I just red a review on Samsungs newest LED TV and it got a jackpot! Greatest Tv ever made.

But id go for Samsungs 40 or 46 A656. Great TV that now has an affordable price. I bought mine (46) when it was at 3000$ (sweden), but you can get it for about 2000$ and the 40" for about 1100$. Still if your not picky about your choice, you can find full hd LCD TVs such as Sony Bravia, Samsung A676, Samsung A559, Philips PFL7003D for around 1000$. Of which is all of good quality.

I got two Vizio TVs - One 32" Plasma and a 22" LCD.

The LCD pops with very little/any noticeable "ghosting" on the XBox 360 - This is the best TV I've seen for price that sports 1080p (yes 1080p on a 22" that you probably won't recognize but still a feat none the less) for $240. If your only concerned with current gen gaming (Wii, 360, PS3 and future systems) the LCD is the way to go because "ghosting" is not much of a problem with this TV.

The Plasma is a beat and makes all games look very sexy and I got for $437 awhile back last year when Vizio was making a 32" Plasma. Unfortunately they no longer make this model, but at the time since the lighting was bad in the main room and burn in is no longer noticeable this was the best price/pick for me at the time. If I had to buy another TV I might have picked a 1080p Java 32" Vizio LCD because I hardly play my old gen systems.

Your probably wondering why the Plasma would be better for old systems? Well CRT/Tube would still be the best pick for old systems, but on a LCD old systems ghost way too much unless they are going through component or HDMI - and most old systems are s-video and what not, so if I want to whip out a PS1 or NES I got the Plasma for my old systems as well.

Also Vizio despite being the cheapest, imho, offers the best bang for buck. I've seen my friends Samsung TVs and while they look great and offer that brand name service, I still can't see the $200+ price difference unless I nitpick. So I went with a Vizio and probably will for years to come as long as my TVs last a good 5+ years (I'll want a new TV in five years anyways, when LEDs are cheap enough to replace my Plasma.)

for viewing distance to size ratio, use this chart

As for which brand to buy. I have a Vizio and love it. If you want a cheap but high quality TV, I highly suggest Vizio. You can do better quality wise with another brand, but Vizio gives the best quality for the $.

Most important things for your TV:

Size (bigger is better - this can vary a lot depending on the area where you are going to put your TV in, however. The further you are from the TV, the more size you need. I'm pretty happy with my 40", although the viewing distance is relatively short.)

Contrast Ratio (more is better. This makes a HUGE difference. So REALLY REALLY REALLY pay attention to this).

Maximum Hz (get a 120 Hz TV if you can. It makes a huge difference on EVERYTHING you watch. Playback will look a lot smoother and way less jerky. Go see a demo at the store and you will notice the difference).

Reviews (look online to see what people have to say about the TV)

Who makes the TV (I highly recommend you buy a Samsung or a Sony, as they typically make the best TV's if you are in the LCD department. But they are typically more expensive).

Weight (heavy ass TV's suck ass. Pay attention to how much your TV weighs)

Yeah It's actually closer then I think lol. The reason I have two Vizio's is because we had a old 7 year emerson TV finally start to die on us (they were pretty reliable but I don't see them where I work anymore aka Wal-Mart so we went with Vizio) and my wife now has a XBox to. 1 vs 100 actually looked better on her LCD but maybe that's just me.

A few years ago I would have said avoid the Vizio due to quality issues, but it seems all the returns we get now are because people wanted a bigger TV and/or couldn't afford so made a execuse to return the TV. Now you rarely see broken Vizios on the market when you compare them to how many were sold.

Vizio also has a sound bar out and are supposed to be putting out a very cheap blu-ray player soon. I hope they do well in the other markets they are testing.

I have a Samsung and a Sony. The Sony seems to communicate with the PS3 better. People say Samsung is the best but the truth is Sony gets most of their parts from samsung. I recommend Sony it seems just easier to use please don't ask me to elaborate.

These days you can get a Quality TV for cheap and the difference between brands is minimal. If you can save much money getting a upstart brand go for it.
1080P make sure it's 1080P.

