I have an 'off-brand' display. It's worked okay for me. For the price, it was a very good deal.

Ah. It looks like again, the difference between the two models is merely comprised of anti-glare coating (which they were not overly impressed with) and aesthetics.

The plasma panel itself is likely exactly the same. It sounds like a great buy to me. It even has side inputs for HDMI and component!

EDIT:  It also lacks a USB 2.0 connection.  I can't imagine that would be of much use for anything. 

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Sweet.

I would go with an lcd

I hope you're prepared to offer an expansive and well-researched defense of your preference.

I would go with an lcd because you are a gamer most reviews i have read say lcds are the better television for gaming and viewing hd movies. Plasmas only look better in pitch black rooms.

Any time you have light in the room the lcd would look better

I couldn't disagree more about HD movies looking better on LCD screens. The lighting issue has been mentioned several times already in this thread, and "pitch-black" is certainly an exaggeration for the required lighting conditions (though it isn't a bad way to go for movie-theatre ambience). As for gaming, the faster response times of plasma screens can prevent such problems as ghosting that sometimes occur with LCD displays, especially for resolutions that need to be converted to the native display resolution (virtually all of them).

Also consumer reports most recent issue says that of all hd tvs (plasma and LCD) that sony lcds rank first with samsung lcds second. This was overall.

Also, if you go to cnet and read reviews for the new lcd televisions they state that they look as good as plasmas.

However, in the case of Bodhesatva he is simply looking for a good tv at a good price. If i were him i would probably go with price the 47 1080p at 1330 sounded good although i cant remember if that was a plasma or lcd. He also mentioned a 50 at 720 but i am told that once you get above 46 not having 1080 can take away from the picture

It sounds like your points are all based on conjecture and hearsay. I am basing mine on actual experience.

ghosting is not a problem on new lcds at least not mine which has a 6ms response time. Some newer ones even have 4ms or 2 ms. As for pitch black that is an exaggeration but for plasmas the darker the better. For lcds if you have light it is okay. Viewing angle on new lcds is 178 which is fantastic.

Now i will admit that my friend has a 32 inch vizio lcd 720p it ghosts on occasion but it is not to noticable.