Toshiba, Panasonic and Sharp are considdered a bit the same quality, which are considdered B section while philips and sony are considdered A brands, while philips doesn't export much under the name of philips, hence their export brand Sharp and their co productions and hardware suplying to Panasonic, although they are their B line.
There are a lot of rumours about samsung supplying same hardware as sony.
As I said, some samsungs are according to rumours supplying sony hardware as well, I don't know what is true of that. Same rumours tell you that some of the higher more expensive samsung teles are the same quality as the higher sony lines.
A lot of them are rumours and aren't proven, you should google it if you really wanna find out what is true of them.
What I do know is that Sony and Philips are providing top of the line A brand quality televisions for decades now, while brands like Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba are considdered a step back according to research. Again, it could all depend on which line you get from them. Next to that, there are a lot of rumours about samsung making the same kinda quality, but I wouldn't trust blindly on that. If I have money, I wouldn't doubt about going for something else then Sony, if you don't have that kind of money, I'd go for a samsung atm. ( I don't like the philips teles giving me true view soap kinda like imagery bwegh
, some ppl really like that, I love the image that sony teles give me and certainly the bravias).
Got sony televisions for years now, got some sharps, panasonics and some other ones as well. At work we got some 47 inch sony lcds, saint has a 47 inch as well I think, my gf's parents have a 55 inch sony (all bravias) and gf's sister has one of the newest samsung leds. I can assure you if you'd go for one of these that you buy quality.
Again , minimouse, google for reviews and research, sometimes, it gives you a better view on things and sometimes it's even less read work then my posts
P.S. Frosty has found you a freaking good deal, like he does a lot in this forum section
(now the only thing we gotta do is get him to step over to ati graphic cards
)
P.P.S. 3 year extended guarantee, see if you can get that anywhere else with an A brand