Rocky,
The best bargains in an HDTV set in terms of picture quality and cheap price still come from a "mature" technology--good, ol' CRT rear-projection.
The best looking and least expensive sets are the 43 or 46-inch sets from Hitachi, Sony, and Panasonic (the latter is a 47-inch, I believe). I've also seen a couple of RCA CRT rear-pro sets that looked remarkably good. CRT projection tubes last an average of 7 years, and deliver better blacks than most other technologies. You have to periodically adjust convergence, but most of these sets have some kind of automatic convergence setup. Other worthwhile technologies are much more expensive (DLP) and/or disappointing in one respect or another (LCD) or still need a few more years to mature.
Regards,
