Prices on these TVs are falling so quick I would be hesitant to buy a top of the line model given the "depreciation" curve. The same set in 6 months will cost you much less.
Rather than paying big bucks for a 42 HDTV plasma, I bought a 42 EDTV plasma from Panasonic for $1300 (at the time in Jan 2006 I bought an open box from Circuit City...but now you can buy them new in a box for that price). With a digital signal (or DVD) it is hard to tell the difference in picture quality. The Panasonic has a built in QAM decoder so I get "HD" signals through plain old cable.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-EZEWhzWOYHa/cgi-bin/prodview.asp?I=13342pd60u&wm=cl