While plasma may outperform LCD by the smallest of margins in the categories mentioned above (brightness, blacks, side view angle, etc) There's one VERY important point that has not been brought up. One which I was made aware of when I purchased my plasma. That is the type and length of viewing you do. Plasmas tend to get "screen burn" or residual images that show up after long periods of viewing with a static portion of the screen. For example, if you watch a lot of ESPN that has the logo constantly in the lower corner, over time, you can expect to see a "ghost" of the espn logo show up when you switch to another channel.

This factor comes in even more pronounced if someone in your household will be using the TV for video games, like myself. I had games that I would play for literally hours on end. Certain static portions of the game are now indellibly burned on the screen.

I bought a plasma around 2 years ago during the black friday sales. It wasn't 9 months before I had to look at buying another TV and spend another $1600 due to the screen burn. It made watching regular TV very annoying. That tv is now in my bedroom where I don't watch that often. My new LCD is awesome and does not have the screen burn issue at all.

With the recent advances in LCD, I would say that there is really no competition anymore. Go with LCD and save yourself soe future headache.