If there was a clear winner between Plasma and LCD one would have died by now. ~50" 1080p TV's pricewise can be anywhere from 1400 dollars to 4000 bucks.
As far as new and great, Tv's are generally released twice a year, ~~September and March. March tends to be the brand new models for the year and have significant improvements. September tends to be model line gap fillers and some other moderate improvements.
Personally I prefer LCD's right now as I think Samsungs 6 series LCD TV's are fantastic. The 7 and 8 series are virtually identical where 7 adds some media stuff and a woofer, and 8 makes it super slim. The 5 series is also very nice if you don't need 120Hz (I have a LN40A550, 40" 5-series in my bedroom). Still the best PQ you will find right now comes from Pioneer Plasmas.
As far as new on the horizon, the Samsung 55A950 and Sony 55XBR8 are kind of ground breaking LCD's around the corner because they have local dimming LED's which can allow for much much darker blacks in certain areas of the scene, however price wise they are pretty ridiculous.
My quick recommendations for TVs as price goes up is the LN52A550 from Samsung for ~1750 or so, the Toshiba 52XF550 for 2000 (from Costco if a local one has it), the Samsung 52A650 for ~2250 from Amazon and the Pioneer 5020 Plasma for around 3000.
Each TV looks better than the one before it in that list in my opinion, so its kind of up to you to decide which is the best choice for you.
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