Help me pick out a LCD HDTV and accoutrements!

Good choice on the TV. I'd also check out the Sharp Aquos line of comparable TVs. I have the Aquos LC46D64U and am loving it. Your questions.... 1) You won't really need anything else, unless you want to hook it up to an a/v receiver / home theater system... in which case you'll need an HDMI cable. Check monoprice.com and get 'em there. Anyone who tells you you need Monster brand cables needs to be rapped on the head with a tackhammer. 2) Dish and DirecTV are ostensibly the same these days, save for a few different channel exclusives. If your hubby is into sports, which sports he's really into may dictate which you choose. It has been a while since I've looked into satellite, so things may have changed, but backw hen I was investigating, only one of the two offered NFL Sunday Ticket... and I think the other one had the better baseball offering. 3) You only need a professional installer if you insist on having it mounted on the wall. Then, you want a professional installer, because unless you're really confident in your handiwork... yikes.. that's a big investment to come crashing down. If you're just putting the thing on a stand, and putting the stand on a low-ish / wide entertainment center, there is no need for professional install. 4) 720p is still dandy for a while.. unless you like blu-ray and video games. Then you're going to want 1080p. Your TV choice (46") is just big enough that 1080p will actually look a little nicer if you're reasonably close to the TV. Reverting back to question 1: As much as it absolutely pains me to say it due to my hatred for Sony as a company, a PS3 is probably your best investment if you think you'll be jumping on the blu-ray bandwagon. It's only marginally more expensive than a blu-ray player, but also plays video games, acts as a media center (though not as nice as some others), and is still the best blu-ray player out there as far as I've read. I, for one, don't have a PS3. I have an Xbox 360 and a Wii, both of which I love. The Wii's graphics aren't stellar, even on an HDTV, but it's fun. Be sure to go into the settings and set it to 480p widescreen mode. It helps a bit, and makes use of the rest of that screen real-estate! You're the best wife ever, by the way. I gotta find me one like you. A TV.. gadgets.. AND NHL Center Ice? Heaven.

Most of your questions have already been answered so I'll just try to add what I can. I got a Samsung 40" 1080p LCD last September and I love it. The picture is great, the contrast is great and I haven't had anything close to an issue with it. I also purchased Center Ice from DirecTV last year and the nice thing is that they expanded their HD content around November of last year and they carried, for most games, both the home and away feeds for each game, with a few teams as an exception (I don't think DirecTV showed any of the feeds from the Flyers' home crew). They also usually had the home team's feed in HD. A drawback though, and I'm not sure if it's any better on Dish Network is DirecTV didn't carry any of the Canadian feeds in HD (CBC, TSN, Sportsnet) but hopefully that will be updated for next year. I can't imagine seeing Don Cherry's suits in HD, I'll probably go blind. Anyways I second the "You're the best wife ever" comment and seriously, watching hockey in HD has ruined me for any time I have to watch it in SD, it's that good.

Oh also, I forgot to mention that the Wii doesn't support HD, it's one of the features they neglected in order to keep the price down.

I'd just like to offer the caveat that NHL hockey is possibly the most demanding thing you can ask of your LCD TV screen. A lot of sets that have otherwise fantastic screens don't do so hot with the tiny black puck speeding across the glaring white field. If you can, I'd recommend buying a hockey highlights DVD, trucking down to your local big box store, and asking them to pop the DVD in so you can compare a few sets for this specific task. You'll quickly notice any differences.

I point you to this chart: "http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html". At 46" it appears that you have to be closer than 9 feet for 1080p to look any better than 720p. As far as "future-proofing" goes, this will never change.

If it were my money I'd go for the 50" plus Samsuing DLP rear projection choices, eg. the http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001415FIG/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/.

Does professional installation include setting/tuning all the colours/brightness/contrast etc? I hear that process can often noticably improve the picture quality. It's always an idea to check out the views or even post your question on one of the dedicated AV forums such as 'http://www.avforums.com/'. I'm not wild about buying top of the line in a market that changes so rapidly; your $2000 investment will be 'out of date' in a year or so (or to put it another way, this years $4000 TVs will be next years $1500 TV). Have you given any thought to sound? While visual is impressive, often people forget about sound (or buy a really crappy integrated all-in-one set) and wonder why the experience is so-so, at best. As a rule of thumb you should spend the same on your sound equipment as you do on your visual. ANy sacafrice on quality is going to impact on the end result, so keep that in mindand think holistically. I'd say absolutely get a Blu-Ray player; that format was 'won' the battle and is likely to be around for as long as DVDs were, so it's probably wise to buy, especially if you want to show off your awesome new teev. Although, like all things, the players are going to keep on getting cheaper and more advanced as far as feature goes with time so there's no rush. The suggestion for getting a PS3 is a really good one I think, and will take you from the most awesome wife to the most awesome wife in the universe (well, in a shallow material consumeristic way of course.) Good luck! (oh, I remember being told they often mess around with the settings on the units in store and do things like put the brightness on maximum etc, so the results you see in store might be different.)

We bought a Sharp Aquos after comparing pictures side-by-side in the store. The Aquos blew the others in its price range away in terms of color, clarity, brightness, and most importantly viewing angle. Make sure you stand well to the side of the screens you are interested in. Crouch down and look at it from below. Many brands become noticeably dimmer as the angle changes. You will definitely not want to buy the screen that only looks good from a narrow angle - the viewing angle listed on the box is the maximum area from which you can see the picture, not the angles at which the picture necessarily looks good. Also, we don't have HD - but even with regular broadcast cable, hockey games this season were great (and I'm not just saying that 'cause my team won!). Much easier to follow the puck on the new screen, and the black/white contrast ikkyu2 mentions wasn't an issue with the Aquos. Then again we opted for a smaller screen rather than a 46" beast, but we have a small living room. It has multiple inputs - HDMI, component, standard RGB, even (gasp) plain old cable. We hooked it in to our receiver for use with the surround sound, TiVo, and DVD. Our Wii is plugged directly in to it rather than using the receiver pass-through. Definitely recommend ignoring the built-in speakers and going for full surround if you can swing it.

I know I'm late to the party, but have you considered a Plasma versus LCD? Plasma has better brightness, contrast and much, much faster response time (which is critical with video games and fast-moving sports). I'm a huge NFL fan and avid gamer, and I never even considered an LCD, it was Plasma only in my house. LCD does have an advantage in rooms with lots of natural lighting, but if this is for a darker room like a den or basement, Plasma wins there too. I have a Panasonic 1080p 50" (PX700) and highly recommend it. Ask around, Panasonic Plasmas are the best TVs out there unless you want to drop $2000 more and get a Kuro from Pioneer (which is also made by Panasonic).