EVERYONE who knows anything about HDTVs... HELP!

Alright... So I am gonna buy an HDTV and I have about $2,000 to spend, but I don't want to spend that much. I wanted to set aside roughly $160 for a 3 year extended warranty from CPS and maybe another $100 for accessories and odds and ends... this has been one of the hardest decisions of my life as I am VERY cheap and would hate to spend this much money on a TV and be disappointed with my choice. I hear so many conflicting reviews. Anyway, I was leading torwards Plasma (must have a built in HD tuner) and would really prefer a 50 inch, but would settle for 42. I hear DLPs are great but they ain't thin. So ANYONE with some knowledge on this matter, please give me your suggestions. What brand, what display technology (plasma, LCD... etc.), the good, the bad... HELP!!!

For the bang of the buck the vizio plasma kicks ass. At my local costco you can get the 50 inch HDTV/HDMI for $1999. ) Supreme quality and great big size for the money. I want it so bad. I wish I had 2k.

Why buy a HDTV, when you can Grab it from HDTVGrab P
http//forum.freeipodguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=46836

your going to be disappointed with a plasma

lcd and dlp tvs are much much much superior.

how thin do you wanna go?

mountable to a wall?

[quoteca077861a9="Kidd"]your going to be disappointed with a plasma

lcd and dlp tvs are much much much superior.

how thin do you wanna go?

mountable to a wall?[/quoteca077861a9]
If he's going for wall-mounting, plasma is the best thing he can get. Plasma beats LCD any day in terms of image quality, however plasma does have the usual drawbacks (image retention if you aren't very careful, and half-life issues but that's less of a concern nowadays).

DLP and SXRD/LCoS are the best rear-projection options. On a budget I'd definitely go with DLP, it's probably the best bang for the buck on the market. Of course I'm partial to SXRD, as I have a 60", but it's out of your budget range.

LCD's above 37" suck for the most part, at least in my eyes. Some are better than others, but I have yet to see one that comes even close to a DLP, SXRD, or Plasma in image quality. Screen door effect and artifacting are terrible at large sizes, not to mention smearing and ghosting on a lot of the cheap ones.

i still think that crt gives u the most bang for your buck, although i have not looked at the market in 4 months so maybe things have changed.
we got this in november last year for $800 off retail when it was still mainstream
http//www.mitsubishi-tv.com/j/i/18326/TelevisionDetails.html?cid=126

also note that extended warranties are not always worth it and some sources in the business and retail world suggest NEVER buying one.
http//tv.about.com/od/warranties/a/buyexwarranty.htm
http//www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/general/warranties/fs_w01.shtml
http//pcworld.com/article/id,124856-page,8/article.html

i have an old (1-2 yrs) sony 42" plasma monitor. it downconverts the digicable box's 1080i to its native 480p and frankly looks fucking fantastic. divx/xvid and dvds on the mac mini (which connects to the DVI port) look great, too. audio is handled by my 5.1 DD/DTS box. on the cheap and really fun to watch.

something to keep in mind is that with expensive toys, you can always find something to be unhappy about. there is always a model that costs more and fixes the thing you don't like about what you have. the key, at least for me, is to find a good middle ground between price and functionality, buy it, and then just be content. i lucked out in that i didn't have to pay for most of my HT setup but none of the components are high quality by any measure and i still enjoy it as much as i enjoy the systems costing 10x as much at my friends' places.

http//www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=385

Take a look there. I got a plasma from there for like 1500 and am very happy with my purchase. Newegg usually has good deals and you can find out which are the better models by looking at the reviews.

Hope that helps