I went through the same process, and after side-by-side comparisons I realized the only choice was to determine: A) what is my most-watched source? and B) what screen technology provided the best picture?
LCD's just seemed too noticeably SLOW for video. They are crisp, but slow. I went with a 20.1" NEC touch screen LCD for my PC, and the NEC 42MP3 for cinema video. Yes, it was a pricey choice, but since I watch primarily from the Dish Network (secondarily from DVD's), the NEC plasma edged out the competition for that scenario. Since I hooked up my Celestron 14" telescope to my PC for remote astronomical viewing, the 20.1" NEC LCD was the superior choice because the software was optimized for the native resolution of the display.
My advice is simple: do a SIDE BY SIDE comparison of images between the units you are considering, and make sure they are both displaying from the SAME SOURCE with the SAME CONNECTION TYPE, and that the video source is your real-world, most-watched source type. A coax LCD connection vs. an RGB plasma will yield very different visual results, and the results are useless if you never watch the source type you are viewing during the test (a DVD makes plasma really shine, so they are generally optimized for that scenario).
Also, (like telescope magnification), TV-related resolution numbers are IRRELEVANT. A high-res 1024 x 1024 Sony plasma seemed to me to be very inferior to the lower-res (and similarly priced) plasma from NEC and Panasonic. I suspect that this is because the lower-res screens don't have to reinterpolate the source data resolution. The Sony really suffers in this regard. The Sony ALSO seems to need an adapter for practically every video source! Ugh! Talk about adding a petty expense.
In each case, my source tuner is irrelevant because every video (and audio) source isn't "off the air", so my video sources act as tuners. This makes the monitor tuner irrelevant (and happily missing from my plasma screen).
I hope this helps! Yeah, I'm a gadget-guy who spends too much, but I'm very specific with my ultimate choices based on real-world usage expectations. Right now, LCD's are still too slow for my taste, and when you put one next to a plasma there is no comparison. Even if you just have basic cable, you don't need a tuner on your display unless you want to dump the cable box. Many digital cable systems won't work with a monitor's built-in tuner, anyway -- you'll still need the box.
Good luck! E-mail me anytime at
joe94131@hotmail.com if I can be of any help!
--JoeySF
