New tv?

IME, light output is only more important than black levels in a room where you can not control the ambient light. If that is the issue than LED's are even better as they do not have as a reflective screen surface as a plasma and are capable of even more light output.

Without excellent black levels as well as evenly spaced "shades of gray" a TV has no hope of accurately rendering a color image properly. Kuro's did both of these things better than other plasma's available at the time. Panasonic now owns the Kuro tech and has been integrating it into their plasma's over the last two years.

Yess I know about this. The F8500 is the first Plasma with a light output of a LED screen. This makes it during daytime a lot more pleasant to watch. This is a very important part. We are not talking only in my house, in most of every person there house. The other thing is sharpness and speed. The Panasonic is a lot better in this part this year, but Samsung is still better in this part as well. Ofcourse with both ( F8500/ZT60) you cannot go wrong.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/tv-reviews/samsung-pn64f8500-review/

I've gotten over my lust for the Sony 4K after talking to a B&W rep about the capabilities and use with an OPPO Blu-Ray player.

Bo is right about the Samsung 8500 plasma series. Here is another review:
http://www.televisioninfo.com/content/samsung-f8500-review-2

I have to concede and be more practical so with the brighter whites and overall performance, not to mention my current use and experience with my Samsung 7000 Plasma (which is no slouch), I give the nod to the 8500 as well.

All the best,
Nonoise

The other important thing what I miss is: sharpness. Samsung is a lot sharper than Panasonic. For me this is a lot more important than the best blacks. Light output is also much more important. The other problem of the Panasonics is the fan noise. Samsung is more silent.