End of the day, if the LCD looks better to u, just get it.

LCDs have not too great black levels, unless the ones with LED backlighting and local dimming.  These comes into great effect when viewing in dim environment and especially movies.

Things to note:

8TV, NTV7 might not look too great on LCDs due to the nature of the refresh rates. Plasma might be better for these reasons.

What ar188 meant is that LCDs can show very very bright images. However, they do so at the expense of very bad greyscale. There are errors in the Red, Green Blue channels that make up white. Due to this, the pictures look cartoonish as the colours are also very bright. However, looking at ur needs, I would go for the one that fits ur wallet better.

Also, since u r so worried abt how long it lasts, why not get something with 5yr warranty....

Plasmas and LCDs panels (note: panels) are mostly rated for 100000hrs...I think long before that some other electronic component in the display will spoil...

Even for CRTs, the tubes lasted forever, however, mostly always the power supplies crapped out earlier..

Edit: I would advise u to ask them to hookup 8TV, NTV7 to the display u want to buy and make sure u r happy with the picture quality, if u do that I believe u would probably go the plasma route... also look for a 768p panel (since u r sure u are not watching DVD, HD content) as this will be better for u. However, it is not future proof.