Hi all,

First post, been lurking for a little while on here, a lot of very interesting info on here, so first off, many thanks for that!

Now, Black Friday is coming up and I am planning on getting my first flat panel to replace a dying 2nd hand 20-something" CRT :D

I'm planning on something between 40-46". I really only watch TV in the early evening after work, at night, and sometimes during the day on the weekends. I have regular blinds on my windows to block out the sun. I only watch DVD movies and regular TV shows.

For LCDs, I'm considering a Samsung (LN46A550), mainly because a girlfriend of mine has a Samsung LCD (from last year I believe), and when I saw it my jaw fell to the floor because I had never seen HD up close before.

As for Plasma, the Panasonic 42PZ80U falls nicely into my price/size range as well. Now, I went to BB to look at both of these sets, and the picture looked good on both of these, the only difference I could see was that the Samsung looked a LOT more reflective than the Panasonic (not just the screen, but the body as well) and it was a lot brighter, but I expected that because it's an LCD.

So I'm sort of leaning towards the Panny, but I'm worried about the whole break in process and image retention. Basically, I do not have the time to do a break in process or babysit my TV, I want to put the thing against the wall and let it be and not worry about it...kinda like my current CRT. I'll probably be watching a lot of SD content at first.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Lots of people in the various Panasonic threads in the Plasma Forum haven't done any break-in on their new Panasonics and their TVs have suffered no ill effects. As long as you spend the first hundred or so hours trying to avoid black bars and tickers and static logos etc you can watch it at normal picture settings without really babying it.

You should scan through the big PZ80U Owners Thread in the Plasma forum and i think you'll find there's nothing really to worry about.

The thing is that I know for sure that I will not be able to avoid those things during the first 100 hours. My bro will be using the TV while I'm away and he would not pay any attention to the kind of content he's viewing. I'll check that other thread though, thanks!