[quote name='Chacrana']Nah, musicnoteless thinks things through more than most. Didn't realize that LG's plasmas were that inexpensive now... personally, I don't like their plasmas all that much (perhaps Pioneer spoiled me), but it's worth considering.[/QUOTE]
Well, the Pioneers are always going to beat them, they are undisputed in plasmas, but LG's plasmas since around 2006 are a lot better than they used to be. Their 2007 models have 15000:1 contrast ratios, 2-3 HDMI inputs, and suffer from little to no burn in. Not near the Pioneers but better than a lot of Panasonic sets.
Hitachi has some new models too, don't know how good they are, but I've seen them advertised more often.
As for the LG's, it's really their 2006 stock that's cheap: 42 and 50 inch models around $1000, 32 inch models near $700, they are decent, 10000 to 1, the ones produced in late 2006 have 2x HDMI, and the image is a lot better than one would expect.
My favorite part of course is LG's TWO YEARS parts and labor warranty, with the way stores want to push extended service plans, having a 2 year warranty right out the box is one hell of a deal.