Hey bud,
When I was looking to get my new big screen I did a fair bit of sussin !!
From what I could find, anything up to 42" get a LCD, anything over 42" get a Plasma !! LCDs over 42" just don't have the picture quality of the larger plasma's "yet" !!
I ended up getting an LG 50" with built-in HD DSTB and built-in 250GB hard drive.. Cant fault it yet !!!
And on the subject of image burn !!
It's all cool, image burn on plasma's is not perminate... once the image is there if you watch TV, DVD, whatever for 5-10min the image go's away completely... My kids hammer mine with there PS and they always leave an image (game paused) on the screen and walk away !! If I notice it left on I just turn the PS off and turn it back to normal TV for a bit and it's gone !!! simple as that...
I had a Panasonic 42" rear projection TV before this one and there real bad for image burn !! We stuffed up once and left the TV on and went away for 3 days.. when we got back the DVD that was being watched before we left was sitting on the menu screen.. So we had Matrix written in the top right hand corner of the screen from there on !!! LOL.. it was only noticeable when there was a blue or white Colour on the screen where the burnt image was, other then that you couldn't see it....
We ended up having to replace the screens anyway, as my young bloke (4 at the time) "stuffed up" playing Freak-style and pegged the controller at the screen !! Which of cause made a rather large hole in the center of the screen LOL.. little s#!t, cost me $800 to replace the screens (rear projections have two thin plastic screens that make up the screen)... When I asked him why he did it, he said "because I only came second dad" What could I say to that !!! LOL...
Anyway man, yeah up to 42" LCD over 42" Plasma !!