Mostly from reading here, I've heard good reports on Panasonic, Samsung, Pioneer, and Hitachi. Chances seem excellent that you'll be looking at LCD. Plasmas don't come that small. However, if you have space and the price is right, 42 inch plasmas are extremely popular. I've occasionally run across a 37 inch plasma, but for practical purposes, 42 inches seems to be the smallest size available. The only major picture quality issue I've seen is with analog cable channels. (Unfortunately, those tend to be the most watched channels.) From my experience, digital standard definition works fine.