Thankfully I have already decided on which screen to get. Now that I live in Japan I found the market to be very limited. That is Japan is a very domestic market place where the local manufacturers supply everything high tech, (which can be very different to what is sent overseas). I found it very hard to find the brand chooses like what North America has. I was planning for Samsung LCD flat panel because they have really pulled their products together and made great stuff, but I discovered that they putted out of Japan because of the domestic market thing. So my choices were limited to Panasonic, Sony, Sharp, Pioneer(plasma), Hitashi. All make great LCD TVs for Japan. In the end I'm going Sony because of features and competitive pricing. I did consider Panasonic but their bad customer service and product support (in Japan anyway) decided that one for me. I also seriously looked at Pioneer but their pricing is way to high compared to other brands. I did also consider importing but again shipping cost for something that big just costs to much.
It's been lots of fun researching everything though and my knowledge has grown.
