I am helping a friend get a plasma right now that isn't really into it like I am, and while I got a RPTV last December, I shoped the Plasma's bigtime, and the 3 I came down to were:
Pioneer Elite 43
Hitachi- 42 inch
Fujitsu 42
I found that Hitachi does use Fujitsu's display and some of the technology is shared, but the analog looks better on the Hitachi and there are several features on the RPTV from Hitachi that are the same on the plasma, while other features on the Fujitsu are not present on the Hitachi, so I have to disagree that they are just identical. For example the Hitachi does 540p, and 1080i on virtual HD, and does it on both types, where the Fujitsu doesn't. They both look very good though, and both are better then the Pioneer Elite something fierce on analog with teh PE plasma looking even worse in that regard then their RPTV's.
I haven't been able to get Hitachi to draw the line on which is shared and which is just theirs, but when I looked at the Fujitsu the 50 inch was 9k and the Hitachi is 7k for the 42, so while the Fujitus is only 2k more for the 50, I wonder if that is really more expensive then the Hitachi like I saw here? If it is just 2 grand more for 8 more inches, then I would just go for the Fujitsu, but my friend has a space limitation that won't allow it. There is a big difference between a 42 and a 50 inch.