I recommend staying away from plasma. Though the technology of the plasma has improved, they are still susceptible to burn-ins while they are new, and the technology of a plasma has a more limited life span than that of an LCD. Plasma uses the natural phenomenon involving a chemical reaction to create the light and image on the screen. Understand that there is a limited amount of the chemicals available, and as a result, the image quality will degrade over time. You will generally notice a degradation in quality at around the 2-3 year mark for a plasma. Plus plasmas are generally more expensive.
LCDs are the way to go at this point in time. In retrospect, I should have gotten an LCD myself, but I went and got a DLP, which is pretty good, but the mechanics of the DLP are fairly complicated and it does require a new lamp every so often.
LCDs are generally maintenance free.
The Sharp Aquos series seems to be pretty good at this time. I saw the new Sharp Aquos 65" LCD the other day and it was beautiful. The screen was in the mall in bright daylight and there was absolutely no glare on the screen and the image remained crisp and clean. I was amazed. But the price tag was $9000.
