I went to Best Buy on Saturday and fell in love. They had a huge selection of plasma tv's there. My favorites were the 50" Pioneer ($8500), the 42" Sony ($5100), and the 42" Toshiba ($5500). Those three seemed to have the best picture, even though all of the tv's were incredible looking. Some honorable mentions were the Panasonic and the Phillips. Next summer or fall, I will hopefully be buying my first home and am thinking of buying a plasma screen for a house warming gift. Yes it's very expensive, but that's what credit cards are for. Does anyone here have a plasma screen? If so, what brand? To those in the know, how long do the tv's last? Any suggestions on features that I should look for? Thanks

 

All the offices where I work have purchased Gateway Plasma screen TVs.
Must be nice to be working with a trillion dollar budget, and not have to worry about silly things like profit margins, or productivity. :

http://www.gateway.com/home/ce/tv_plasma.shtml

 

Plasma screens will last a long time as long as you dont tip it on its side and turn it up side down and stuff like that. Out of those 3 that you picked I recommend the Toshiba. Reason is that the Pioneer is not worth the money I mean ya its a 50" but still I dont really see paying that much more for 8". The sony was a good choice when they first came out but I have installed a few plasma's and customers say they really dont like them. But of those 3 more people buy Toshiba. To me I think they are easier to work with like configuration and such.

I hope this helps a little bit.

Sean 8)

 

A salesman clued me into a little tip when TV shopping. Whenever you're looking at a big screen TV, squat down and get your face about normal viewing height. The difference in picture quality will amaze you. Another thing I learned is that TV's in the showrooms typically have the picture/sharpness/brightness cranked way up to catch your eye. There's an excellent DVD out called Digital Video Essentials that walks you through setting up your TV once you get it home. I would have loved to get a plasma, but opted for a 47" Panasonic Widescreen, new receiver, sub, new center channel, kitchen flooring :, groceries......

 

berner, if you can hold out for another year, you're going to see about a 30% drop in flat panel display prices. All of the manufacturers are tooling up for large scale productiion, and prices will begin to fall. Personally, I'm holding out for an LCD model. Plasma will lose some of its contrast over time as the phosphors begin to age, and personally I don't care for their contrast when new. LCD's will not lose their snap over time. LCD's are much more energy efficient than plasma's too and offer a significant saving in energy cost over time. The Video Essentials DVD is an excellent tool to use in setting up your monitor. I've used one for 6 years and am very satisfied with it.

 

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I also agree that prices on plasma sets will be dropping soon and fast. Just 4 months ago, I saw a 42" Pioneer at Best Buy and it was $11,000 so prices are already dropping fast. Figure that I'll be ready to get serious about a new set next summer/fall and prices should be real nice. I will keep Gateway in mind. From what I've been reading, Panasonic has been getting great reviews. Who'd have thought. But come next summer, there will surely be new models out so I'll have to do some more reviewing then. I will also look further into LCD displays. Thanks.

 

Don't forget to get the HDTV model, not the EDTV model. They've been running teaser ads here in Phoenix with the EDTV models as price leaders to get the people in the store. Then they sucker punch you with the fact you have to pay $2000 more to get the High Definition.

 

[quote author=jlasich link=board=10;threadid=23739;start=0#msg223608 date=1071469758]Yes it's very expensive, but that's what credit cards are for. [/quote]

Dangerous game, my friend, dangerous game.

 

LCD for me...in the spring.

 

Have a big screen 55" tv now is great. Went out and looked at Plasma TVS at Best Buy and compared them to the new high definition big screens and could really not see much difference but the price. $2600 for a 60" HDTV or $8000 for a 52" Plasma that only has a life span of 10,000 hours. ??? ???

 

Tell me more about the 10K hours thing. ???