As I said earlier, my parents 42" went out in 3 years with minimum usage. After speaking with quite a few repair ppl it is very common for the older ones to break. To there credit the new ones look alot different and they have tried to do alot for branding them, but nobody really knows as I know there qc 3 years ago sucked.
We still bought my little bro a 32" lcd, it has a decent picture but some whiteout, ie no true black a little worse than my insignia one.
oh yea, try watching the 1080i source in 720p and see how you like it. Personally I can't tell a difference, but some ppl swear that the progressive scanning allows for a better picture