That must have been down to local supply - I purchased a Sony LCD over 12mths ago, and a neighbour purchased a Samsung last March, both of which were 40" +

And that's probably more down to the source than anything else. A lot of the cable channels are desperately low quality, and there's little that can be done about it. The sharper the TV display is, the more apparent these become.

If the majority of your TV watching is going to be "regular TV" then HD televisions are not recommended, stay with a CRT.

Even the regular channels supplied digitally by Shaw are, as most of you would put it "pants".

The recommended viewing distance is a minimum of 3 times the height of the TV screen.

Which would be roughly 12ft away, which is too close IMO (as you say, this is a minimum recommendation).

Steve you are making yourself sound old now!!!

after several years in TV sales when much much younger found that most manufacturers, apart from Sony, actually share and source parts and tubes for TV's. Most basic tubes source across Phillips for instance. Sharp divvy up between Toshiba and Hitachi. The cheaper Bush sets also use a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsush..._Industrial_Co. branded tube.
the point being bought panasonic for years, and was very satisfied, excellent quality etc, but, if i am honest the name played the biggest part with the increased price, thereby beating the Jones' nextdoor. Just as good quality can be found with Samsung now for example. I have the 48" plasma hi def, and its fantastic, and around $3-400 cheaper than a pana.

What do you mean?
I am old.

I just went for my annual physical and two year "drivers licence" medical.

Clear the streets I'm good to go for another two years.

Plasma I don't need no stinkin' plasma give me whole blood or nothing. Oh we're not talking transfusions, oops sorry I'll go back to sleep now.

Can you even buy a CRT still in Canada? You'd be hard pushed to find one here in the UK now, certainly of any decent size anyway - only really see the unbranded ones in supermarkets now....

FWIW Plasma makes a much better job of SD pictures than an LCD...

If I could I would get a plasma, as they have a better pic.
But OH dose not like big tv's she thinks the house should come first.

In the industry it is normal that 32" is the cross over between LCD and plasma. As the bigger LCD's lose quality quickly as the size increases. But small plasma are not efficient enough for most company to make.

My problem after more than 10 years working with tv’s make me a very picky.

What about a projector, only limited buy the length of the room and the size of wall.

big is good

Often because Plasmas are usually a lower resolution than an equivalent sized LCD. While it's more common now it's still not easy to buy a plasma that does full 1080P. And in fact many plasmas don't even do 720P properly, because the vast majority of plasmas actually use a stretched 1024x768 resolution screen, which means it's not even technically doing the low end HD properly (1280 x 720). Just like the Panasonic Viera (one reason I never bought one). You can find them now, but they're pricey.

Apparently even the 1980x1080 plasmas make a great job of SD pictures, so I'm not sure that theory holds.... My Panasonic is one of the ones with an odd resolution and it looks amazing in HD, even if it's not "true" HD...

30 times if it's on a commercial channel.

Don't forget the popcorn machine

Pop con makers need too much cleaning leave them in the kitchen