Much as I like Sony TVs, I don't like what they call "customer service". And since their LCD screens are built in the same factory that makes Samsung screens, that makes it pretty easy to knock Sony off the list. Sharp and Panasonic have good reputations in the field, though Panasonic lately has been showing a distinct preference for plasma for any but the smallest screens. I would let other posters differentiate between LCD and plasma for viewability, etc. As for an extended warranty, I would get one only if 1) it will not be possible for you to transport your TV in the rare event it needs service; and 2) the people offering the warranty were specific about how long they covered dead pixels (and how many or how few you need to have) and you were comfortable with those terms. Otherwise, for most people, it's money thrown away.

I have an interesting take on this subject as my husband and I did alot of research and just bought an sony wega lcd (widescreen and HD ready) We DO NOT have cable or satalite. Now most people think that we would be crazy to get a HD tv without the cable and just use air however the Air channels come in BETTER! we are even using the same stupid bunny ears for reception that we used on our old tv. Not only that we were so surprised that we can get 18 channels now, compared to the five we had before. WXXI has about 3 HD air channels and we get a local weather channel!!! My husband loves it. The HD air broadcasts are much better looking on the tv than the non-hd. Our tv doesn't stretch the images though however I understand that not all tv's have the same scaling so it is important to research this first. Our DVD's look awesome too and the sound it much better than our old tv. Although it was expensive I am really enjoying it. We saved up for a while and did alot of research first and I feel we made a really good choice. I was really impressed with the new plasma and lcd technology. We chose lcd because it has a much lower power consumption than plasma and is not prone to burn in like plasma (although this isn't so much a problem anymore) The sony has a usb port (awesome!!!!) so I can hook my camara up to it and view videos and pics. Also you can hook a computer up to it and use it as a computer screen. This is great for my husband who likes to work on it. Our previous tv was 26 inches and now we have a 40 inch widescreen. It is a big jump however and although i was worried about the channels coming in poorly they come in much better and look better! We really only use our tv for DVD's (hence us deciding on this specific tv). We stopped going to the movies long ago because they play commercials (which make us SO mad). We decided we would save our money and then buy a nice tv so we can enjoy our movies at home commerical free! I think the most important thing to do is think about what your tv will be used for most often and then do research to figure out what kind of tv will be good for you. If you are playing video games alot then you really need a tv that is different than if you are watching dvd's only. -renee

I have the Sony KDL-V40XBR1 which I overpaid for a few months ago. Despite that,I have to say though that every time I watch it whether on Digital cable or on HDTV cable, or with a DVD, I am very glad I have it. As far as plasma vs. LCD flat screen, I don't know which is objectively better in various aspects but I spent a while comparing the pictures on 37" - 45" sets in order to make my own decision. For my own taste and vision, the plasma screens looked too grainy and the glass screens made them too shiney/glitzy for me. Also, the LCDs I viewed had far better pictures off-axis, which was important to me. Of the LCD sets, Sony and Sharp looked the best to me, and in the end, the Sony won based on the picture and the appearance of the set itself. Sony now has an improved version of this set and the old one is about $1,000 less than I paid. If you are young and have a long time to wait for HDTV/flat screens, you will undoubtedly get an even better price.

I agree with nine7xbam, one of the early posters on this thread - that the LCDs we saw looked way better than the plasma. (Though this was with 40" screens, and I'm not sure whether there's any reason to go to plasma for a bigger screen size.) I think finding a good deal on a Samsung LCD would be advisable. I had no concept of what all the gobbledygook specs meant until I actually went to a few stores and saw sets side-by-side. I could never get the color on one that was supposed to be great from what I'd heard (a Sharp Aquos) to look as good as a Samsung sitting right next to it. Someone pointed out to me that the high contrast ration on the Samsung (something like 5,000-to-1 or 7,000-to-1 I think) was what made the colors look so much better and to me made the picture look sharper. The other thing I walked away with after looking at TVs was that I would rather not have a plasma TV unless it had what's called 1080 resolution (instead of 768). The 768s looked anemic. If you have a BestBuy at all locally or there's one in reasonable driving distance, that's where we saw the best lineup of TVs. They nearly matched a price from an Amazon.com ad I brought in, though said their policy was to only match brick-and-mortar (not 'online') store prices. Of the much larger sets we glanced at there - of which they had a huge variety - I was surprised that the Magnavox brand looked way better to me than others, and among Sonys, the only variety that rivaled the Magnavox were the 'extra black' Sonys - not sure if those were designated XBR or just Bravia. Also, are you sure you need a 50"? The TVs are quite a bit less costly if you get down to 40-42" (and there I'd say, hands-down get a Samsung LCD. If there's more than one that they carry, choose by style and get the highest contrast ratio you're willing to spend for).