I've looked through the forums and seen some info on most of these, what are everybody's opinions between Maxent MX-50X5 at , HP PL5072N at, the Philips 50PF9431D/37 at or the Panasonic TH-50PH9UK at. Opinions/comments welcome.

IF you want to be happy go with the Panasonic with the choices you have. Also welcome to the forum and only MSRP pricing is allowed :)

Agreed,
IMO, the panasonic is the best of those hands down...but it lacks tuners and a speaker, so be prepared for that. Also, you will likely have to buy an additional blade for your HDMI outputs.

Thanks, Roman! Will remember next time. Also, I will be connecting an Xbox 360, HD cable box and Nintendo Wii, will the lack of connections be a problem?

I just got that panny last week. It's awesome!! That is the best choice hands down. I run my ps3 through mine, it looks amazing. I'm at 80 hours use time now, so I just turn the ps3 on only for a few minutes at a time to reduce burn in or very serious ghosting effect. They say to wait at least 100 hours of use time before you watch SD, with the bars on the side, and play any video games. For the first 100 hours are the best time you may get "burn in". It's kind of like warming the plasma up. So really I checked out my ps3 like the second day I had the plasma but only for a few minutes, no more. You can keep track of your hours on plasma by accessing the service menu. You can do this by holding down the volume on the plasma display itself and then taking your remote and pressing the square button with the + sign under it, I think it's called the function button, and press that 3 times fast. I think it's under one of the 3 options but it's PT for how many times you turned on your set and FT for hours used. Good luck. PM me for a place to find a much better price that Panasonic. :D

hmm you may want to take a look at the Samsung 50" HP-T5054.It has many more featurs then the current Panasonic it there age group.Lets take a look at the specs

Panasonic 50" Plasma HDTV (TH-50PX77U)
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The Basics

Display type: Plasma

Screen resolution: 720p (1366 x 768)

Aspect ratio: 16:9

Contrast ratio: 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio

Tuner type: NTSC, ATSC



Connection options

HDMI inputs: 2, Supports 480i/480p/720p/1080i/1080p.

Component inputs: 2, with 2 stereo audio inputs. Supports 480i/480p/720p/1080i.

Memory card slots: 1 (SD compatible)

See specifications table for more feature and connection options



Dimensions

Height: 29.9" (31.5" on optional base)

Width: 52.1"

Depth: 3.9" (14.6" on optional base)

Weight: N/A



Features

Anti-glare screen: Although the glass screen on a plasma makes for a durable material to handle the environment of the typical home, it’s properties may cause reflections to be visible in the picture. To minimize this issue, Panasonic incorporates anti-glare properties into their screens. This works to eliminate or, at worst, minimize the effect of light in the environment from interfering with the image.

SD card slot with PhotoGallery: With the popularity of digital cameras escalating, it would make perfect sense to be able to view pictures taken on your camera on your HDTV. Panasonic makes this possible with their SD card slot with PhotoGallery function. Pictures taken directly on or transferred to an SD Card can be displayed directly on the screen of your Panasonic display. Now you can view your family favorites larger than 4" x 6" without ever having to print them out. You can also use this function to aid in making presentations or showing clients pictures of products. If you don’t have a digital camera you can easily download artwork and photos from collections on Panasonic's website that will turn your TV into a digital art display in your living room.

10,000:1 contrast ratio: Unfortunately, not all displays achieve high performance in the contrast arena. Utilizing technologies like the Real Black Drive and Unique Cell Structure, Panasonic was recently credited with the best contrast ratio ever measured for a flat panel set by one well known industry publication.

Real Black Drive: To darken black to more realistic levels, Panasonic uses an exclusive circuit known as Real Black Drive that decreases the required idle energy by as much as 90% over typical designs. Less idle energy produces less idle illumination in dark areas so black areas are darker. This improvement in reproducing dark areas of the image is most noticeable when watching dark programming in room with dark or subdued lighting. So if you ever watch TV with the lights down low, consider a Panasonic plasma TV.

Up to 29 billion colors: Many digital displays today only support a maximum of 16.7 million colors. This is far short of what the human eye can perceive. To better match the capabilities of the human eye, Panasonic's plasma sets are able to reproduce upwards to 29 billion colors. Thus the picture will be more true to life than many typical displays.

Up to 3072 gradations: By achieving upwards of 3072 gradations Panasonic's plasma sets are as much as 12x more powerful at recreating the colors in the picture than some sets found in the market. So if you are looking for a set to recreate colors to provide a more true to life experience consider a Panasonic plasma TV.

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Samsung 50" Plasma HDTV (HP-T5054)
,

The basics

Display type: Plasma

Screen resolution: 720p (1365 x 768)

Aspect ratio: 16:9

Contrast ratio: 15,000:1

Tuner type: NTSC, ATSC, QAM



Connection options

HDMI inputs: 3, Supports 480i/480p/720p/1080i/1080p.

Component inputs: 2, Supports 480i/480p/720p/1080i.

PC inputs: 1

See specifications table for more feature and connection options



Dimensions

Height: 31.1" (33.4" on optional base)

Width: 48.5"

Depth: 3.7" (12.4" on optional base)

Weight: 97 lbs.



Features

FilterBright™ 2: Plasma panels tend to lose contrast in bright rooms; the panel has trouble keeping the light from brightening those parts of the screen that should be dark. But with Samsung's FilterBright 2 technology, room light is kept out of the panel so that dark areas stay dark and high contrast is maintained.

16-bit color: High contrast is only part of the picture—you also need a smooth transition from dark to light in all colors. The higher the number of bits in the color processor, the smoother these transitions look. By including a 16-bit color processor in these panels, Samsung delivers one of the most natural looking pictures from a plasma panel.

15,000:1 contrast ratio: Because each pixel on a plasma panel produces its own light, plasma sets can produce images that have areas that are very bright and others that are very dark. Samsung also takes this farther by analyzing the incoming signal and adjusting the panel for darker scenes or brighter scenes.

Anti-burn-in technology: Still images can sometimes "burn-in" to a plasma screen so that they appear overlaid on subsequent shows. This includes the control panels on video games, news tickers, channel logos and watching shows with black bars on the sides. Samsung includes three ways to minimize these effects: Pixel Shift, which slowly moves the image on screen to reduce the chances of this happening in the first place; Test Pattern, which will help to exercise a burned image out; and White Wash, which also helps to wash out a burned-in image using high-intensity white light.

NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuner: The ATSC tuner lets you receive free digital broadcasts, including HD signals, through an over the air antenna. QAM allows you to receive unscrambled HD from your cable provider without a set top box. The NTSC tuner will allow you to tune in to analog signals until the 2009 cutoff.

Game Mode: Gaming places high demands on the TV. People sit closer to the screen, instant response is required, and all images are computer generated. As a result, a TV should be "tuned" for games. Samsung learned the best practices from a leading console manufacturer and built them into Game Mode.

3 HDMI-CEC inputs: HDMI is the best digital connection for today's high definition sources. CEC adds a control interface so that you can, for instance, insert a disc in your HDMI-CEC enabled DVD player that will turn on the TV and change it to the right input. All you do is close the disc tray! Samsung offers two of these inputs on the back of the set and one on the side to keep you connected well into the future.

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Both Are great choices but Samsung has the edge

I agree with the guys here! You are better off comparing the Pioneer PDP (CMX) Industrial models than the Philips...

Chris