I've been considering a Plasma tv and my research shows that recently the Plasma's have increased the 1/2 life to 60,000 hours and the price has been coming down. The 1/2 life is defined as putting out half the brightness from when it was new.

I also discovered that the specs don't correlate to the quality of the picture. The higher resolution set may not look as good as another TV with lower resolution. The Panasonics and Samsungs are highly rated plasma TV's. I prefer the look of the Pioneer however the Pioneer goes for twice the price of the cheaper brands.

Also keep in mind when viewing TVs at a store the settings (brightness, color, movie mode, sports mode, etc.) from one TV to another may be different which can account for a difference in picture quality.

__________________
Ray
1998 Mercedes E320, 200K Miles
2001 Acura 3.2TL, 178K Miles
1992 Chevy Astro, 205K Miles