Who has the best plasma monitor these days

With the most recent models, LCD's have improved a great deal. Before you write them off be sure you are looking at a current model. On recent simultaneous demo alongside plasmas the LCDs look better to me. (I have a plasma, which at the time I bought it was better than LCD).

For fast motion (sports) plasma is still best. On the other hand, the LCD screen does not show reflections from room lamps or windows. Pick your poison.

Pioneer plasmas are some of the best product out there in our opinion. They cost a little more than other brands but you pay for what you get. Actually we've installed more Panasonic plasmas than Pioneer plasmas but learned that most of the consumers who chose Panasonic are for cost reason and told us that they read impressive specs from Panasonic website. But our installation and personal experience clearly showed us that Pioneer is just hand down much better in terms of picture quality. The overall design fit and finish of Pioneer plasmas are also better than that of Panasonic. But then again, you pay for what you get.

The smaller pixels in LCDs will give them an resolution advantage over plasmas for high definition video formats. Plasma has better bightness, contrast and speed. However, plasma's advantage over LCDs are eroded with each generation of LCD. On the other hand, LCD's advantages over plasma are not being eroded. In the long term, LCD will win, but only until the new technologies such as SED and OLED come to market.

I just went through the whole process (and headache) of picking the "best" tv to build my new HT around (not a headache)...and the winner for me was the:

Pioneer Elite 60" Plasma. (the 1080i) This was just about 2 months before the 1080p came out, but I cannot tell the difference. I sit 12 ft away and have a denon DVD source, until the Blu Ray - HD DVD wars are over.

All I do is watc movies now.

John

Can't go wrong with Pioneer, the 5080 can be had for 2k as they recently cut prices.