LCD every time. The old advantages of plasma are no more - blacks and screen size. The downsides of plasma are still there - weight, complexity, reliability.
Oh, and anything Sony is utter shite. Tossers.
So that leaves, of the models mentioned, a pioneer plasma! Exactly what i bought. Trouble with this debate is people will recommend what they have, because they believe they have got the best for them.
For me, the question is not of one or the other, it is, what gives YOU the best picture? End of!
During my search for the 'best' panel tv i was sure i wanted the pioneer. I had seen a Pany, bit poor. But apart from that i also wanted to be sure i was not missing anything, so i looked at as many as poss, nothing could beat the pioneer. It was just better than anything else. In numerous shops with all other makes present, various sources, from coax to scart to component to hdmi,div ex to standard def. to discovery Hd to blu ray disc. For me there was nothing else close. As an average the lcd s had an advantage over other cheaper plasma, maybe, but they still get very hot, you can still pick out the back light bulbs on most models. The pioneer was just better, it did not matter what format. So thats whats on my wall.
Since then about a year later, about 4 months ago now, a mate of a mate looked high and low on the net for the best spec. And chose a samsung 40 inch lcd! A grands worth. Wow i thought, this should be interesting. What a load of crap, a net curtain filter, stepped scanning, pixelation, and anything dark was black no grey shades at all, and that was in HD!And dont say the settings must be wrong, he had it calibrated, with much improvement im told. Wtf did he have before. It just could not process the info quick enough, when the picture stood still it would catch up, a bit like google earth with a crap connection. And this guy knows some his IT. I would rather have his old tube, still sat in the corner of the room.
Dont take anyones word for it, to much cash at stake, look for the best picture, and if does not say pioneer at the bottom of the screen i will be very suprised.
Price tho, now thats another question!
And so is content, not enough in my book, so dont rush your decission, your not missing a great deal of hd tv. Until 2010. And in the mean time you will be looking at a lot of standard def pictures, and THAT is the most important reason for getting the best picture panel tv. People come round and say wow is that hd tv,brilliant picture, and i say ,no, thats standard def,THIS is HD, and put bbc hd on.
Blows em away!