I would recommend checking the plasma forum at www.avsforum.com to find a wealth of information about these sets. I bought a 42" Panasonic plasma EDTV (852x480 resolution, not true HDTV) last Feb and it has been great. Discounts (particularly from Dell, who sells these as monitors) can drop the price under $3000 for a quality set.

If you can, try to go to a high end store and see a couple of sets side by side to get an impression of how they look. I found the Pioneers had great color but the contrast was poor. I also found the opposite was true for the Panasonics, as they had really great black levels. Also, you can investigate if you can get by with EDTV or want HDTV. I found that EDTV looked nearly identical from beyond 6 feet, so I saved $2000 and went with the EDTV set.

If you're looking to get a new set and go HDTV, by all means look at plasma. You can buy a wall mount and then you save money and space by not needing a piece of furniture for the set. Projection systems are nice too, but you need to get the room REALLY dark to see the blacks well, which is why many people use them for dedicated, windowless theater rooms (like in a basement).