I deal with black bars on my Samsung plasma by displaying them
Seriously, there's no worries necessary here. Burn-in just isn't an issue with modern plasmas.
Overall, I certainly prefer plasma. The deeper black levels, perfect off-angle viewing, higher contrast and smoother, more film-like image are all things that make me prefer plasmas to LCDs. But I have to say, if you have a very bright room, LCDs can be the better choice sometimes.
The newest plasmas are capable of being considerably brighter than older models, but LCDs still hold an edge when you really need to crank out the brightness. Furthermore, in a bright room, much of that really deep black and really fine shadow detail is obscured anyway - effectively diminishing plasma's advantage in these areas. In particular, the Panny and Samsung plasmas tend to wash out in bright lighting and they don't retain their black levels (black looks grey in bright room lighting).
So LCD still has its place, IMO. But if your room is not bright - or especially if it is downright dim or dark - then plasma holds the picture quality advantage.
One thing that puts Panasonic's plasmas over Samsung's for me is the screen surface. Samsung's plasma screens are glossy and clearly show reflections. Samsung claims to have an "anti-glare" screen, but it doesn't work very well at all, IMO. I find it distracting. Panasonic's screen surface isn't perfect - you can still spot reflections - but it is better than Samsung's and that puts the Panny on top, for me.
The Pannys also deliver deeper black levels, so that's another obvious plus.
But one thing's for sure, you don't have to worry about content. Play your games, watch your 2.35:1 aspect movies with the black bars in place - as they should be! There's no reason to worry about that stuff
