What a difference.

I bought this TV as a replacement for an LCD that I still have. I made the jump into flat panels with LCD and I was happy...at first. Until I started noticing problems with my eyesight. Things would get blurry, I would get headaches, even nauseous at times. I didn't know why until I did research online and found that the response rate of certain LCDs and the slow refresh was what was messing with my senses. The other problem was black levels; I got really bothered with the "dark gray" that the LCD was calling black. So I did research and narrowed my options to three: (1) buy a CRT, which is space consuming, (2) Get an LCD for $5000 with a fast refresh and super deep contrast ratio and black level, or (3) get a plasma. Using space and cost as my primary concerns, I decided on the plasma. I did major research on different plasma types and almost settled for the Vizio when I saw this one at Circuit City.

The first thing that snagged me was its size. For a 42 inch it was sufficiently big for my living room. I also loved the super thin bezel and the extremely low heat that the TV put off, almost a 10th the output of the 26 LCD that was replaced. It was $1200 after some discounts which was a great price for this level of TV. It also had a beautiful look to it. So I went ahead and bought this bad boy. It's hanging on my wall right now. I've had it for about 4 months now. Here are the impressions that matter:

- The TV is very light. A grown man of moderate muscular build could lift this by himself. The problem is that it's so smooth and shiny that there is no way to get grips, so you'll need long arms, but it can be done.

- The screen itself generates some slight heat, but the rest of the TV stays super cool. There should be no issue with hanging this on a wall (and well you should hang it on a wall).

- One thing to note about resolutions: The TV supports 720p and 1080i. It does NOT support 1080p. This is important, because if you hook this TV up to a PS3, the PS3 will say it supports 1080p. Don't do it or you won't get picture. On the upside, the 1080i/720p looks simply stunning - way better than LCDs of comparable price and size. For proof, watch Planet Earth on HD-DVD on the TV and you'll see what I mean.

- The remote is simple but effective. The problem I have with the remote has to do with the Input selector; it jumps to the next option instead of waiting for you to pick an input. Minor nitpick really.

- The speakers are actually good quality. If you hook up an HDMI source, you'll be surprised at just how powerful the speakers can be. Plus they're integrated into the case, so they don't stand out like a sore thumb.

- The TV has no PIP/POP options. This is a minor annoyance for me; There are times I would like to play games on one half of the screen and watch TV on the other half; alas, this cannot be done.

- The jacks on the back of the TV face directly back to the wall, if you hang it on the wall, you won't be able to plug anything in very easily. I don't understand why they didn't face the jacks downward so you could plug things in from underneath.

- The TV audio is not sync'd properly with external audio receivers, there's a two millisecond delay between the two and it will bother you.

- Energy Star compliant, so it won't ramp your energy bill. It also has two modes: Low power and regular; the TV is bright enough on Low power mode, and your TV will last a lot longer if you use it.

- Some people are nervous about burn in. This TV does keep "ghost" images from what you view very easily. To counter this, the TV gives you an ISM option to select. ISM is basically a method to "clear" the picture image and put it back to normal, kind of like shaking an Etch a Sketch to clear a drawn image. You can white wash it, which is clean slate, you can do Orbiter, which shifts all pixels every 5 minutes (Etch a Sketch method), Inverse, which is exactly what it sounds like, or Normal, which doesn't do anything.

Ultimately this is a great TV for the price and light years beyond non-DLP LCD tech. If you want a flat panel, this should be your draft pick.