Personally if your going up above the 42" size and watch a lot of fast motion TV i would go the Plasma route instead of LCD ,,,,, even the new 120hz LCD's, although better, still aren't as fast as Plasma's. I don't want to start a Plasma vs LCD debate, but you might want to take your time and compare. Mind you, if you won't be watching fast panning sports etc where the LCD's tend to "blur" it may not be an issue for you. I think Plasma might in fact be cheaper as well.

I almost broke down and purchased a 32" Panasonic LCD (TC-32LX700, 120hz) this past week myself ,,,, just couldnÂt bear to part with $1300 knowing the motion blur might drive me insane when watching football or hockey.

KC

Thanks KC, I appreciate your input. After researching, husband has his heart set on LCD. (I'll remind him if he complains when we watch the Superbowl and the the players blur as they run past) :) So we're pretty set on either the Samsung or Sony. I've heard Sony customer support is not great, has anyone else heard this? We'll probably buy online. thanks again!

We looked at similar TVs. We ruled out plasma as the TV would be exposed to a large picture window. We ended up choosing the Samsung LN-T4661. With a HD cable box, the picture is phenomenal.

We do see some motion blure when watching football, but is very minimal. I am not a hockey fan, so I cannot speak to how it handles hockey.

i would go with the samsung. when i compared them side by side when i was trying to figure out what iwas going to get i thought that the samsung tv's (dlp's,lcd's and plasmas) as a whole had far better pictures then sony.

We've owned a Samsung 4661 for about six months now. Both contrast and colour are excellent. We were looking also at the 4665, which is also an LCD. It was a no-go because of its shiny screen (unusual for an LCD). There are skylights in the living room. This is why a plasma was ruled out early on.

We looked at a lot of LCD and plasma sets - including the Sonys - and preferred the Samsung 4661. We were limited by width - a 49 inches - so the form-factor sealed the deal.

My DVD playwer delivers very good video through the component video inputs. Over-the-air 1080i HD broadcasts are spectacular. I've not yet used HDMI. If the picture is as good as broadcast HD, I will be pleased.

There are two "quirks" I've found with the video quality. One has already been discussed - response time. Blurring was not very noticeable on sporting events. However, the slower response was obvious on the Nasonex commercial. The bee's wings are nearly invisible on the Samsung LCD. The "flapping" is just too quick for the screen. This is the only response issue I've seen.

The other "quirk" relates to blackness uniformity. All LCDs have minor brightness variations across the screen. These can be seen only during very dark passages. In the Samsung, they appear as barely-visible pillars of light covering the left and right 10% of the screen. They disappear as you get to within five feet of the set. From what I saw in the store, the pillars are more obvious on the shiny screen of the 4665.

Viewing angle is very good. The contrast dulls only slightly when seated beyond 45° either side of center.

Audio quality is not bad. However, the speaker location and the set's thinness take a toll on the bass. Wiring it up to our stereo fixed that. Speakers placed near an LCD or plasma set will not affect picture quality.

From my experience, the picture controls on the Samsung are set too aggressively. Here are some of the ones I settled on...

Brightness - 45
Contrast - 9
Colour - 45
Backlight - 8

Please note that setting the brightness too high will exaggerate the "light pillars" I mentioned before. Conversely, the backlight level has little effect.

The "enegy saving" setting sounds like a good idea - until you use it. The backlight level changes dynamically to match the material. Ideally it should do so without being noticed by the viewer. Unfortunately, the control cannot keep up with sudden changes in overall brightness. The result is something like the "blooming" effect seen on some CRT sets, where brightness regulation is often an issue.

All-in-all...the Samsung is a fine set. It has plenty of contrast and great colour. The dark matte screen handles the skylights without trouble. Even direct sunlight doesn't wash out the picture - a real problem with our old picture-tube television.

Peace.

Marco