I have a 50” Panny plasma on cable, my buddy has a 47” Vizzy LCD on SAT. We watch the big games at my house. For sports, I think the plasma is better for regular shots, but LCD is better for close ups. Regular TV shows their equal. Nature shows, plasma wins.
Wall mount: Unless you already have a $1600 piece of furniture for your set, wall mount. My buddy's is in a beautiful piece, and it looks great. Mine is wall mounted, and I love it. (hint, buy a small A/V stand for your components, then you can poke a hole in the wall behind the TV, and another behind the stand, and snake the wires through the wall. Nice clean look.)
You want back connections for your cables, but some front connectors (behind a drop down panel) are nice to have for quick, short term hookups.
Take some extra cash and get a good quality theater system. Just be sure both TV and system have optical hookup. Then you can have full time “surround” sound ( not true surround all the time, but close).
However big you decide to get, buy the next size bigger. Trust me.
Thanks very much to all of you for your answers, I really appreciate your taking the time...so, if I understand:
The more HDMI ports, the better.
Get the biggest you can afford.
If I can spend, high cost plasmas are good
Get components with optical hookup (sound)
Also, does anyone know what those ethernet looking ports are for?