I bought the Ln46a850 model. It's absolutely gorgeous. This tv had been out in the market for about 4 months when I bought it and I bought it for $1800.
Nowadays they have some LED backlit LCDs. Most arent worth the extra cash. The LED backlights increase the contrast ratio to be more comparable to the insane contrast ratios plsmas enjoy. However, unless you go for the top end models the upgrade isn't big enough to justify the price. They are reeeally thin though. Even thinner than mine which is less than 2 inches thick.
