Which hdtv would you recommend and why?

I am very happy with my Panasonic 50" plasma, have had it a year and a half now. I would also highly recommend that you have it professionally calibrated after the 200 hour break-in, this made a huge difference, and now I know how to mess with it myself if I ever feel the need to.

I have Panasonic Plasma and Sony LCD (XBR). I perfer plasma. Beware, most make several quality levels. I was in a Sony store last week. They display the models side by side. The more you pay, the better the picture.

I have two Vizio's, a 32" LCD and a 50" plasma...very happy with both.

I have an older Vizio 50" (3-4 yrs old) and it is nice but quirky. On occasion it will loose the picture or sound and I will have to turn it off and on again to restore whichever one stopped working. This makes me nervous, I do not recommend Vizio for that reason.

As you can tell by the variety of responses here, there are many good choices. I think the technology has progressed so much, that the choices are huge, and you don't have to spend top dollar to get great performance.

I used to only buy Sony XBR displays, then Panasonic Plasma, then Samsung LCD, now they all look, to me very much alike. With such similar performace, I would check out Consumer Reports and some of the electronics websites to see which companies/models have the best least problems.

Good luck, lots of choices.