Personally i won't go on whatever is being sold more, as with the right marketing style u can even sell junk to people.
In india people just enter a shop and buy lcd, cause the shopkeeper recommends. There are very few users who dig deep before making buying decisions.
Technology, price , quality and picture wise Plasma is the best and beat's lcd any day. If you don't have one check out the picture at any one who owns one and you will understand what i mean. For home theater where u want screen sizes upto 50" plasma rocks.
Below 40" will recommend to go for Lcd as u don't get may plasma models at that price though u have few 37" models ....
well not all people go by blindly and why do u think lcd has taken over the lead, 2 years ago lcds were the ones which were more expensive,yet they have gained the market lead.
now about plasma beating lcds any day i doubt that it depends on ur application and which lcd u compare to a plasma.
so my suggestion to the person who made this thread if u are primarly going to see SD content get urself a plasma(only because it has a lower resolution),but if u are going to use it for HD well the lcds does have the resolution advantage compared to a normal plasma that has 1024x768,and there is no comparision to a FHD lcd or plasma which has about 3 times the resolution.
now in a 42inch plasma like panasonic PV8 it will have about 1044 pixels/square inch of display area,compared to a 40inch HD lcd which has 1533 pixels/ square inch which is roughly 50% more pixels and a 40inch FHD lcd or FHD plasma will have approx 3035 pixels/sq inch that is nearly 300% more pixels/ sq inch which means u can see the fine details and the image will be more sharp in a FULL HD LCD or FHD PLASMA when fed a FHD signal.
now todays lcd have greatly improved contrast levels and black levels like lcd from sony and samsung models exceed the contrast levels produced by many plasma like panasonic PV8,and have equaly good black levels and some models have ever better black levels then PV8.some people might say "look the contrast levels of plasma are 15000:1 etc that is bull.
the best of the plasma produce only about 3600:1 which are expensive like the pioneer kuro and panasonic PY800H which is yet to be launched in india and no doubt be quite expensive,but plasma like panasonic PV8 make a contrast about 1800:1.
lcds like sony S,V,W series and samsung series 5,6 have a contrast anywhere b/w 1800 like samsung series 5 to 2500:1 for sony W series,V series make a contrast about 2300:1.
newer lcds like samsung series 8 make a contrast of 3000:1.
now newer lcd from samsung like series 8 and sony,toshiba have one of the best image processing tech that does a good job in upscaling a SD content.
well if u are going to use it for gaming lcds are a safer choice dont have to worry about BURN IN.also FHD plasma are no better for viewing SD content.
finaly go take a look urself and then decide, take a laptop or ps3 and check out hd capabilities were lcd shine.
if its only SD content get a plasma like PV8 for HD content sony V series and samsung series 5 are good VFM.