Most best buy locations are sold out (at least on the peninsula) of the 46" deal for $1299. Good deal if you can find it. 240hz takes some getting used to but the clarity, sharpness, and vivid color is top notch. I just watched toy story 3 on blu ray and wow...looked unreal.

 

So does a $99 Monster HDMI cable yield better picture quality then say a $30 Dynex HDMI cable? I've read on CNET that expensive cables vs. cheap cables, go for the cheap ones.

 

I've been researching TVs since I want to get one to hook up to my PS3. During my research, I found something which is not commonly talked about (at least on the TV threads of i-club) which is input lag. This is completely different from response time, which many people are fooled by.

Basically the TVs have some type of encoder or something where it processes the signal before it displays it on the screen which causes some lag time. This can affect gaming as well as watching movies (if you have an external sound source) because the delay can be pretty bad (some of the worse TVs have around 4-5 frame lag or 100+ ms), it may not seem like a lot, but it is enough to screw things up enough to where you will notice them. Playing games which require timing can really mess up playing ability because of the delay, as well as speech with lip movement being off for movies. This is the reason why there are game modes and pc modes on TVs, however even with those modes on, it usually doesn't help a whole lot. The same reason why games such as Guitar Hero have calibration, to try to help combat this input lag.

I got a ton of information off of this forum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1131464 about input lag, and it has drastically changed how I am looking for TVs now. I'm in a slightly different boat, since I am looking for a 32" LCD TV (my budget is much less than yours, since I can't really afford anything more than $300), but now I may just grab a 27" LCD monitor with a TV tuner or buy a TV tuner card for my PC because all the TVs with minimal input lag are uber expensive or discontinued.

 

HDMI is all digital, so a cable is a cable, unlike analog. $30 is still a ripoff for cables, which just shows how much a rip off Monster cables are. I get all my cables from Monoprice.com, you'll be amazed at how much you're getting ripped off once you see how cheap cables should be.