What is the best LCD 40"-50" for the money?

Stay away from the top 3 worst piles of crap brands listed below:

Samsung, RCA & Philips/Magnavox for they have the highest failure rates with poor factory support and high cost in replacement parts.

I get Samsung crap in all day long, most are just a year old with major expensive problems.

Keep in mind that CNET does not tell you how long the unit will last or the company's support behind the product; it only tells you how the unit performed.

If you truly want a QUALITY LCD unit, I highly recommend the Sony line. It might be a little more, but they are the most reliable, excellent pictures and the best factory support for there products.

Followed by: Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Panasonic.

Any other brand are cheap throw away junk. (LG's & Sharps are DECENT) but not good enough to sell to my customers IMPO.

We have 2 Samsung LCD HD TVs and are seriously considering a third. Partly because we are happy with the sets we have and partly because we are familiar with the remote and all the functions.

Our first set had a fault and was away being repaired for weeks. We only got it back after chasing them up repeatedly. When it developed a second fault they searched for the part first. When they couldn't find it they replaced the whole TV with a brand new one which hasn't missed a beat.

We bought the second one after this and it worked like a charm out of the box.

40" are a lot cheaper per inch than 50" because they have been around for far longer.

Apart from cost two other issues are relevant.

The first is space. Do you really have room for a 50" set?They are bigger in your lounge room than they were in the shop.

The second is the sharpness of the picture. If they both have the some resolution, then the dots are physically bigger in a bigger set so the smaller set will always have a sharper picture.

I got a Samsung 40in for about $1499 thats 1080p and has a contrast ratio of 15,000 to 1. I think Samsung gives you the best overall value even though some of them are expensive. I am impressed with the picture right out of the box but I eventually changed it since I want close to perfect picture quality. Look at any Sony which is supposed to be the king of electronics and compare it to a Samsung tv with similar features and screen size and you will discover that 9 out of 10 times Samsungs are better and cheaper than a similar model Sony. The thing that impresses me about my tv is the sound quality with speakers of course it sounds better with a home theather but for a lcd tv the sound is really good. If you are looking for something nice but affordable and reliable I would suggest a LG lcd. I would suggest looking at the customer reviews on websites like best buy, circuit city, amazon, cnet.com and make a decision based on the reviews, your price range and the size of the tv you want. I would highly recommend a Samsung and I love Sony products so that says a lot about Samsung.

I think Samsung LNT4661F 46" 1080p LCD HDTV probably the best LCD TV in today.

Connections

* HDMI (version 1.3): 3 (1 CEC cabaple)

* Component video: 2 (Y, Pb, Pr)

* S-Video input: 1 side/1 rear

* A/V inputs: 1 side/1 rear

* PC inout: 1

* Headphone Jack: 1

* USB 2.0: 1

Video Processing

The Samsung Digital Natural Image engine (DNIe) Video Enhancer refines all analog NTSC and wideband video inputs for an overall improvement in picture quality. DNIe improves contrast, white level, picture detail and incorporates digital noise reduction to improve lower quality video inputs. The 3D Y/C digital comb filter constantly analyzes the three dimensions of picture height, picture width, and picture changes-over-time to dramatically reduce edge image artifacts while improving transition detail.

It has List Price: $2,199.99 Sale to $1,549.99 with Free Shipping today.

I don't think you can beat Sony in the world of LCDs. However, Sharp and Samsung are a very close second IMHO, and are also a bit less costly.

Don't overlook the possibility of a rear-projection set either. A 46" can be had for ~$1000 +/- and rival the costlier LCDs with regard to picture quality - really !!

i have a 40inch samsung lcd i got for $1299

720p and its amazing