what about KRP-600M??

with rm 3.5k budget , u can go for better lcd tv.....
coz samsung-la-40b550 & b530 are almost same spec. ,only samsung-40b550 got 1 usb input......

with 3.k budget ,u can get 100hz lcd tv , or even 200hz lcd tv .....or top-up some money to get series 6 samsung lcd tv ..

I have a 3yr old who acts as an alarm clock, no matter what time he sleeps, he wakes up at 7am or earlier!

BTW: When can I come calibrate ur plasma?

The reason why it is the 1st 100-200hrs is due to phosphor drive in. The half life of the different phospors (RGB) are different. In order to get them to the same intensity, plasma manufacturers drive the different pixels at different voltages. That allows the phosphors to settle down after a while. That is also the reason that people are advised to wait 100-200hrs before calibration.

Now, the question of whether to break in or not, is purely personal. It is advisable that during this 100-200hrs, you try ur best to avoid long hours of static images ie, bright logos. If u vary ur content, then it shd be fine. However, some plasma manufacturers (depending on their technology and methods) are more prone to image retention during phospor infancy and some even throughout the lifetime. So u need to do ur research and understand how to use ur display. This was the same even during CRT times, but people forget and we were not so well informed in the older days.

My personal opinion is, I run the break in slides for the 1st 30hrs of the plasmas continuously. I do this to get it out of the infancy stage only. Then I reduce contrast (in my case since I have the tools, I normally target a 23ft/L) for the 1st 100hrs only when using it with Astro/TV due to the channel logos. For BluRay/DVD, I target a 30ft/L almost immediately and bring it higher after it passes the 200hr mark. For day settings I target at 48ft/L which is plenty bright and even in bright environment, it has enuf pop with gamma of 2.2. For critical viewing, I target 35ft/L with a gamma of 2.35.

After I pass the 200hr mark, I make the contrast brighter for Astro (for sports I even target a white window of 40ft/L with S shaped gamma for pop) to about 30ft/L and keep it there.

This is my opinion and methods, I do not know how anyone uses or abuses their sets, I mostly always vary content on the screen but I do not like to baby my electronics. There is no use in my opinion to that. It is just an entertainment tool, its no uses losing sleep over it.

Most people focusing this brand (Panasonic, Samsung, Sony). Using front glass panel display seems makes picture "artificial". Can see object refection on screen as well- annoying (even though they mentioned anti-glare, etc.). Latest Sharp 2010 LED TV is good (using 4 color panels) but comes with quite hefty price tag. Edge-LED seems having disadvantage (go Google it). Plasma is good for viewing movies but not for games but I believe this problem will overcome. The plasma black levels can be degrading as times goes by. Full-array LED backlight is the one people should invest into it.

Full-array LED > Edge LED> CCFL LCD

Checkout the latest 2010 Philips 9 series- 9705 series (not yet in Malaysia market, soon).