Toshiba 42HP83P 42-Inch TheaterWide HD-Ready Plasma Flat-Panel TV
Just what I wanted
It took a long time for me to decide which TV to get- plasma or otherwise.  I knew I wanted HD, so I looked at DLP (Digital Light Processing), Rear Projection, Tubes, LCD, and Plasma.  LCD sets had too much motion artifacting, DLP's had too much of a screen door effect, tubes were too big and bulky, and Rear-Projection had too little of a viewing angle.  The final decisions came down to DLP (with the newer chip, the Samsung HL-P5085W was a stand out) and Plasma.      I originally was under the impression that Plasma TV's could not display true High-Def, and I suppose that if High-Def were calculated at 1080i or 1080p, that might be true.  Nonetheless, the picture quality on the Toshiba 42HP83P is amazing.  I am pretty aware of some of the tricks that stores use to make their displays look good (i.e., turning the contrast all the way up, etc.) so I shopped aware.  I looked at high-end Plasmas, and low end plasmas, but in the end, the Toshiba blew most of even the more expensive displays away.  In addition, it does an excellent job of stretching the 4:3 analog picture to 16:9, without making the people look odd.    I went out shopping for a few things:  clarity of the picture, reasonably enough inputs, good conversion, DVI inputs, Picture on Picture that could combine both analog and digital signals, as well as direct video input (no pressing of the same button on the remote to pick the video source that you want to use).  Additionally, I have Time Warner Cable, and most of my friends (ok, all of them) that have a HDTV, have to switch to Component/DVI input to watch HD, and then back to S-Video/RCA/Coax, to watch a non-HD channel in a stretched-screen mode.  Not so with the Toshiba.  It literally gives me everything that I wanted in a TV, and unless you are considering spending $9,000 or more on a TV (and even if you are), it's one stellar performer.    There have to be drawbacks, right?  Of course.  Plasma display's suffer burn-in, a trait that does not make an appearance with LCD's.  Consequently, I am very careful as to what is one the TV.  This plasma puts out a lot of heat- so if you are upgrading to plasma from a CRT tube and expect the same electricity bills, you're in for a small shock; the bill won't kill you, but you'll start to see the need for turning the thing off, even if you're just leaving the house for a while.  In an ideal world, the Toshiba would have two DVI inputs, but I can deal.  I could also get a DVI switchbox, but I haven't seen the need yet.      All in all, this TV WILL shine for you, and comes highly recommended from a person with very discerning taste.    UPDATE: (August 29,2005)    Like other people have noted, this TV WILL fail on you.  I started experiencing the pixelated start-up, and within weeks the picture actually needed a \\"25 minute warm up time\\" in order to see a clear picture.  Even after the warm up time, the screen would get pixelated depending on the scene being viewed (it didn't seem to like very dark, or very bright scenes).  Thankfully I bought the service plan from Best Buy, and I now have a credit to get a brand new TV.  Bottom line- I liked the TV very much- but I like the service plan much better.  Yes, Best Buy is overpriced, but their service plan (although it was a 2 1/2 month hassle) saved me $3500.  I would strongly recommend (after having the TV for exactly one year) AGAINST buying this TV.  Yes, I'm a flip flopper.  I'm also the guy that will save you an expensive and frustrating heartache.