I had previously dismissed Sony even from being considered as I heard they were not too hot in the HD TV arena, but then again the KDL 40W4000 (predecessor to the model I mentioned above) received lots of awards apparantly.

The plus on Sony's side is also that if I buy a Sony surround sound 5.1 system I can integrate it with the TV remote. I could do the same for the Panasonic if I bought that but I havn't been able to locate a 5.1 Panasonic system.