I've heard that you can haggle prices at some b&m as well, but you're not always going to find someone that needs to make sales. When I bought my tv, online was $700 cheaper than any b&m.
I suppose it boils down to the deals you find. Right now Amazon has a 50" Viera G series for 1160...
1080p is only worth the extra if you are sitting close enough for it to be noticeably different than 720p. HDGuru has a chart that shows the distances here: http://hdguru.com/hdtv-seating-distance-chart/6/
I have a 50" Panasonic Viera 800 (plasma) series from 2008. It's a great set and I...
I have a Panasonic 800u series plasma and have had no issues with image retention (which is commonly referred to as burn-in) and I typically game for 4-5 hours at a time. Right now I've been playing a lot of Resistance 2 and Rock band. I personally went with the plasma over LCD because the...