New Plasma: 1080p or 750?

At 42" 720p is all you need. I think the bigger question is if you can stretch to a 50" screen. I'm not that much into TV either, but the difference in my level of involvement and enjoyment watching my 50" vs. my neighbor's 42" is huge -- night and day, especially with movies and sports. If you can swing it and your room is large enough this will make a much bigger impact on your enjoyment factor than 720p vs. 1080p.

Personally I think Panasonic has a lot more invested in plasma than LG (or just about anyone else except possibly Pioneer, but they're much more expensive), so if you're not getting a huge price break by getting something else I'd recommend Panasonic. Mine's been great.

Go with the 1080P. In this age of new technology, I suggest geting the most current. Bluray is truly amazing in 1080P (and on my 60" Pioneer Elite, the Fox football games in 720P is a dissappointment).

And I think LG is a very inferior product-with inferior customer support to boot.

Well the cable company compresses their signal up to five times. That's why they look bad. You should see 720p over an antennae. No compression.

Joe,

I just bought a Panasonic TH-50PZ800U after looking closely at the Panasonic and Pioneer units. The Panasonic was a fantastic value and is very well done. I'm extremely happy with it.

If you can afford it, go for 1080p and you won't regret it.

In the Panasonic line, the "800U" model has THX certification, but the step-up 850U model drops this in favor of added equipment that allows you to connect your TV to the internet and download various content directly into your TV. I thought this was stupid as I plan to keep the TV for many years, and chances are, this feature will be obsolete in just a couple of years -- the same way I never recommended buying a TV with built-in VCR!

Anyway I would suggest avoiding LG and go for Samsung, Panasonic or Pioneer if you possibly can.

Hey, thanks Muiter. I had already decided on the Panasonic 42PZ80U. I have a shirt tail relative that I can get one from for around $1k. then the old Sony goes in the basement for the kids.