Thanks, Fuzz! I sure appreciate the info! The fact that you're buying one makes me thing, hmmm - probably worth it. Then again, you couldn't hold on to a nickel to save your life, whereas I hold on to them so tight that they'd turn into diamond if they were carbon.
Well, I'm not going to argue with that last bit
However, I wouldn't be buying any TV unless the GF hadn't volunteered to put some money towards it. Honestly, I had no desire to buy any TV's. I've been talking to the woman for about a year about getting another plasma before they were all gone. I missed the boat on the Panny's becauseI just didn't have it, but with the Samsung's I've got just enough to almost make it work. I say almost because I still need to see how it all shakes out. I figure, worst comes to worst, I end up selling the 8500 for at least what I paid or maybe even a little profit. If a few things work out, then maybe I get to keep both the Sammies.
I'm just not sure that I want to shell out that price premium for the 64". Maybe I should just hold out for 4k to get better, maybe even early next year. I haven't been paying much attention to TV specs. Heck, I just bought mine about 5.5 years ago. I kept my other one for 15 years.
The Panny I have is about 5-6 years old. Every so often I go into the service menu to check on the hours. If it lives up to the panel spec, it should have a ton of life left in it, but the 5 year plan (10 year plan if I'm really lucky) was/is to have two TV's that will last awhile so I can dig a little deeper into PJ's. I'd love to have to not worry about either TV for about 10 years. That way I can eventually build a nice big fixed screen with a really good screen material.