Any thoughts? The Samsung seems to have better specs but I have always been a Panasonic person. The Samsung looks a little better in the store but my main concern is build quality and reliability.

Made a quick decision and went with the Panny even though the picture looked better on the Samsung ( has the clear panal and gives it a plasma like appearance). Everything else I have is Panny so I decided to stay the same. Sales person pushed the Panny. Feelings are mixed right now. However I have been tweaking the pic settings and itis looking better.

We bought a Viera TC-L42E30 a month ago and are pretty happy with it. Now just shopping around for a blu-ray player....

After a few days of fooling with the Panny, I just wasn't satisfied with the picture quality. I changed cables, picture settings and to no avail. I also have a Panny 32 C3 which I purchased back in the spring and that doesn't really have the greatest pq which you would expect from them. My 26" 2007 model panny blows them away. So I took the E3 back and got the Samsung. Way better PQ. Only downside is that the speakers are not as good as the panny but I can live with that. The E3 had terrible blacks and and a large area of light bleed at the bottom which would not go away.