New comer "late" to plasma and needs help

Having gone from an rptv to a plasma maybe my thoughts might help (but while former 60" and latter 59", different screen sizes so not comparable with the simple diagonal measure); I tried a 60" lcd/edge lit led in between but couldn't stand the flashlighting/clouding in a darkened room watching film (particularly in the borders of other than a 1.78:1 aspect ratio). Much prefer plasma pq overall to lcd that I've seen, especially as am a big movie fan. Largest plasmas regularly commercially available I've seen are the 65" size although I believe there have been some larger ones produced but at a significant price. What does it matter if you can get a quality plasma now if there's much future to the availability or not? You can't control the availability in any case but you can enjoy plasma while you can, if that's indeed what you want. I went with Samsung. There may be an advantage to black levels with the Panasonic but Samsung generally gets the nod on color accuracy (and ability to adjust from what I can recall). I don't think you can go wrong with either top of the line from Samsung or Panasonic but there's really no one else playing the game now that Pioneer left.

As to IR generally Samsung seems to have less issues, but its possible depending on the particular set; pq consistency seems to be an issue for all flat panels IMHO. I've had some short term issues with those stupid frickin channel logos they seem to like always to put in the lower right corner even on dedicated movie channels (particularly white ones), but long term use not an issue...so far (and short term only visible on certain all gray/white scenes or test discs). No issues with side or top bars so far and I leave them black instead of gray.

If the larger screens appeal to you why not consider a projector if that could work in your situation? Could go lots larger than any flat panel within reason $$ wise.

Sharp offers the behemoth 70, 80 and 90" units but sadly they are all LED, Samsung has a 75" but it too is an LED display. All is not lost if you can hold out for Panasonic's highly-rumored 70VT50, that would surely fill the bill but you're looking at least a cool $10k when they hit the shelves. Panasonic already makes the titanic 85" Plasma but priced over $20k they aren't exactly rolling out the door, roughly the size of four 42-inch displays, the TH-85PF12U is only 4.0" thick and weighs approximately 260 lbs. The biggest limiting factor in large plasma display's is not the glass as the sheet starts at 150", the biggest limiting factor is power consumption, as the screen size grows the power requirements grow exponentially. They don't meet today's Energy Guide requirements, that's what keeps them from entering the consumer market, that and perhaps the 5 digit price tag.. cheers
Edited by 5thdimension - 11/28/12 at 10:59am

There about the cheapest right now till the new ones come out, unless you always have to have the newest thing you will end up waiting till this time next year to buy them

New models will probably start appearing in March, but I think you'll need to wait longer for the largest models. We'll know a lot more about the lineups after CES in a few weeks. It sounds likely that Panasonic will be releasing something a little larger than 65" in 2013. Since the 65" 2012 models won't be selling out anytime soon, you can just wait for the 2013 lineups to be announced before deciding which model year is better for you. If money is no object, then you should wait for the 2013 VT60. If price is a much bigger concern, then it would probably make sense to buy a 2012 65" ST50 before they sell out -- but you should still have quite awhile before that happens.