Mods, if copying this direct is not acceptable, please Zap.
But I would recommend the 'Primer' on PCW's site be read by anyone trying to sort the wheat from the chaff. However, I'm not totally sure if I get sent this as a past subscriber.
Geek 101: LCD and Plasma Basics - PCWorld
As one who has fought a looooong battle with Sears Sony and now Samsung, I can say that it really is a minefield. The Mk II Sony 50" LCD projection was, without doubt, the most perfect photo-real picture that I've ever seen. It stayed that way for about two and a half years. However, the Light Engine technology was simply not supportable and when the picture degraded, nobody could fix it. They threw in the towel at $4,600 of maintenance bills.
Samsung's 46" LCD 120Hz, was good with bright pictures, but impossibly bad with dark scenes. I got a total refund shortly before leaving the US. I'll think long and hard before I get anything on my return.
I hadn't realized that Plasma had so many advantages. I wonder why they were all being sold off in the big-name stores a while back. Seems a bit like BetaMax. Better system with it's higher writing speed, but just didn't catch on. Well, if you don't count South Africa and a few other places.