Wolverines

Any suggestions would be great,my 50 inch Hitachi died recently.I am looking for something close to that size.Any recommendations??

Depends on what price your looking for. LED Edge Lit 120Hz+ is the way for the best. Avoid 3D and save a grand. I personally never look at the flat screens that are crazy thin. The crazy thin ones will again add several hundred to the price without any performance gain on the screen. Even the worlds fattest LCD will be thinner then rear projection.

I recommend http://www.amazon.com/Epson-PowerLite-Home-Cinema-V11H373120/dp/B0044UHJWY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1302220816&sr=8-2

Any size tv you want.  I have one at home and it's da bomb diggity!

JT, how many hours you get per bulb and how much do the bulbs run?

It depends on how you set it up, but you should expect 3,000-4,000 hours runtime, which is like 2,500 movies worth.  So it's a lot.  Lamps are about $200.  Totally worth it.  Nothing beats a 9' diagonal, 1080p television in your living room...except a 10' one I guess.  Or 11'.  You get the idea.

My hitachi ultravision (best tv i ever had)was a projection screen LCD HD,I don't want to go that route again, i have about 1k to spend.

Yeah 1k will get you 46 inch 120 Hz.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889102351 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889102351) (1100)

Top brands like Samsung will be at or above 1k. Where the off brands will be just under 1k.

If you spent just a little more you can get the LED edge lit (1170.00)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889102540 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889102540)

And while you really shouldn't compare or pay "much" attention to Dynamic Contrast ratio numbers, when you compare them in the same brand, in this case a Samsung vs Samsung, it is pretty impressive to see how much better they are claiming the Edge lit to be. (150k vs 5 million)

You don't want to go the route of the best tv you ever had again?  I'm confused.

I meant,projection type screen again.I'm sorry being in China is really starting to effect me .Cabin fever really bad ,I've been stuck in a hotel room for 3 days,just going .to the restaurant to eat breakfast and lunch.There is a paperwork problem with airport so basically 3 days of work totally wasted.It  has put me behind schedule,I was supposed to leave today at 11am but I am now scheduled to leave the 15th,if I'm lucky.lol

I think I am gonna go this route,can't beat the price.LG 50" Plasma under a $1,000.I looked it up on cnet and it got some really good reviews.I was concerned about burning issue,but the article explained anti burning tech has come a long way.When I get home I'm gonna make a bee line for Sam's and check this bad boy out in person.Then make my decision.You c an run a screen saver when the tv is off and it clears any burn spots that may have occured.So that there kinda calmed my nerves about burning issues.
 
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1113848&navAction=push

Yeah burning hasn't been an issue with plasma for couple years. The difference with plasma is it won't be as bright a screen. So if the room has a lot of natural light and windows it might not work as well as an LCD. But if the room isn't like that, that plasma is definitely worth it.

One thing with the LCD, which is basically what you are use to on your computer monitor, it pushes out a lot of light with the backlit which is why plasma gives deeper blacks. When you watch a movie and turn off all the rooms lights, I normally set my LCD back light to its lowest setting and turn on all the cinema settings. Plasma is more cinema focused from the start. The intelligent light sensor on that plasma should make that not an issue. I have an LG LCD and love the light sensor. It does a great job for standard viewing, adjusting the brightness, contrast, when the sun shooting through the window in the morning.

Well I am picking this bad boy up tomorrow!!! WOOOT

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Vizio-E550VL/13904842?findingMethod=rr

Hey Ark, how do you like the new tv?  I convinced the little lady to buy this as well.  Her crappy little 32" LCD that was in our living room died a couple weeks ago, so we needed a new one anyway and the price was right on this.  I'll be picking up in a week or so when it shows up at the store.

Actually on the way to wal mart ,I saw that Best But was having a sale. i got a 51 inch samsung plasma for same price,600hz,6mill contrast blows away the vizio. ME SO HAPPY!!!!!!!

Congrats!  The Vizio's a pretty good tv.  It's not THX-certified perfection, but for a 55" under 1k, it's pretty damn acceptable.  Besides, the old lady wouldn't know contrast ratio if it bit her in the ass.

Contrast ratio one of those things that has been reduced to a fake stat. Every company is using different methods to measure it, different settings and tactics to inflate it. Pretty much don't get a bottom brand (store brand) and you are fine. Any middle brand or top brand will have good enough contrast ratio on even the cheapest sets they offer. Plasmas are even less concern with contrast, never seen one that had a low ratio, this is probably because plasmas are harder to manufacture so there are no bottom brands compared with LCD. The best way I would say to judge contrast ratio is just to look at the Brand name. Top brands, Sony, Samsung will have the higher contrast ratios. Middle brands, Visio, LG, etc will have average and above average. Store brands no matter what they claim will have shit contrast.