if you are willing to spend the extra 300-400 to get the L42S10, it should be the better buy.

I had the same dilemma as you 4 months ago.

End up going with the Samsung to save cost. I have a very small living room so no big deal to have a smaller display.

I so far have no regrets except the size is obviously smaller. but that is not a valid complaint since I made the choice with eyes wide open.

Also a note of caution is that Japanese FHD displays of this generation does not accept 1920x1080 over VGA / DVI. The only way they can accept full hd signal is via hdmi @ 1080p. My HTPC does not have HDMI output only VGA and component. So you may have to consider this.