Hey, me too.  I love my TV.

It was tough, though i had to deal because i dont work and just working on my studies.

So im kinda surprised i got one this soon without working once in my life, and im 18 already... old hobo mofo. v.v

I have a 52" 1080P LCD HDTV, 360/PS3 look absolutely AMAZING!!!!
I did have a 42" plasma but I returned it within the 30 day money back thingy as I wasn't happy with it, got LCD now and LOVE it!

I also have the Wii and Dreamcast setup on it, both work fine but look very blocky and stretched on the screen, just how it is when you use non hd equipment on a hd tv lol,


Before I got my HDTV it was a nightmare trying to read text in games on the 360/ps3 with SD and anything small on screen was crap too,

 Actually getting the right Plasma screen better than LCD. Plasma has a warmer picture and much better response times. Panasonic do the best TV's in the world. LCD are catching up in terms of response times, but Plasma's colours are much warmer and fluid.

Things to watch out for buying any HDTV is

Contrast : Above 30,000:1 is what you want.

Response time: 0.0001 is what my Plasma has.

Full HD 1080p for over 40".

Absolutely NO need for 1080p less than 40".

I disagree on the pasma thing you said personally, I know plasma used to be much better than LCD but I don't think thats the case anymore and many stores/magazines/websites now recommend LCD over Plasma specially here in the UK,

We bought a Sony 720P Plasma (one of the newest at the time) and the picture was far from impressive, luckily we had a 30 money back gurantee so we returned it and got an LCD which has been fantastic, less motion blur, less ghosting and the picture seems a lot crisper,

My mum and dad have a Panasonic (47" I think) Plasma 720P and they aren't impressed with the picture and sound plus it suffers from screen burn so easily, they won't even play on the 360 now because it burns within an hour or two (rev counter on GRID for example) and logos on certain channels stay on the screen, same problem as what my uncles plasma did within a year, he got a replacement though,

I originally thought plasma was the way to go but certainly not anymore lol, LCD has caught up in the last year or two and now offers more for less with no screen burn!

I also did about 3 months of research before buying a HDTV, went to many stores comparing etc, that's why I was shocked that the Sony was so crap, must have slipped through lol,

Details on our HDTV:

52" 1080P "Full HD"

100hz (we have it off though)

50,000: 1 contrast (dynamic)

Response Time <3ms

5 HDMI sockets, 3 scart sockets, and other connections etc

Bluetooth

Filmware updates via USB

Multi modes, Game, Sports, Movie, Custom 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc

Zero Lag

Expert controls (61 screen options)

Won three 2008 HDTV Awards (included plasmas and lcd's etc) and one 2009 award so far,

But I do have a question for you! does the 360 perform better on 720P? just a few games seem to disable v-sync when the system is set to 1080P such as resi 5 as per what the reviews and eurogamer state,

Hmmmm. Theres your problem. First of all Sony is not even in the top 2 for best TV's anymore. 2nd you are going by what a store salesman tells you. They will rather sell you LCD because it makes more money.

It would do you well in the UK to read these magazines for Home cinema and surround sound equipment.

What HiFi, Home Cinema and What Home Cinema. These are all available in WH Smiths.

Plasma is known in reviews for a better picture. Panasonic are known for best HDTV's currently.

We didn't buy what the salesman told us lol!

We went for LCD after having and trying Plasma, was unhappy so got LCD, I was just saying that a lot of stores/magazines and websites recommend LCD over Plasma these days,

And yeah, I know now that Sony isn't that good for tv's these days, didn't know at the time, but my mum and dad has panasonic and the picture isn't great to be honest although it may just be their model, my uncle's is samsung and the picture is good but the screen burn happens on that very easily too, this is what put me off plasma too specially with gaming, you shouldn't have to worry about your tv everytime you use it, what's the point?

I know LCD's can suffer from dead pixels but I haven't had this yet plus we got a free 3 year warranty with ours that will replace or repair the screen if more than 5 pixels go anywhere on the screen (don't need to be clumped in the same area) so happy about that,

My research before buying included all those magazines you mentioned, spent a lot of money on those lol, tesco's do the magazines too incase you wondered!

P.S, Panasonic is known to be number one in Plasma not LCD, most magazines state this

Of course their are bad Plasmas out there to:)

Also there are good LCD's. Great mags arent they. If you ever get the chance try these TV's at Richer Sounds:

http://vieraneopdp.panasonic.eu/movie.php?token=en_GB

Plasma's shift image now, so screen burn is gone. Also Response Time is the most important thing for gaming. Panasonic in their new Plasmas have technology which gives a response time 1000 times faster than any other tech. I have had a demo at Richer Sounds. Holy jesus. It's amazing with Ninja Gaiden 2. Panasonics site use Shift as a demo for it.

That looks a superb range!

If they release an LCD version one day I'd buy one! specs are superb

i did have a 32" sdtv but i got a 26" hdtv there wasnt that big of a difference