Plasma is still better, and can do things that LCD TVs with dynamic back lighting and LEDs still can’t do. In any movie with a scene of outer space for example, a star field can still look deeper with darker blacks. A LCD TV with LED back lights doesn’t have enough LEDs to light up individual stars so you loose the blacks to keep those stars nice as bright, or dim the stars to keep the blacks.

If an LED lights up for each star (or the TV tries to) there will be halos because there is a light diffuser to keep the LEDs from looking like spots of light, this will cause light halos around stars or points of light.

Go for a new 2010 Panasonic plasma they will be here before the Samsung and LG 2010 models. If you want the new panel that can do the super blacks and nice bright whites, the G series is it. If you want 3D, you need to go with the V series. The S2 series is a good bang for the buck set, but it does not have the next generation panel that the G and V series has though it has been improved for 2010.

The S2 series has just landed at bestbuy and the G series is already being listed at Bestbuy as coming soon. If you don’t have G or V money, hang out a little bit and see what LG and Samsung are bringing. They showed their new 2010 plasmas at CES 2010 but there were no final specs, they might have something better than the S2 series at a similar price.

Now the bad news for most flat panel TVs. I don’t know why this is, but power supply failures and board failures seem to be more common than with the old tube TVs. The new flat panels TV are crammed with a lot more technology, and I suspect that to keep prices down a lot of corners are being cut in this area. It seems to be an issue with LCD and plasma, all brands. There are so many people that come to Yahoo with both of these problems. I own both a plasma TV (my second) and one LCD TV (my only one) and I’ve been lucky no issues with any of them.

http://www.panasonic.net/avc/viera/us2010/product/comparison_plasma.html

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Panasonic+-+VIERA+/+50%22+Class+/+1080p+/+600Hz+/+Plasma+HDTV/9788953.p?id=1218175321979&skuId=9788953
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Both LED types, being the latest advance, are very pricey right now. You can definitely save money with plasma if the shortcomings of plasma don’t bother you–more power consumption, heavier, and a lot of reflection in a lighted room. On the other hand, the plasma picture is as good as the best picture you can get with an LCD (generally, anyway), and the characteristic fast-motion blur of LCDs is not a factor with plasma.
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