I'll be back to Rolla soon and Im looking at getting an HDTV for the new apartment.

looking at this one mostly

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6889102197

really awesome reviews everywhere and the price isnt bad either.

Then I saw some 42" plasmas around the $800 range and now I'm torn.

Any thoughts?

Teh gf got a 32" Vizio 720p / 1080i plasma at Costco for $500 yesterday

I got a Sharp 32" lcd 720p/1080i about a month ago. It was in the $700s. Very similar to the one you have linked, slightly lower contrast ratio and only 2 HDMI instead of 3. So far I'm very happy with it. I'm no expert, but from everything I've heard, the lcd's have gotten a ton better than they were a few years ago in comparison to plasma's. One of the drawbacks to the lcd's used to be the blacks weren't very black b/c of the constant backlight. They've really improved in this area, I know mine has pretty dark blacks, I can't complain. When I was shopping for mine, I happened to see two Vizio's, both 32", one plasma, one lcd. The plasma was actually a little cheaper, but to me the lcd looked much better. I know stores aren't always the best place to judge things, sometimes they have some crazy settings on them in stores... but still. And Vizio is pretty much the low end brand, so higher end brands might be completely different. Anyway, my personal opinion is that it will probably come down to the size issue. Probably not going to make a ton of difference whether you decide to go with plasma or lcd. And again, I'm very happy with mine-- XBox 360 looks amazing on it.

I think im going to go with the 32" samsung.

I could go with a bigger plasma, but even on my dads panasonic 50" 1080p plasma (bought this past winter) it still shows burn in, it always fades, but when I see it I always stop playing games or put my 360 on a different TV. Even with a guaranteed no burn in I would constantly be afraid of it happening.

Now I guess I will just wait and see what deals come up on it. I heard a drop is coming end of this month and beginning of the next due to new models and lack of demand.

That doesn't really sound like burn in. More something along the lines of ghosting due to a low refresh rate if you're getting a after image

it will last for awhile, more then 10 minutes sometimes. It always fades but mistakes happen and i would always be worried about it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6889234025

I bought this TV last christmas for 650 after all the rebates i received on it and it is awesome. If you are looking for the best bang for you buck. If you wanna check it out in person just let me know i will be back down at Rolla on the 23rd. Prolly the best parts about it is that it has almost every single input excluding the normal cable jack. But you are getting a 1080p monitor with a great set of colors and quality build. It's not the absolute best panel for the money and its not 50" but i would pick a 37" 1080p over most larger tv's that run at lower resolutions. It has a pretty good on board scalar. I use it for a PC monitor more than anything but i watch movies on it all the time and also run DirecTV into it at home. The HD feeds look AMAZING on this screen. I also have a Samsung 57" 1080p at home and i feel the Westinghouse scales better with lower resolution feeds(not all channels are in HD.)

for 650 i would definitely snag it, but for 800 its questionable. I will keep an eye out over the next month before i make my decision

I'm pretty sure inositle got that westy like 2 years ago for $500 or $600. Only downside is that it doesn't have any tuners... he also notices some weird noise / pattern on the screen sometimes I think.

Oh... I'm sure you know about it, but sometimes I need a reminder: avsforums ftw

if you're talking about the white sparkles, that's from his reciever.. I don't think I've heard him complain about the TV itself yet... besides that fact that it's too big fit on his desk and use as a monitor...

Hey, I'll jump in too... I have the Westy and it's a pretty good monitor. I think the issues benm was talking about were these white sparkles caused by my HK receiver (sent in & new one doesn't cause it). Like blitz said, there's no tuner... my only other complaint is that black levels aren't the best, but I think that's typical for LCDs compared to DLP/Plasma/etc. I've never had an issue w/ the viewing angle and I think I have a single pixel stuck on blue that I never notice unless I'm a few inches away on a black screen.

I also believe it can do 1:1 over HDMI and I've ran a PC/360/PS3/Wii to it and they all work fine. Composite looks like poo, but that's probably expected. I haven't looked at TVs in awhile, but I've had this for a year so I assume there are better deals out there on newer displays. Like benm said, just go to AVSForums and read up & start a thread asking and you'll save yourself tons of time.

From everything ive read, the 4 series samsung is pretty solid. I'd rather have an awesome small screen then a mediocre larger one. cnet lists it as their highest rated small screen. I am still browsing avsforums for more comparisons but I havent seen a bad word about it anywhere.

Ah yeah, about plasmas - we've got a plasma at home and it's never had issues with burn in. We've had it at least a year or two - not really sure - but my brothers are the worst about leaving the tv on the guide, or leaving the xbox on and I have yet to see any sort of burn in. I'd say the worst thing about it though is the amount of heat it puts out. That, and it can run out of plasma.

Samsung TVs kick ass. They may cost more $$ but i think if you care about the video AND build quality for a price that isnt Sony's ridiculously overpriced WEGA or SXRD (don't remember what the strange Sony LCDs are called) - Samsungs are great.

If you haven't bought a TV yet, then sellout.woot.com is having a "sell-off" (woot-off for the sellout website) and they are only selling TVs. They are getting smaller as the day goes on, but they still look like some good deals. Good luck.