Be careful with Panasonic since it might not work with two channel DAC. Panasonics outputs on optical Toslink output DOLBY with Dolby material and PCM with NTSC automatically (no option in the menu). Sony AFAIK outputs only PCM (people complained) also without software switch while Samsung has menu option allowing to chose format. If you have home theater system capable of processing DOLBY it won't matter but I had to go with Samsung UN55D8000 setting it to PCM. The only two drawbacks I found so far is slightly uneven back-lite (edge LEDs), not visible at all in normal use, and glossy screen. Also internet is very slow. Other than that color, contrast, black level, sharpness is absolutely incredible. It can also be set to compensate for ambient light what makes picture pretty much the same day and night. I like very small border and 0.9" thickness. Original Samsung calibration is very weird (huge contrast and brightness) but I copied detailed calibration setting posted on internet and it is perfect. I've never seen TV picture that good. My Samsung is 240Hz but it allows to slow it to down eliminate "soap opera" effect. Panasonic plasmas run at 600Hz - check if there is option to slow it down. All you probably need is 120Hz (being multiple of 24Hz) or define separate profiles for slow and fast to switch them for movies and sports.
