Wayne, I take Consumer Reports and when I made up my mind to buy a plasma, they (CR) rated Pansonic as the best. I intended to buy a 42" but when I started searching the net, I found
http://www.dtvcity.com/ , they had the best price and I bought the 50" instead for $1700. Another plus was that they were located in downtown Atlanta and I was able to pick it up.
It came with a 5 year warranty and $100 cash back from Panasonic. Check their web site often, they have ongoing sales in December and that's when I bought mine.