What's the best 50 inch HDTV I can get?

Now that I have a better job I'm looking to save up for the badass TV I've always wanted. All I know about what I want in an HDTVs is this:

-I want to make sure that burn in isn't an issue

-I hate plasma screens

-I don't want to have to call the maintenence guy every other day because there's some little problem with it

-Even though it'll be expensive, I want it to be a 50''-55'

So if anyone could recommend a good quality brand, type, etc, you'll be doing me a huge favor.

I'm planning on doing a 'rent to own' deal so I can pay a little at a time, but I'd generally like to keep it under $3,000. I haven't heard of the 'no interest' thing, what is it exactly?Awakening124

I don't know how those rent to own things work, but from a financial ad I heard on the radio, someone doing a TV worth $500 through that could endup paying 3 times that in the end. What about the 18 month no interest options at stores?

In stores if you sign up for one of their credit cards and put the purchase on it you have a certain period where you can pay it off monthly with no interest. The amount of time depends on the sale, the normal is 12 months, then 18months, 2 years, sometimes even 3 years. So what ever the balance comes out to, you have to make a month payment of 1% or so of the balance (depends on store). If you miss a payment or don't pay it all off by the end of the promotion period they will charge you the interest from the start, so it's important to not miss one payment or you start paying high interest and they get you for the past months, not to mention late fee. Sometimes there's no payment no interest too, so you can pay whatever you want when you want.

if I may chime in a little. It seems your dead set against Plasmas, but if its strictly because of the burn in issue then I'd consider them. There are issues with both technologies (for example, dead pixels on LCDs). Burn in is essentially a non issue these days, as long as you follow the "breaking in" settings, aka like a car recommendation to not drive it over 55 MPH for the first 500 miles.

But if you are dead set on LCD, I'd personally give a look at Sharp, Sony, and Samsung. Those are the main brands and you'd be better served to spend the extra cash for the higher quality. The no interest plan varies from store to store, but generally involves a year or so to pay off the item as listed with no interest charged, there can be different limitations and liabilities so be sure you know what it is you're getting into, but they can also be pretty awesome (aka paying off a $2000 TV for exactly $2000 just not all at once).

 As for me I personally own a Sharp LCD Aquos and have had ZERO issues with it going on a year and a half now. Beautiful picture and I haven't had any problems with refresh rates in fast moving scenes. I'm currently looking at upgrading to a bigger screen for the living room, primarily looking at Pioneer Plasma's.