Hi,
I am looking to get a 42" flat panel for my wife's parents (the kids are chipping in - budget is about $750+tax).

I am a Costo member and Costo has the Panasonic TH-C42HD18 at a very good price. My wife's family live in Maine (they do not have a Costco in that area), so I will have it shipped to them (we live in CT).

My brother-in-law lives in Maine and he is a member of the BJs. At BJ's I saw the Samsung PN42A400.

Feature-wise (on paper at least) both models are comparable (except for the Panny SD card feature). The unit will be used to watch TV programming (cable/satellite, std and hd when available, lot of sports) 90% and DVD movies the rest. View distance is about 6ft-10ft.

Costco offers free shipping on the Panny. So, it comes to about $100 less than the Sammy (in store pickup from BJs).

Can any one who owns any of these models please advise me on the quality of these units, specifically the Sammy (I have read mostly positive user reviews on the Panny series and some on the Sammy).

I am leaning towards Sammy purely based on convenience - i.e. my b-i-l can take it back to BJ's within the 30 return period if something was wrong with the unit, where as with the Panny, they will have to have shipped back etc. Of course, if the Panny is a lot better than the Sammy, we will get the Panny shipped.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Please ignore this topic. I found a similar a topic in another thread and I will ask there.