samsung!

if space is a concern and you dont want a super huge TV, go with the Samsung T240HD. its a 24 inches lcd monitor that also have a built in HD TV turner and speakers. Very affordable too, the monitor cost around $300 or less. This makes a great monitor and TV for the bedroom.

I cant believe nobody has recommended Sharp yet...
But yeah, Sharp HDTV's are often well priced and are of excellent quality.

Sharp HDTV's are not excellent quality for their price. Thats why only one person besides yourself suggested them. Trust me, I have done a lot of research on HDTVs and I ended up with a 42" Visio 1080P. (Mainly because I couldn't afford a Toshiba Regza) I have been very pleased with the TV, it hase great picture quality, a lot of settings so you can tweak things, no motion blur that I can see, the black level is actually very good. I saw one of these right next to a Sony Bravia running off the same BR player, and the Vizio blew the Sony out of the water in picture quality. Obviously it's not top of the line, but I think the OP would be pleasently suprised with one.

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.

BTW if you want a real bargain, the only LCD tvs besides Sony and Samsung worth your money are Vizios. They have the best quality besides samsung and sony( sansung and sony only look slightly better) but are MUCH cheaper.

If you're looking for a great looking tv that doesn't bury your wallet 6 feet under. Vizio is the way to go. Can't believe I forgot.

Worst. advice. ever.

Vizio isn't a "budget" brand for nothing. The picture quality just can't match that of the other brands I mentioned. And Toshiba "blows Sony and Samsung out of the water"? wtf? Go online and read ANY reviews from ANY websites (cnet works well) and you will see that Sony and Samsung ALWAYS outperform Toshiba.

@darkhaven............nothing wrong with the new plasma sets, id recomend over lcd for gaming and movies. mines samsung 42" picture is fantastic and yes disgaea 3 looks wonderfull on my set. imo the picture is better on plasma

Both LCD and Plasma have made huuggee improvements from when they first came out. LCD can do much better contrast and viewing angle, plasma has much longer life span, and little to no burn in. Still, for overall picture quality, I would go with Plasma, the fact that each pixel is individually lit means it can produce much more vibrant colors than LCD can. My friend has a 46'' aquos that we played infamous on when it came out. A week later he got a 52'' plasma, it just looks soooooo much nicer. Not resolution wise, but color wise, everything is so bright and vibrant.

Plasmas do deliver the best PQ, but I'm afraid it won't be around too much longer unless Panasonic and Samsung can carry it on their backs. Pioneer dropping out (arguably the manufacturer with the best PQ of all TVs, of any type) was a huge blow to plasma.