How important is contrast ratio?

[greekjgg]

I just bought a sony 46" 1080p LCD, it had a 7000:1 cr. I was looking at a samsung 40" with a 10000:1 cr. Circuit City was running a sale on the sony with a ps3 for $1999, the samsung was $1299, when they subtracted the $399 off the tv, that made the sony $1599, plus I got another 8% off for Triple A which got it down to about $1450.

So for $150 I got 6 more inches and you really can't notice the difference in CR enough to justify the smaller tv purchase.

I've heard that you can't compare CR's equally from one brand to another like a sony vs a samsung in 10000:1 ratio both use different scales just like when you buy shoes a size 8 with nike fits different in a reebok.

Once you get to about 10000:1 cr I think you are way overpaying for anything higher right now and won't really notice the difference. Same with all this 120 mhz bs that is jacking up the prices, or in my case making what I bought a great deal.