Tech Spec Wars
LCD is winning the technical specification war against Plasma, with many LCD flat panels touting 1080p resolution versus Plasma’s 720p. While that sounds like a huge specification gap for Plasma to catch up, the simple truth is that people cannot discern the extra resolution in smaller displays unless you sit 2-3 feet away from the TV.

Generally 1080p is something to look for in TVs greater than 65 inches where you will indeed be closer to the structure of the image. Otherwise it’s generally not needed.

Image Quality Issues
LCD flat panels do suffer from some image quality issues. With LCD you “might” get smoother color than Plasma, but blacks are absolutely horrendous on LCD flat panels. Blacks tend to mush together on LCD TVs, and are displayed in a very dark grey, blue or purple blotch of darkness. Add color shifting and motion blur, and you can see why LCD flat screen TVs are not the optimum choice if you care about picture quality.

Posterizing
View a computer LCD monitor at an odd angle and you see the color posterize into completely different colors.  Some manufacturers claim to have fixed this, but there are still many flat panel LCDs that suffer from the posterization issue.

Motion Blur
LCD technology also suffers from motion blur since its refresh rate is significantly slower than any other display technology out there. The cheaper the LCD panel, the more pronounced this issue is.

Some of the better LCD flat panels have done a fine job at alleviating motion blur to an acceptable level. Just keep an eye out for it, and avoid LCD TVs that significantly suffer from this issue.

Burn-in and Gaming
Where LCD beats Plasma technology hands down is burn in. Plasma TVs can burn-in with static images really fast due to how bright they are.  LCDs simply don’t burn-in at all, so displaying static images such as a DVD menu or video game interface is a non-issue with LCD flat panels.

An LCD flat panel or a rear-projection TV driven by DLP or LCD technology may suit your needs best if you plan on doing a lot of gaming.

Summary
If you’re looking for a great flat panel display for movie and TV watching a Plasma TV will offer better picture quality at a cheaper price.  If you need a flat panel that can also play video games, an LCD flat panel TV is your only option out there.