[Otto]

I recently picked up a Panasonic plasma, and have been very pleased with it (720p, 58", about 13 feet viewing distance). The 1080p model was ridiculously expensive, and I wanted screen size. No problems so far.

I did quite a bit of reading about burn-in, and it does seem to be a real problem, but rather limited. I ran some "burn-in" files in the beginning (it just scrolls through a variety of full colors) and I've kept the intensity controls to their midpoints. It will greatly depend on your usage, of course. If you are not watching things with static images (e.g., video games, news stations with crawls along the bottom and sports with constant scoreboards), you should be especially fine. OTOH, there's evidence that people do use PDPs for these types of activities without problem. I'm sure the companies are actively working to overcome that issue. I have some glare from the PDP, but it's a lot better than what I had previously. The glare looks diffused, and that's because of the screen itself. And that isn't even their best anti-glare screen. I like the brightness and viewing angle of the PDP, as well as the blacks. All in all, a great TV, and a good deal from Costco.

Previously, I had a Mitsubishi 52" DLP. While my room is big enough to support that size TV, I grew tired of the boxy TV as well as the big box it was sitting on. It really wasn't a big deal, but I just wanted sometime sleeker. We don't watch tons of TV (generally some in the evenings; it's not on all day long), and we never had a problem with the bulb. This picure was very good as well, but it was "dimmer" than the PDP. Also, blacks were not as deep as the plasma and off-axis viewing was poor (e.g., if you're sitting on the floor, it's a different experience than sitting on the couch; not so with the plasma). Ambient light was more of a problem with the DLP, and the anti-glare screen wasn't so good (but this TV was purchased in the 2005, so these things have since evolved).

I don't have much experience with the LEDs, but they do appear to have less glare problem. I'm no expert, but I think it's because of the actualy material used for the screen itself (I think plasma requires glass, but LED doesn't). IIRC, LEDs have some (probably minor streaking) problems with fast motion (e.g., hockey games).

Anyway, all the techonologies have been around a while now, and I think you'll do well to have any of them. One thing that I ran into -- if you're thinking about going bigger, do it. Once I got a 52" in my house, I started thinking that I should have gone a little bigger. At 58", I think I'm happy!

Good luck!