Jond,
I went through the exact decision process approx 6mos ago. I moved into a condo with an oddly-shaped family room that would not accomodate a floor-standing set of any size (while still maintaining ideal conditions for the 2-channel system, of course). Thus, I was looking only at wall-mount units, at this time, LCD vs. Plasma. I opted for a 42" Panasonic EDTV plasma for several reasons. First, the family room has a lot of ambient light, so it was important that the set look good in close to full daylight. Plasma has a BIG advantage here. Second, plasma was more forgiving from wide viewing angles - so it can be enjoyed from anywhere in the room. As to ED vs. HD, I primarily watch DVDs, which are actually slightly better on a ED set. Also, EDTV was more forgiving for standard def signals - the other primary use in my case. Currently, I only have 4 HD channels available, and it accounts for less than 5% of my total use. Besides, ED looks exceptional with a HD signal and the improvement with an HD set was slight. With the slow implementation of HD by the television industry, HD signals will comprise only a small amount of my viewing.
Thus, you really need to balance price with an honest assessment of your viewing practices. The Panny plasma that I picked up is the latest generation commercial version that can be bought for under $2k, delivered to your door. While I also have little regard for Panasonic audio gear, in the world of plasmas, they are very respected, and considered the benchmarks at their pricepoint. No problems/concerns with my set, and the picture is stellar. Good luck in your quest, hope this helps.
I went through the exact decision process approx 6mos ago. I moved into a condo with an oddly-shaped family room that would not accomodate a floor-standing set of any size (while still maintaining ideal conditions for the 2-channel system, of course). Thus, I was looking only at wall-mount units, at this time, LCD vs. Plasma. I opted for a 42" Panasonic EDTV plasma for several reasons. First, the family room has a lot of ambient light, so it was important that the set look good in close to full daylight. Plasma has a BIG advantage here. Second, plasma was more forgiving from wide viewing angles - so it can be enjoyed from anywhere in the room. As to ED vs. HD, I primarily watch DVDs, which are actually slightly better on a ED set. Also, EDTV was more forgiving for standard def signals - the other primary use in my case. Currently, I only have 4 HD channels available, and it accounts for less than 5% of my total use. Besides, ED looks exceptional with a HD signal and the improvement with an HD set was slight. With the slow implementation of HD by the television industry, HD signals will comprise only a small amount of my viewing.
Thus, you really need to balance price with an honest assessment of your viewing practices. The Panny plasma that I picked up is the latest generation commercial version that can be bought for under $2k, delivered to your door. While I also have little regard for Panasonic audio gear, in the world of plasmas, they are very respected, and considered the benchmarks at their pricepoint. No problems/concerns with my set, and the picture is stellar. Good luck in your quest, hope this helps.