I wouldn't worry about the plasma if that's the tech your interested in. I have 3 plasma's the oldest is a LG which is 8 yrs old and it only gave trouble recently and I knew of its short comings . It cost just over a 100 bux and the part wasn't even made by LG. I have a 50" panny that looks better today than it did 5 yrs ago. My newest one is a 2 yr old lg also with no problems.
I bought my kid a sony lcd for Christmas 2011 and it layed an egg about a month ago, screen cracked and it quit. My money is on plasma which has a better picture IMHO. I will never understand how lcd came out on top any more than why vhs beat out beta or Bluray came out on top of HD DVD. Unless you have a room full of windows plasma is the better picture every time.