Daewoo DP42SM 42-Inch Widescreen Flat Panel Plasma EDTV-Ready TV
The Best  for the Least
Purchased this plasma in November 2003 and I still think it is unequivocally the best plasma on the market.<br />At the time I probably would have felt a little more comfortable with a &quot;better&quot; brand name, but I just couldn't get over the great picture quality.  Best Buy has all their plasmas lined up next to each other for comparison purposes, and I thought the picture on the Daewoo was by far the best in the store.  I started taking my friends to various Best Buys in New York and they all agreed that the Daewoo had the best picture.  So I &quot;took a chance&quot; and bought one and I couldn't be happier.<br />I bought the Daewoo to replace my Hitachi rear projection HDTV.  While I do get about 15 HDTV channels from Directv, the other several hundred channels looked pretty fuzzy on the rear projection, even though the one I bought was very highly rated.  I believe that most if not all HDTV's have a lot of trouble displaying non-HDTV signals.  I learned the hard way--and ended up giving my HDTV away.  (By the way, my HDTV channels do look fantastic on the Daewoo, even though it's EDTV.  Maybe they don't look quite as outstanding as on an HDTV set... but the normal channels look so much better it's worth the tiny give up on the HDTV channels.)<br />Design-wise, the cabinet and stand are beautiful, especially compared to the gold Gateway (what were they thinking?).  We get compliments on the Daewoo all the time--even when it's turned off!<br />The only bad thing I have to say about the Daewoo is that it is only available in a 42 inch size.  (I am pretty sure the plants that make the plasmas are heavily constrained by the size of the glass sheets that they start with, so maybe Daewoo saves money by optimizing here.)  According to CNET, the best distance for viewing a 42 inch set is about 6 to 10 feet away.  Ours is more like 12 feet away, and it looks great to us.<br />As far as price goes, I think I paid $2,850 from Best Buy online with free delivery (Amazon did not offer the TV for sale at the time).  A month or two later, CompUsa cut the price to $1,999.  Unfortunately, Best Buy online doesn't have the same price match policy as the brick and mortar stores.  However, I would say that even though I missed the deal of the century pricewise, I am still very happy with my Daewoo and would give it the highest possible recommendation.  And even if it's not the absolute cheapest plasma on the market at this moment, it is pretty close and offers an outstanding picture.<br />How often do you find that the best product on the market is also among the least expensive?Amazon did not offer the TV for sale at the time).  A month or two later, CompUsa cut the price to $1,999.  Unfortunately, Best Buy online doesn't have the same price match policy as the brick and mortar stores.  However, I would say that even though I missed the deal of the century pricewise, I am still very happy with my Daewoo and would give it the highest possible recommendation.  And even if it's not the absolute cheapest plasma on the market at this moment, it is pretty close and offers an outstanding picture.  <br />How often do you find that the best product on the market is also among the least expensive?