Paul, I'd recommend checking out yard sales -
No, really - we were in the market for a big screen (to us) - either a 37 or 40" Sony
Went to a yard sale at an address near Ocean Drive and tucked away in a corner of the house was a Sony 27" TV - they wanted $20 for it - turned it on (they'd had their cable turned off, so it was an antenna connection) color looked fine, gave 'em a $20 bill and ran out the door with it like it was a B&E...and it weighed 90 lbs...
Powered sub-woofer, floor stand, etc - hooked it up to my cable and the picture was
awesome
Two weeks later, yard sale 32" Sony, PIP, etc etc - perfect - $75 - but it's a beast, maybe 140 lbs. Didn't single hand that one - so if ya find one, bring a helper. Otherwise, you'll look down and find your scrotum resting on your shoes...
Long story, bottom line = if you can find a old school Sony for short money, buy it. We had a 27" for 20 years or something - they're great. You'll save a grand until you figure out what you want.
Brands? Sony all day long. As a semi-retired professional photographer, still the best color rendition in the biz. I can still color calibrate my Sony graphics monitor to match any lab profile and it's strictly WYSIWYG on printing a digital image, absolutely dead on the nuts accurate.
IMHO, the only close second is the Sharp Aquos.
BTW, lots of cheap 720hz Sonys out there now since 720 is yesterday's news - 1080 will give you much better reproduction values where fast motion in a scene will flicker at the old 720 rate.
Good luck
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