yulog wrote:I've heard that pioneer is at the top and i've seen the samsung and agree it's better, sony is as well but it is a huge difference in price
I own 4 Pioneer plasmas, and I honestly don't think you'll find a better picture. I am partial to plasma over LCD, for critical viewing. LCD's will do better in a room where you can't control the ambient light, as plasmas reflect ambient light much more. Although I have many LCD's throughout my home, plasma simply offers a far better picture, in my opinion, for serious movie and sports watching!
As for some who tout Samsung as "high end", some of us older people still remember Samsung as VERY crappy electronics from the 1980's! I wouldn't take a Samsung over a Pioneer PDP if you gave the Samsung to me for free! At the end of the day, you have to judge for yourself and what your eyes tell you. The best advice I can give you is to not judge ANYTHING, based upon what you see on the display floors at the Circuit Cities and Best Buys of the world. Those sets are NEVER calibrated correctly and come from the factory in "torch mode" (meaning all the brightness settings are turned all the way up to their maximum brightness and look like crap).
If you're considering plasma, give Panasonic a serious look. While I don't think Panasonic is quite up to Pioneer's standards and performance, they're not far behind, and MUCH more aggressively priced! I've never heard anyone badmouth a Panasonic plasma, and as I said, Pioneer simply won't compete with Panasonic in the price arena.
John from Boston