DLP to Plasma or LED LCD for moderately bright room

It looks like a plasma should work out fine. What would really kill it is a light source directly behind your viewing position, which reflects light off the screen and directly at you. Light sources at a sharp angle won't be a big problem. But it also depends on the TV. My ST50 does great in a bright room, but others may be too dim.

And regardless of your TV type, you absolutely need some curtains over that backdrop! Having a bright window directly behind your display device can totally ruin the experience, particularly if it's a dimmer set like a DLP. Your pupils constrict because of the bright background, and darker details on your screen disappear.

Because of the brightness of the room, I would go with a LCD instead of a plasma. I believe that LCDs are generally brighter than plasmas and work better in brighter rooms. My toshiba lcd is in our family room because of the brightness of the room. Plasmas will be okay, but if you use a plasma I would definitely get some curtains to darken the room a little.

If you do purchase an LCD, make sure that the response time is low to avoid blurriness while watching sports. Plasmas do not have that problem.

Vincentfam

Add some thick curtains to the two windows and you can have whatever type of TV you want.

That said, Plasma should be fine. I had an LCD RPTV before getting my new plasma, and the picture on it was worse with my blinds (balcony sliding door--wall to left of tv 10 feet or so is basically just that door) open during the day than on my new plasma (UT50--so no light filter on the screen). That said, much better with the blinds closed as other wise their are some reflections and the grays looking washed out. But both were worse on the RPTV set.

But again, just get some blackout curtains you can slide shut when watching during the day. That room is very easy to make light controllable.

That room is dim compared to mine and my Plasmas do just fine during the daytime. Keep in mind that the current 2012 Panasonics (which are all discontinued by the way as they ramp up for the new 2013 models) are more than bright enough and nobody here uses the full panel brightness settings as it's just not necessary. Most LED LCD TVs will be brighter but again nobody ever uses their full brightness either, and just about all of the good LED LCDs have much more reflective screens and turn into dark mirrors during the daytime and under bright lights, where the Panasonic ST50/GT50/VT50 and Samsung PNE6500/7000/8000 all have very good anti-reflective filters that are much much better at rejecting and reducing any offending light sources. And as noted by Hermo those lights above the counter will be visible in the screen during dark scenes even with a Plasma, but not as badly as with a reflective LED TV.

I currently run my GT50 in Custom Mode or THX Bright Room mode with the Contrast (screen brightness) set at 85% and it's totally watchable during the daytime.

And for 11'-12' i'd definitely go with a 55 incher, and i'm not even a big-screen fan.