Gonna buy a 42" for the family

Hello everyone,

So my bro and i, we're the official "buyers" for the family.

I'm looking into getting a good 42" HDTV for the family, 720p probably since 1080p is VERY overpriced here in Egypt. Preferably LCD but i'm willing to look at plasmas too.

Big note : The only brands available here are the following: Philips, Toshiba (mostly Regza), Sony (but not the high-end Bravias), Samsung, Benq, LG, VERY few models of Panasonic and some weird brands like "Hisense", "Universal", probably some chinese shit.

So please answer me the following:

- What specs are the "bare-minimum" acceptable? Response time, contrast ratio, etc?

- Are some brands superior to others?

- The set will be used mainly to watch movies/TV, almost no gaming will be done in it, but i might get an Xbox 360 sometime soon so it would help if it was ready for that in case i use it on their set (heard motion-blurring can be a dog on those things)

That's all, general advice and product specific if you have the experience/time, money is not a big problem since it's for the family home so dad's paying. But i don't wanna advise him of anything too expensive. Also, they're big fans of bright lights so please keep that in mind.

Thanks in advance

ps: First of all, Mods: I did search, and the info helped, what i am looking for is specific and updated input since some new technologies seem to be emerging plus the fact that not all brands are available here. Just stating for the record.

 

There is always http://www.avsforum.com, and Consumer Reports. The reason that 1080p is so overpriced right now, is due to the fact that there is not a huge demand for those sets. Sets such as the Panasonic Plasmas, take the signal and upconvert to 1080p, then down to 720p on the TH-nnPX7xu series. Their higher end series is native 1080p.

 

I work for a CE distributer here in the states so I see all kinds of tv's come and go. The toshiba line is a good one. if you are looking for a 42" I would recommend the ( NOTE: the models I list are U.S. Model numbers and may very slightly in your location ) 42hl67 (720p) or the 42hl167 (1080p). For LG I would recommend the 42lc7d (720p). These are the only ones I am going to recommend since they are the ones that I have personal experience with. Black levels on the LG and the Toshiba are comparible to one another.