[island911]

Confusing? -yes! . .. never has the word "standards" been so bastardized.

Anyway. . .I'll suggest you stay away from plasmas. The contrast ratios are great, but the cost, and masking (black space between pixels) sucks.

There are LCD driven rear projection set that have great picture, and minimal depth (12-16" for a 40-60" screen) AND in that price range.
Sony and Panasonic are the players for this technology.
The downsides to these is they use a projector lamp (read: $200 every few years) and a fan.(read: slight noise potential) Also some complain the blacks aren't black enough (contrast ratio). . . though the color mixing is superior. The panasonic is native 720p and has vga in. . . in case you want to plug your cmptr in.

If size isn't to big a deal you can pick up an LCD. Sharp has a 30" that has a superb picture (handles DVD's better than anything I've seen) Though they are closer to $4000

If you go with either plasma or LCD, keep in mind that 720p will produce a better picture than 1080i, for anything with motion. (1080i is better for still images. . .but a poster will still out perform that, and for a lot les$)