since I can't see it before paying for it.

So I've accepted I'm simply looking for the best TV under 1K.

This looks interesting:
http://www.bestbuy.c...050&skuId=9290117

Samsung - 50" Class / 1080p / 600Hz / Plasma HDTV -
Sale: $897.99

Any reason not to do plasma other than cost of power?

They don't put it on display, you have to ask for it.

They had 8 in the store, 4 were reserved, I payed for it.
I had to wait for my TL to get home, she has the van.
She wasn't ready for it. She thought I was getting a much
smaller one and moving the bedroom TV to the living
room. She was thinking 30" MAX. And then saw them wheel
this thing out. Once we got past the shock, she's warmed up
to it.

I knew it was the "low" end model for the size and technology.

No anti-glare on the tube, needs a dark room for me. On the
other hand, I ALWAYS watch TV in a dark room, so I don't care.

No motion smoothing or any of that fancy image processing. I've
been reading reviews for a while, have looked at a few in the store
and realize I don't care about that stuff. I don't watch sports,
as long as movies and blue-ray look good, I'm good.

Refresh rate is a confusing stat, at least when comparing
plasma VS LCD. The base rate that is talked about is 60 vs
120 hz, ie: How many images are drawn per second? This is
controlled both by the sending cable (how wide is the data pipe
or fast is the clock rate) and by the electronics of the TV, ie:
how fast can it really redraw that screen.

60 is the old norm, 120 is the new norm. You need 120 if
you are going to be using the TV with 3D shutter glasses.

This TV is 60hz, so no 3D for me.

On the other hand, LCD and plasma have a major difference in
how it presents the image. LCD is a shutter mechanism
that blocks the background light with various colors, or attempts
a total block. It can never do it all. The timing of turning
the blocking crystals affects the image, with fast moving stuff
sometime overwhelming the ability of the crystal changes to
block the light. The light is always on, consuming power.

Plasma does not work that way. Plasma is a grid of cells. Each
cell is able to produce levels of color when electricity is
applied. When electivity is off, no light is created which means
plasma TVs have true black (lack of light) where LCDs do not.
This shows up when you are able to see fine detail in a dark
scene since the contrast does not have to be artificially
high to pick up subtle differences.

A plasma screen refreshes 600 times a second, at the hardware
level. This gives a feeling of (I dunno, tough to describe)
(hmm) - anchoring, solidity. The picture is more of a window
into another room than presentation of some sort. Of course,
the darkness of the rest of the room helps, as does the the
50" screen.

Colors change or become dark very quickly as compared to LCD,
but if the source isn't up to speed, it doesn't matter.
I was a bit worried about pixelation of very fast colorful stuff.
Speed Racer via Comcast On-Demand would occasionally pixel storm.

Then I realized it was Comcast / cable box issue, I've got a
5 wire component cable for sound and video from that box, all
video processing would have to be done on it. I'll have to
look into my connectivity choices. The cable box does not
have HDMI but it does have a DVI out that should be able to
convert to HDMI. If that gives me a digital compressed signal,
then the CPU on the TV should to the processing rather than
the cable box, and I should see an improvement.

I then saw "The Transporter II" via on-demand. Crystal clear,
even the fastest scenes with many colors. I seems to recall
different channels use different compressions, and I can expect
variable movie quality. Fine, I'm good with it.

Burn in is something to watch for. I won't be using it as a
computer monitor, and I'll be paying attention to those channel
logos. It takes about 20 minutes of constant image to have
a slight ghosting effect that you can see as the TV turns off.
This is to be expected (according to the docs), and transient.
It would take about 20 hours to have a permanent effect.

Sound is "so-so" as expected. I'll hook up my Onkyo AV center
today.

I've been wanting a serous sized plasma display for years. I saw
an IBM orange/black plasma monitor in the days of early VGA,
and it blew me away. When I saw them faked out in the walls
of "Total Recall", it sealed the deal.

LCD displays are the 2nd ran of the techonology but they will own
the world when done, simply by being a universal low (or lower)
power techonology that is used in everything. It feels like
the VHS VS Beta war. VHS sucked compared to Beta, but you
couldn't get porn on Beta, so it doomed it for home use.

Oh well. I'm happy with what I got.

The simple home VS store setting is asked when you first turn on the set, which then defaults the various settings for the environment. So that's taken care off.

There are a few preset modes, such as "TV", "MOVIE", etc. They have an effect, but I haven't played enough to tell if I care either way.

The link to pointed at certainly looks interesting. I might pick it up.

There is a next level calibration that I can hire someone to come out for $200 and do it. I've heard testimonials but I really don't care. They have 2 TVs in the store as a comparison, and I agree the calibrated tv looks slightly better, but for all I know the non-calibrated TV could be set to shit for a good comparison.

In the old days, with 3 gun projectors, or various electromechanic focusing devices, I could easily see calibrating being a huge benefit.

But with LCD or plasma? Nah.

The cable company told me to swap out the box (no charge) for the correct HDMI 1080-p connection.