Randy, a year or so ago, when I was shopping for my first LCD TV, I narrowed it down to Sharp, Samsung, and Sony. Didn't like the Toshibas due to a greenish tinge (went to a couple different stores to confirm). I felt the picture of the Samsungs and Sonys were slightly better than the Sharps. In the end, I chose the Sony--even though they are not my favorite company, but they seem to do TVs correctly.
I'm sure things have changed since I looked at TVs. Never really had a chance to see Panasonic or Phillips. I did have an older Panasonic CRT and I loved the picture on that guy. I ended up giving it to my best friend and he still uses it in an upstairs soon-to-be game room.
Really, I spent a few hours standing in stores simply just staring at screens. Ones that caught my eye I'd delve into the settings and see what kind of tweaking I could do and what improvements I could detect.