Yea that chart from nordlead up there should be good enough.

basically the viewing distance determines how good/bad something at a certain resolution looks.

a little guide in specs to look for:

HDTV Type: LCDs are more reliable and lasts longer.

Response time: measured in ms. lower is better, you will want at most 8ms.

Contrast ratio: measured in a ratio xxxx:1. Think you might want to go at least 3000:1. This ratio shows how accurately they show black colors against white colors. Plasma TVs have higher contrast ratios generally but LCDs are catching up.

Ports: make sure they have everything. Component (this is the Pbr Ypb thing you saw), composite, s-video, HDMI, probably VGA, DVI.

Resolution: you'll want a 1080p.

Excellent post. There are actually 240hz refresh TVs already out. Does anyone know how plasma compares to the 120hz, 240hz LCDs? I know they (plasmas) have insane refresh rates.

40" is fine for me, although I'm only ever max 5 metres away, and when Im gaming i'm sometimes not even 1 metre away, so...

Samsung are excellent, mine's a Samsung, and wow, it's just incredible; amazing quality, eco options, easy to use interface, LOADS of options and features (the picture-in-picture and split screen thing is great). And if you get a new 7 series model, it's ultra-thin and connects to the internet for news and weather feeds n stuff.

I would buy definitly a Plasma it has the best contrast because you can switch of and on every Pixel thats just impossible for LCD. The LED Background LCDs are good but they have a big problem to show small things in a dark background like stars on a dark sky (they disappear if they are small enough) because they switch of all LEDs for a certain area. The best picture has Plasma the Contrast ratios are 100000:1 to 2000000:1 ( yes 2 Million) and the response time is 0,001 ms a LCD is atleast 2000 times slower (2 ms) but it dont really matter under 2ms. The LCD Screens have dynamic contrast ratios of 10000:1 to 50000:1.

The dynamic contrast can have sometimes bad sideeffects if you buy a cheaper model like a kind of pumping which is noticable if you watch dark scenes. The other advantage of Plasma is the color reproduction. They show the Color how it is almost as good as the old CRTs which are superior (in this point) vs LCD and even Plasma (a little). It has a wider viewing angle (178°). The Plasma itself shines so no need for background light like LCDs they have most of the time CRTs for light or now LEDs. So the Plasma are slimer (but the brand new LCDs with LED backlight are Slimer then the Plasma TVs an advantage unless you want to see stars on a dark sky). And they can be much bigger than LCDs the bad thing is that most of the people cant spend 20000 Dollar for a TV.

But the Plasma has also disadvantages. First they are heavier. The Display is always made of real glas because of that it reflects light more in bright rooms but the newer displays have an anti glare filter. The difference is really not that big with a new model. A big disadvantage is that you can burn in a screen, if you show an image a long long time (couple of hours). But the newer ones have Pixelshift so it cant happen. The other thing is the older ones need 4 times more electricity than LCDs. The newer one just twice as much. And the Price is (was) a disadvantage. They used to be more expensive. But the prices went down. Maybe they are a little more expensive but not that much. The lifetime used to be lower a little (but a lot longer then CRT TVs) but thats over the lifespan is as big as LCD TV.

I bought recently a Panasonic Viera TX-P46S10E for 1100 Euro.

Some stats:

Full HD
46 inch
Contrast: 2000000:1
Response time: 0,001 ms
Viewing angle: Infinite
Anti Glare Filter
Maximum number of colours 134 Billion
3 HDMI Ports you have 13 other ports (including a SD Card Port)
400 Hz
Even a gaming mode

And much more.

The difference between this and my old LCD is huge. They even have a smaller modell with 42 inch for 800 Euro with the same specs. Panasonic Viera TX-P42S10E.

I would go for Plasma if LCD. If a LCD then a Sony Bravia. The LED LCDs are thinner and they have a better picture quality but the technology behind it still has a flaw (really small objects on dark background) Most of the people maybe wouldnt recognize it but for me its annoying.

LCDs are gaining ground but plasma still have the best picture on the planet. No one would say otherwise.