S4Rs, if you'll note my comment above I specifically mention buying plasmas in larger sizes and were you to walk into my store you would find my associates doing the same. We sell more Panasonics than almost any other store in the country. We often suggest the 32" 720p Samsung over the 1080p model that is $150 more. Why? Because you can't tell the difference at that size and frankly, the contrast and color rendition are better on the 720p model.

I understand your frustration with most retailers (and even some Best Buys) but there are well run stores with knowledgeable, caring employees who are passionate about the product they sell and who honestly want to take care of the customer and hopefully most Magnolia Home Theater experiences are just that.

Honestly, it's funny how the customer mindset is with the plasma vs. LCD (especially LED backlit LCDs). Perfect example: we have the Samsung 55B8000 edge lit LED-LCD and the 58B860 plasma sitting next to each other. The B860 is 3" larger, $300 cheaper and has a much better picture. All the time we have people coming in for the B8000 and of course we explain the better value on the B860, it's superior picture, larger screen and cheaper price. And half the time peoples' response is, "But that LED looks so *good*!" Sometimes it's all I can do to say, "Well, we have the 'LED' in stock."

I apologize if I came off sarcastic or disrespectful in my response to your post. However, I am sick and tired of blanket bashing on this and other blogs. If you're ever in the greater Houston area please stop by and check out our store.

Wow, those are all 100% accurate "facts." You must be a high up employee for a major TV vendor to be so matter-of-fact. I'm glad I read your post and know the truth now.

Those brick-and-mortars are just evil entities staffed by incompetent salespeople out to take as much of your money as possible no matter what the cost. Every last store and every last employee. Without qualification. Awesome.

While I mostly agree, for your average layman this isn't practical. Hence the suggestion that you bring in your own good material, and working with a (knowledgeable) associate tweak the TV and evaluate picture. Or just buy Panasonic V10's or Pioneer Kuro's while you can still get them and save yourself a lot of time :)

If you go into a Magnolia Home Theater with an appropriate Blu-ray disc they should let you pop it in and play with the remote. If someone brings in content we never mind letting a customer view it. However, in most instances in-store feeds are fixed and it's fairly difficult to change content (i.e. in a "regular" Best Buy).

Generally you should be looking at black levels, color accuracy (not over saturated, proper skin tones), lack of sharpening artifacts, and aliasing as well as motion artifacts/blur (i.e. don't look at large LCDs).

Finally, a reason to buy a point and shoot!

Can I articulate how much I hate my Comcast DVR?

15/19. I don't get HBO HD, I will have my TV calibrated but haven't gotten around to it, I don't have the time in the morning to read this site first thing everyday, and I work at Best Buy so I can't quality for that one (but have helped countless people "off the clock")

Oh, I've been waffling on buying one of these for so long. Having used one quite a bit they're amazing. And getting one would be a great excuse to wire the whole house with speakers!

Man, I've been wanting one of these bad, but can't bring myself to drop the $110 on them. It would be pretty sweet to win one. My D700 would love it.

We just put the 37" Director's series out on display. It's a nice thin set and the back is nice and clean. One of the ideas behind it is that in an open floorplan you can put it on a table in the middle of a living area and it's relatively unobtrusive.

The issues with the set are as follows: poor black levels (yay LCDs!), it's $3k, and it only has HDMI and a single PC input. Not even component.

And a note to Brad above: you obviously haven't been doing your research on plasmas. Ignore contrast ratio, it's all marketing BS. Plasma's trump LCD's on black levels, (accurate) color rendition, response time (less than 1ms on Pioneer and Panasonic) and are for the most part cheaper than LCDs.