WHAT TV SHOULD I GET RIGHT NOW?

Panasonic.

the queston is what type of flat screen will work well in your viewing room....
lcd is better where you have a bright sun lit room, lcd's have poorer off axis viewing(they look better straight on)
Plasma works better when you can controll the amt of sun light you have they have better off axis viewing...
with that said both panasonic and samsung build great plasma's and are evenly priced, however if you need a lcd look to samsung sharp sony ect.

Figure out the features YOU need.
I want a total ability to resize the screen. Not just a few 'zoom, wide zoom settings.
Better sound management than what i now have (sucks)
The subtitles: mine sucks as I have to go into five menus to pop it up (to watch a sports while listenign to music..) same to turn it off. Should be a single button on the remote (PLENTY of useless, never used buttons on the remote, why not for that?

See. I would look for the simple things you use and want. Mosst TVs are pretty good. and then with the features, you cna choose easier.
(Yeah looking at the picture too. Problem is you have to adjust it to be decent first.. hard to do in ANY big box store. ((this alos lets you know if the menu system is any good or screwed up)) ditto an adjustment DVD or Bluray useage, nope, they only have the junk they allow to be viewed.)

I have a sony XLR LED I got last year. Oh my is it nice. Best TV I've ever had...including 2 samsung plasmas...

Panasonic VT50 series plasma or JVC Black SapphireLCD/LED are the two best pictures I have seen in my shopping. Don't waste the money on the Sharp Elite from what I can tell the Elite is just a higher end Sharp with fancy trim and higher price. All my opinion based upon my eyes. YMMV