Yeah I have an opinion. I will second this opinion from above:
"assuming you're not looking at the Pioneer Elite series of Plasma's which are truly outstanding!!)."
These really are hands down the best!
I am in the AV biz, and I kind of lean to the thought, that ALL name brand sets, have come so far, and are all really quite good, that unless it is a pioneer, you will probably AOK.
A few things NOT to get hung up on. Assuming we are talking about 50" and smaller, and you are going to be sitting more than 8' back, do not get wrapped up as to if it is 1080 or not 720, in a smaller set will likely give you a better picture, because the video processor does not have to work as hard to up convert to 1080.
We could go back and forth ALL day on 1080, refresh rate, back lighting technology, BUT I strongly believe that Plasma yields a better PICTURE, looking at the color rendering, black levels, etc. Panasonic also makes a good set if pioneer does not have the size or price that you need.
As for service life, on average, the all of the sets are going to likely last longer than you are going to want to have it. 60,000+ hour service life.
As Shelby commented, skip the warranty, Elites come with a 2 year warranty out of the box (regular Pioneer has 1 year). Sets are relatively inexpensive these days (compared to years past) so if god forbid you do have an issue, it is not as painful, as if you were an early adopter, and paid 25k for the Pioneer a while ago.
Last thought, as with ANYTHING in life you get what you pay for. TV are so brutally competitive, that there is a reason one cost more than another. and that is that it is better. There are better sub straights used, the video processing is better, etc.
This has to be my longest post ever....... Sorry.....
If you have the space go projection.
Specracer I believe has some knowledge on the subject
