I recently went through the same decision you are now. I looked at the Panny PXxxU line and the JVC HD-ILA models and ended up with the 56FN97. Bottom line: Better picture and more screen acreage for much less moola. You get true HD (1080P native), better blacks, better color, less artifacting, sharper picture, all for lots less. So if you're not worried about the "look at the cool plasma on the wall" effect or scared of replacing a bulb (average 3-5 years of normal use) here and there the HD-ILA (really: LCoS) JVC is the way to go.
If you want to get a good side by side, do as I did and go into Video Only or whichever and strong-arm them into putting one of each in a HT demo room. They called me a few days later and actually had it set up!
