The PL3403 has a little bit of "ghosting" on very fast moving scenes, however it does triumph over the Samsung LA450 interms of contrast and image sharpness. You can go for either of them, I'd personally suggest the Phillips because of their ambilight feature which is keeps the TV relatively cool and consume much lesser power for a 40-incher.

Not really.... Japanese doesn't always have the upper hand. Toshiba and Sony afterall sourced their panels from... Samsung. :roleyes:

If you want something over 40", I still suggest you go for the Phillips. If the component input is a problem, you can always buy an extra component input adapter for more inputs.

I haven't really seen much of the Toshiba 42AV550E, but according to most, its pretty darn good. Picture quality should, actually be a little bit better(depending on the source of course) than the Phillips though due to the better image processor Toshiba has.