Not pitch black la...just need to adjust so its not too grayish. If I increase the contrast and lower the brightness will it do the trick? Or is it the other way round. My Sony black level is good so I try to get something similar with the Panny.

show room always use high quality picture source, player and cable to make pictures look nice in those display units.

Unless you are some of the elite one who can afford buying original BD or high quality DVD, i suggest you bring your own source such as hmmm ... the jack sparrow made dvd to the show room for testing.

But if you can afford the original BD or DVD, then forget my suggestions 

But 40", isn't it a bit small? 

At least 46" for FULL HD IMHO.

Bro, if you impressed by the 6 Series, you should be awed by the 7 Series. We did a side by side comparison with Sony W Series, really put a big shame to the Sony. My friend bought it for RM5.5k but it's out of stock, have to wait for 2 weeks.
Specs here:

http://www.samsung.com/my/consumer/detail/...=LA40A750R1RXXM

if i got 15k budget on display, definitely i will get a Full HD projector with a good screen >.<

the philips runs at 1920 x 1020 correct?

On the subject of 100Hz, no it does not have this feature. Frankly 100Hz taste depends on a person. I myself prefer true cinema speed which is 24fps. In my opinion 100Hz makes movies look like it was shot using a camcorder. Too smooth.

Hmm, I don't think we can turn off 100hz unless we talking about HD natural motion or motion flow features that remove juddering effect.