Samsung HP-S4253 42-Inch Plasma HDTV
Best plasma at this price right now
I was an early adopter of Plasma technology and have owned a Pioneer 50\\" Plasma as my main display for a few years now.  I love Plasma in general, so decided, now that prices are coming down from the stratosphere, to get a second plasma set for a bedroom TV.  All I can say is things have really come a long way!  Early plasmas had problems displaying detail in dark scenes, but new models such as this Samsung have come much closer to solving this problem. <br /> <br />I auditioned dozens of sets at multiple dealerships and did a lot of side-by-side comparisons and adjustments, and determined that these newest Samsung sets represent the best blend of performance, quality, and cost.  My requirements were to have at least 2 HDMI slots, since this is the future for high-definition connectivity, be 37\\" or 42\\" in size, and have the best quality picture I could afford. <br /> <br />A lot of on-line advice pointed to the Panasonic as the one to get so I went into this fully expecting to end up with a Panny, but after much side-by-side between the Samsung 4253 and the newest Panasonics, there was no contest - the Samsung has more natural looking color gradiations, the Panasonic looked odd and banded in appearance.  I verified this at multiple vendors and side-by-side.   <br /> <br />Be careful however not to get re-directed to the previous generation Samsung models, many of which are still on the market and sold as new.  Samsung seems to be replacing their lined up with these newer sets in a graudal manner.  At least two other 42\\" models ending in \\"2\\" instead of \\"3\\" can be found at various retailers.  To me, these older sets did not measure up to the visual fidelity in the \\"3\\" series.  Over time I'm sure Samsung will make \\"3\\" versions of their other sets, so if you need one with a CableCard tuner or something, I'd wait a while.  Also I wish this set had more stretch options for dealing with 4:3 inputs.  The only options for HD signals are 16:9 or 4:3 with bars, neither of which helps deal with HD signals that are letterboxed AND 4:3 (common for cable boxes that up-convert letterbox SDTV material).  I'm not sure which sets do have these stretch modes, but I beleive some do.   <br /> <br />Also, Plasmas are moving very fast right now, with Pioneer due to release new models any day, among others.  Waiting a bit longer if you're in no hurry may turn up a set even better than this at the same price.  But as of Spring 2006, I am very confident this is the best 42\\" plasma in the ~$2k range.