Big screen LCD TVs

I looked at these for about 5 months before making a decision. Based on size 60" and desire for HD I contemplated over sony grand vega III 60"lcd, samsung 60"DLP and Phillips LcoS 55". Sony won. I found sharpness, color and blacks close on all three. Sony did not have any motion artifacts,less reflection in a bright room, adequate brightness (I have lots of windows) and standard non HD brodcasts were still reasonable. When you compare you should look at that if the dealer can switch back and forth. Most of them do not like to do this since a large screen can look very poor in standard brodcast. I compared NCAA basketball and it helped to finalize the purchase.

Although I'm not a videophile, my understanding is that LCDs are generally not as bright as plasma displays, and may not have as much contrast, either. The industrial LCDs I have seen are back lit with fluorescent tubes. I have seen some LCD computer monitors which are readable in direct sunlight, but they are very expensive. Also, when you turn up the brightness, the black background also gets brighter. If you alwaysw watch in the dark, this won't matter, but if you have sunlight shining on your screen, it may. I must state again that my knowledge is very limited in this area, but maybe this will kick off some input from people who know more than I do.

Exactly.
These new sets are no different then hi-end audio: garbage in, garbage out. You really need a digital signal from cable or satelite to appreciate them. These sets will really expose poor analog signal.

I finally ended up with the 60" Wega Sony and I love it!
Believe it or not I actually purchased the 65" Mitsibuishi CRT unit first, but after the first day I pleaded with the store to take it back for exchange.
High def signals looked great but... Video tapes looked ugly!!!
Now, I know that is not the ideal medium to play on such a large image , but the Sony seems too handle that input much better.
Again,High def broadcasts are awesome, so I find myself watching very little Video Tape now. But, lets face it, we probably all have treasured tapes of our early lives, some sets will display them fine (like the Sony) and some sets make it look like a big blur with smeared colors! (Even with SVHS Tapes!!!_
The 60" Sony picture in High Def is as good and as bright as any Plasma set I have seen (in 50" version.)
The only drawback with the Sony LCD is on extremly dark scenes the detail gets lost.
I am not sure how the Plasma units handle the dark scenes,but the Mitsuibuishi CRT did fine .