I never understood the heavy argument. Once it is in place on the stand or the wall, who cares how heavy it is? It only takes 2 average people to put on a stand, 3 to wall mount (to be safe). Mounting to the studs is more than enough to hold it on a wall. Furniture for this size TV generally can hold the weight too.

I have 2 50" Plasmas one mounted and one on a stand. Haven't moved either one since installation was completed.

I will admit that demand for this size has seemingly diminished, atleast in my market. We used to sell a bunch of 60" Elites and 65" PZ850's and now demand has shifted toward 55" and lower. The large DLP's are making a comeback as of late, especially since Mitsubishi dropped the replacement bulb cost to $99 factory direct!!! (Most Samsung DLP's are now LED based)

Just my slice of personal experience

As an owner of a Panasonic 50" Plasma and a 8th Gen Pioneer 50" 1080p Kuro I will say this:

- Panasonic 50" 1080p Plasma - $1900

- DVDO EDGE Video Processor - $700

- Contrast, and Black Levels of a KURO - Priceless

There are some things processing can't provide, for everything else there is KURO.

In all seriousness though, the new generation Panasonics are fantastic TV's for the money, I think a great combo would actually be the new DVDO EDGE to handle processing duties and a Panasonic PDP as the display, the end result would be in some cases cleaner than a KURO, it would be fantastic. For info on the DVDO EDGE check out AVS forum, I am sure Google will turn up some good stuff too.

I do not regret the KURO purchase at all, I am a huge video nut and really picky on blacks. I am waiting to get my main TV ISF calibrated, should be soon.

Andrew

I questioned our market Comcast rep about the ad and he said the ad is reffering to content not channels. They are factoring in VOD and PPV into that number which is very misleading as we assume they mean channels. Of course DirecTV now has VOD and they have PPV as well so I still call shenanigans on the ad. Thought I would share

I am most looking forward to the large touchscreen and the smooth looking graphic interface, the ability to manage lots of media, and the long battery life.