I'm talking about the low bar of basic education on the subject from industry certifications on home theater install/certifications from cedia to thx. They go into the basics of picture quality, resolution being pretty bog standard when it comes to testing tvs and has been for a long long time. This is far below anything on the level of something like a color scientist or such where the more you look into it the more you realize how little you understand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkSZlgl_mKw just a random one of many of ray maxwells videos in which many he explains color/visual perception. The rabbit hole goes deep.

Beyond any certifications any credible reviewer of tv's has been testing resolution from day one. These are basic professional objective measures of quality.

This was especially important since the advent of hdtv..... if there were a dark secret about plasma it would have been sussed out long ago. This is just logic.

Just a thought but you may also want to consider other factors than just the picture quality such as the EPG.

Why would people worry about the EPG for I assume you mean the freeview electronic program guide, or am I barking up the wrong tree here.

Some people do. In fact there is one poster currently obsessing about the EPG over on a Humax Foxsat HDR thread. Been banging on about it for days and days ...

I bought a Panasonic 42 inch full HD Plasma about a year ago. A friend bought a Panasonic 42 inch full HD LCD a few months later.
They are both the same model TV (apart from the Plasma/LCD bit).

He wishes he had bought my one and I'm glad I didn't buy his.

All I know is, I have a Panasonic P42G20B (a plasma), I watched "The Fighter" a few days ago - 1080p copy as good as bluray, the PQ was absolutely stunning.