Unfortunately, there is no single "right" answer to this question in my opinion, and I've been an audio/video nerd for years. The first question you should ask yourself is how far away the screen will be from the normal viewing positions. LCD's and plasmas are generally not available in as large screen sizes as a rear projection TV. This is if you care about a "true" home theatre experience (there is a formula to calculate screen size form the viewing distance. Probably the next question is how bright the ambient light is in the viewing room. In a bright room, LCDs will typically outperform plasma because their light output is far greater. However, plasma has the edge on black resolution although LCDs are getting better. (black resolution is the ability to resolve different shades of black accurately.) Plasma screens, while improved, are still vulnerable to image "burn-in" where the screen is damaged by having a single image, or a scrolling stock ticker along the bottom of the screen. For this reason, plasma would not be my choice for gaming. As noted above, plasmas run hotter. Rear projection TVs have also improved, much thinner than they used to be and picture clarity has been improved as well.

Sets I like right now:

Pioneer Kuro plasma (raises plasma to a whole new level of performance but expensive.

Mistsubishi 52" LCD (I own this set and it is unbelievable.)

Sony XBR is also very, very good

Happy shopping!

BTW, we are now South Carolinians, having completed the move from NH a few weeks ago. Probably should become SCcruisers!
Bill