Plasma is superior overall. Full HD plasma is available and the 3 premier plasma makers beat out the 3-4 top LCD makers in terms of name and prestige. Panasonic, Hitachi and Pioneer > Sony, Samsung and Toshiba.
My next set will also be a Plasma.
http://pioneer.jp/press-e/2008/0911-2.html
This will be it unless Hitachi or Panasonic pull something better off.
"The Pioneer KRP-600A and KRP-500A will be available in the middle of October 2008 for a suggested retail price of 940,000 yen and 670,000 yen (including tax) respectively." Current sets go for $2600 for 50 inches though.
That's over $9400 USD and $6700, although even the bad $/Yen exchange rate I'm sure the Japanese co's will
market their TVs for less in the States. That will be the place to import a big 50 inch plus Plasma.
Why Hitachi? I'm spoiled, the year I bought my Hitachi, it was the best set on the European market.
Still Hitachi has some great upconversion technology coming up:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Hita...n-Technology-That-Goes-Above-HDTV-94254.shtml
That has really gotten me excited, just compare the normally upconverted image to the Hitachi upconverted one.
Here is the actual pic:
http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage...version-Technology-That-Goes-Above-HDTV-2.jpg
Still it seems that both Hitachi and Pioneer will be sourcing their panels from Matshus-hita (Panasonic's parent company)
according to Pioneer's Japanese boss.
Still the thing to remember whether it's Panasonic's Viera, Hitachi or Pioneer's Kuro,
the idea is to buy a Japanese engineered and hopefully assembled product.
I have nothing against Korean Samsung or LG or Dutch Philips or British Thompson, but Japan
is the country with the premier technology and the R&D behind the best tech out there. Pity
about Sony being Japanese, cos they're the only company I think is not worthy.