Dont hang me quite yet.
But it looks like the mainstream, everyday type of display is going to be hands down the LCD.
Minor complaints about "picture smear" and low contrast are just that, minor, a lot of people, when buying a set, either dont know the difference between plasma, or that there IS a difference.
Plasmas have a glass envelope full of deadly gas, the gas leaks out and you have a dead set, early plasmas had to be delivered in metal boxes, and they are more expensive and wont last as long as LCD panels.
Plasma used to have a size advantage but thats rapidly disapearing.
DLP? Great if you want to turn your living room into a cineplex with an overhead projector, sure these things come in cabinets, but you cant hang a cabinet on the wall, leading to DLP rear projection sets
selling for 1200 bucks at wallmart, although new life has been breathed into this format with "dithering" to produce 1080p pictures, but once again LCD can produce this without rube goldberg crap like that, not to mention a "color wheel" that spins several hundred revolutions a minute and a light bulb that costs several hundred dollars and needs replacing every few years.
Even in front projectors and rear projectors lcd beats DLP, lcd is cheap enough to have panels for each primary color, hence no color wheel
And LCD? Used to be expensive to produce, but economies of scale have led to lcd screens with full features for bargain basement prices, with no sacrifice in quality.
Rated to last 20 years, the pictures are bright and sharp, no glare, no problems with screen burn in like with plasma, and no bulb to replace like with DLP, AND A 37IN is selling for 900 right about now.
And you can hang it on a wall leading to the unusual occurence of wives ordering their husbands to get one instead of the automatic oppostition they usually give to guys audio-vidieo "toys".
And unlike plasma its doable to make smaller screens like computer
monitors, car displays, and even refrigerator doors.
The only thing that will even try to compete is a new display from Cano I beleive, a bank of electron emiters mounteed in a glass sleeve in vaccume, a "flat" crt really, and I might like to have one of those, but most wont.
SO the battle to replace our old but infirm friend i the CRT is over.
You served us well old friend, but nows the time for a well placed
bullet to the head and a swift burial in the back yard, soon to be joined
by Plasma, DLP, AND OTHER SUCH SCHEMES.
The CRT is dead, LONG LIVE THE LCD!!