Verified answer

Any technology, the brands you want to look at first and foremost are Panasonic, Sony, and Samsung. Those are the big three manufacturers. But right behind them are Sharp Aquos, LG, and Toshiba. They are also worth your consideration. I would recommend avoiding any other brands, attractive pricing or not.

In 37" or less, LCD is the way to go. The better Plasma manufacturers don't even make sets in that size. In 40" - 46" its a bit of a grey area. Plasma advantages do kick in, but LCDs still hold up quite well for sure. In 50"+, the Plasma advantages become quite glaring and make it quite easily the stronger choice.

LCD

LCDs inherently suffer problems with motion playback. They suffer from motion blur (ghost trails). This is compensated for with the 120Hz/240Hz refresh rates. This feature helps out a lot, but is not 100%. And you are expected to pay a price premium for this add-on.

CCFL LCDs have muted colors, grey blacks, and so-so contrast. This is compensated for with the modern LED LCD. The LED backlight provides a massive jump in quality in regard to those 3 things. It brings it to a near Plasma/CRT/DLP level. And you're expected to again pay for this (which you can see by saying they are out of your price range).

Plasma

Plasmas are inherently near instantaneous in their refresh rate. They are flawless in motion playback. And because its inherent to the technology, you don't pay anything extra for it. They are certainly a notable step up over any "60Hz" LCD.

Plasmas inherently deliver vivid color, true blacks, and deep contrast. They do this right out of the box. They are a better overall image. And so you get a better image and perfect motion playback without having to pay anything extra.

Plasmas only currently suffer from many myths and misconceptions. The main ones being that they suffer from burn-in, they are more expensive, they have shorter life spans, and they are energy hogs.

Modern Plasmas do not suffer from burn-in. After they are conditioned, you would have to actually work hard to accomplish a burn-in. To condition a new set all you need to do is keep the brightness and contrast turned way down for the first 100-200 hours of use. After that optimize and enjoy.

Plasmas are not more expensive than LCD rivals anymore. Any especially with LCDs needing high end features like 120Hz and LED backlights to compete. Those features often make LCD far more expensive to buy.

Plasmas do not have shorter life spans. The reputable brands will deliver models that are rated to 60,000 - 100,000 hours. That basically means that in 10 years time, at 8 hours a day, 365 days a year, you would only really see at most about a 10% loss in brightness. So the set is likely well useable for beyond 10 years.

Current Plasma models are now energy star certified. This means no more being power hogs against LCDs. They can match LCDs in this regard. But every model is different. There are some LCDs that still perform better, and there are some LCDs that perform much worse. It changes ever year as new models come out.

Plasma is the way to go.. Response time is extremely fast, eliminating lag and blurr on fast objects. Newer sets are not power hogs, and 'burn-in' is not an issue now.. Good blacks, bright colors, and good contrast ratios. Plasma also has a very wide viewing angle. They last as long as any LCD.. Don't get LED, they are thin and bright, but have the same problems with fast motion as LCD.!! Even with 120 cycle refresh rate. The response time of an LCD is just inherently slow, typically 4 to 8 ms.

Plasma tv's are made with the sustance called plasma which is a kind of gas, plasma screens are much more expensive to fix and are much mor expensive to manufacture, LCD screens (liquid Crystal Display) has a kind of plastic screen instead of glass unlike a plasma, they are reasonably cheaper and are easier and cheaper to fix, however both have the same compenents inside them, the only difference is how the screen is put together.

Plasma

Plasma television technology is based loosely on the fluorescent light bulb. The display itself consists of cells. Within each cell two glass panels are separated by a narrow gap in which neon-xenon gas is injected and sealed in plasma form during the manufacturing process. The gas is electrically charged at specific intervals when the Plasma set is in use. The charged gas then strikes red, green, and blue phosphors, thus creating a television image. Each group of red, green, and blue phosphors is called a pixel (picture element).

Although Plasma television technology eliminate the need for the bulky picture tube and electron beam scanning of traditional televisions, because it still employs the burning of phosphors to generate an image. Plasma televisions still suffer from some of the drawbacks of traditional televisions, such as heat generation and screen-burn of static images. Plasma televisions have a lifespan of 60,000 hours, with some manufacturers reporting their plasmas last up to 100,000 hours.

LCD

LCD televisions, on the other hand, use a different technology. LCD panels are made of two layers of transparent material, which are polarized, and are “glued” together. One of the layers is coated with a special polymer that holds the individual liquid crystals. Current is then passed through individual crystals, which allow the crystals to pass or block light to create images. LCD crystals do not produce their own light, so an external light source, such as a fluorescent bulb is needed for the image created by the LCD to become visible to the viewer. This backlight is defined as a CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp).

Unlike standard CRT and Plasma televisions, since there are no phosphors that light up, less power is needed for operation and the light source in an LCD television generates less heat than a Plasma or traditional television. LCD televisions report having a lifespan of 60,000 hours.

plasmas are not blurry and have better colors and contrasts than LCD's, much better

LCD's blur horribly especially when watching standard def or football the 120hz helps but

still the plasmas are flawless when it comes to colors and no blurring. I suggest you get

a panasonic G10 or G15 they are a decent price and as for burn in it would take weeks

of leaving a video game on pause or a logo on 24/7 and you would only get image retention,

image retention can be removed in the panasonic's menu that has a screen saver you can

leave on for 20 mins. Burn in is permament damage to a plasma and it would take maybe months

of leaving a static image to get it. Gaming and blue rays are awesome on these plasma's.

As far as brands are concerned, I'd go with the main ones like Samsung, LG, Sony. Plasmas although have deep blacks, are notorious for a "burn in" image although newer plasmas don't suffer from it as much. I'd say go LCD all the way, 120 Hz, 1080p, with a good contrast ratio of at least 50,000:1