Best Plasma or LED at < $1000 @ 46-50"? Internet ready/Smart TV?

I've been hemming and hawing about getting a new TV for a long time. Now I have saved up about $1000 for a new TV, and hell, it's my 40th birthday in a couple weeks so why not. It's replacing an 8 year old 32" CRT HDTV that has all sorts of color problems, clearly 4:3 fade since outside that it's much brighter now that I view a lot more 16:9 content than I did 3-8 years ago when I first got it. I respect the advice of users here, as I have lurked here time and again.

One thing that I'm unsure about is about internet connectivity. Some say "Smart TV" some say "Internet ready" but what exactly does that mean? I watch Amazon video on demand/Unbox video and Netflix mainly for my kids, but I also have an HTPC connected to my home server to stream movies. I also watch football and hockey. If the TV can stream movies from my home server and Amazon and Netflix then I guess I'd like that built in just to eliminate the need for my HTPC. But if not, then there's no point in getting it I suppose. Unless there's other benefits of "Smart TV" that I'm not aware of.

So to summarize my primary uses would be:

- Amazon Unbox / Video On Demand
- Netflix video
- HD Movies (streaming or blu-ray)
- Football and Hockey
- Xbox 360 and Wii gaming
- occasional general TV viewing

Stuff I know/want:
- Prefer to stay less than $1000. I know I'll have to buy a wall mount and a new side stand to hold cable box, HTPC, Blu-ray, Xbox, Wii, but that won't be part of the $1000.
- 46 to 50 inch preferred. The TV will be in my living room above my fireplace, and 46-50" would be perfect, as it's about the size of the mirror above it that it would replace.
- I don't care about 3D, just a high quality image
- I have wired ethernet, but wi-fi would be nice
- minimum 3 HDMI, 4 preferred
- decent TV speakers. I'm sure whatever I get will be better than the crappy ones in my TV now. Have no intention of setting up a speaker system.
- Living room where TV will be has a big window, but there's rarely enough sunlight coming into that room except a few hours a day, usually wish there was more light

I have seen plasma and LED side by side and can definitely see the difference in brightness. But not sure if it would matter much once it's in my room. LED would be nice because they are not as hot, heavy, and are light on power use. Not sure how ice hockey would fare on plasma though, I've heard of issues with all the white.

LG and Samsung have been on my radar, but I can't figure out the best options that fit.

I appreciate your input!

Thanks!

Thanks so much for the response. The one thing that I've started reading is input lag, which I thought was non-existent on plasma, but it seems to be prevalent especially on LG models for some reason, and even setting to "Game" or "PC" mode hasn't seemed to help many people. I don't plan on playing games much on it, but I will play and since I will likely keep it for a good 7-8 years I'm sure as my boys get older (only 3 and 4 now) they'll get into video games too.

I hadn't really discounted the Panny's only that Samsung and LG seemed to offer best bang for the buck. But I will look at the 51E550 again.

Another thing that I find is unless you go with more features you don't get as many HDMI ports which doesn't make sense to me. If I get a bare bones TV I'm going to want MORE inputs to make up for what's not included. But whatever, I digress.

One thing that made me nervous about the 51E550 is this review at amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-PN51E550-51-Inch-1080p-Plasma/product-reviews/B007BG47IW/ref=cm_cr_dp_text?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0#R3UBJPQ0V69IV8

Primarily this:

"1. This I already mentioned in an update here or the original review - Brightness pops when watching hockey. I could not take it anymore, the screen was starting to quickly flash every time there was action. I noticed this a little for Basketball but very noticeable in Hockey. The brightness would automatically dim or return to bright levels randomly.
2. Fade to black problems when watching Blu Ray movies, the screen on the set will start to flash on and off. I ran into this problem when watching Thor and Super8.
3. Buzzing sound started at a certain level and distance, close up you can't hear a thing but at a distance, the noise is noticeable.
4. Not much of a difference when turning Cinema Smooth feature on when watching Blu-Ray movies - I watched Movies from Action to Pixar flicks and didn't notice any change."

I do like to watch hockey (although with NHL on strike not much for a while it seems) and the fade to black problems. However I always find there's fixes for these things somehow.

And the glossy screen scares me too. I don't now why they don't make that an option to have glossy or matte.
Edited by HTWingNut - 9/26/12 at 12:56pm

Hmm, the LG 50" PA6500 is only $650. But it's glossy. Wonder if I should bite the bullet with that. Otherwise it looks like I'm going to have to go about $1100 with Panasonic ST50 or LG PM6700. Gah!

Thanks for all the help guys. I went with a Panasonic LED TC-L47E50. Seemed best combination of features for the price. My issue was the sets without all the extra stuff, which I'm fine with, just want a good quality screen, were also limited on inputs and most had glare screens which I just do not want.