Really you should go for the panasonic Viera, my brother works for a local hi-fi and home video magazine, they do a lot of TV testing. Panasonic is consistently on top of video and construction quality, the 3D tecnology work in many cases even better than on Sony TVs also, it's generally more reliable than Sansumg equivalents since it's made with more durable materials.
If you want the best alternative go for the plasma VT-30, video quality is stellar for the price, the cons: plasma tecnology is not at all power efficient. And 3D glasses are active, but you'll hardly get a better 3D than this.
http://www.flatpanelshd.com/review.php?subaction=showfull&id=1303892383
Actually if you want to avoid TV to get spoiled to soon you should basically avoid Samsung. They can make cheaper TVs with good quality panels since they are the biggest panel manifacturer by a large margin. The problem is, to keep the price lower, they often use cheaper less reliable electronic components, also for design requirements, often Samsung TV are too thin and don't properly allow heat dispersion.
