[ace]

I've put in a few LCD s over the last few months at work, and the one I keep going back to is Samsung. It's got one of the better pictures out there, the only negative about them is the rear facing conenctors, which I like for permanent installation that I dont want people jacking around on.

I've also got 2 Sharp Aquos that live in road cases that go to various locations, and they look sharp too.

I originally had two panasonic plasmas in 1 room, and they put out a great picture, just not sure if they still make them or not.

If it were me, I'd buy the Samsung.

Component hook-ups (YPbPr)are just as good as HDMI. The most expensive part of HDMI cables are the connector ends. So buying the most expensive HDMI cable doesn't do you a whole lot of good. HDMI does provide a nice all-in one solution as HDMI does carry Audio.

To backup what someone else said - spending the tie to dial in your color settings makes a big difference. I use a rather old school technique. (IE CHEAP) I take a special blue gel that turns color bars into grayscale, and making adjustments until I get the optimal picture. There are tools and electronics that you can use to do that as well.