Any good review sites

[Gubbi]

For plasmas and big LCD TVs?

Looking for a 50" set, and it's a bleeding jungle out there.

Cheers

[Pete]

I'm starting to look for a 30-40" plasma/LCD myself, so I'd be interested in any shortcuts you current owners suggest. :) So far I'm set to read AVSforum and CNet. I'm leaning toward a 37" Panny plasma, but 1024x768? It's hard to justify $1900 + tax without even true HD res.

So far, I've picked up that

1) plasmas have better blacks
2) LCDs have better whites
3) plasmas suffer from burn-in most in the 1st 100 hrs, somewhat in the 1st 1000, and less so afterwards
4) plasma display coatings are highly reflective
5) Consumer Reports says that LCDs aren't as reliable/trouble-free as plasmas

And I haven't even gotten into scalers....

[Tahir2]

Comparing different display technologies (http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27041)

[Pete]

Thanks, Tahir. Now it's back to more AVSf browsing and more (painfully boring) store browsing.

I was in Best Buy and they actually had a pretty good feed, a CNet CES report that included lots of relatively quick pans. It really separated the men from the boys WRT LCDs. I also noted that 32" LCDs seemed to look a lot better than 37" ones, but that was comparing 720p sets--1080p should help the bigger LCDs. Pity I'm not really looking into LCDs. :)

Gubbi, if you're still researching, I've been recommended LG plasma, but have also heard that while they may have better color, they're also more prone to problems than, say, Pana. I've yet to do more research on that point.

A pity the Pana plasmas so highly rated yet so ugly. I'm getting comfortable with the idea of a 10x7 "HD"TV.

[bystander]

You could try ecoustics (http://search.ecoustics.com/Editorial/Reviews/Plasma/). The site does a fairly good job of listing editorial reviews from other sites.

[Pete]

Thanks. As excited as I thought I'd be with HDTV shopping, I'm already bored to tears--and I haven't hit AVSf yet.

I saw an EDTV Samsung next to an HDTV Pana (both 42" plasmas, both showing Discovery HD), and I was puzzled by how little obvious difference I could see from a few feet away. I was also shocked to see a 42" Samsung LCD compare well to the same 42" Pana in another store.

Soooo many factors. Plus, I'm not even sure if all these sets can handle a 1080p image (for BR/HDVD).