Man, a bunch of these posters have lost all perspective. It’s like you’ve asked for advice on getting a commuter car to get you from a to b and they’re all, “Well, Porsche has some hot new models and the Range Rover is good for off road, but I’d have to recomend the latest Ferrari.”
For your needs, I’d definitely go with used off of Craigslist, Ebay, or Kijiji. There’s a ton of CRTs being sold cheap by people you got the latest LCD or Plasma. There’s heavy and cumbersome, but still deliver pictures that are sometimes even better than LCDs or Plasmas.
I would agree with the performance people that bigger is better and LCDs and plasmas in HD are pretty awesome, but if I were you, I’d buy used, save the money and spend it on a big TV in a few years.