For picture quality the Samsung are hard to beat.

For reliability Sanyo win by a long shot. I don't own, nor do I plan to own a Sanyo, but I see lots and lots of TV sets. Samsung are not reliable beyond about two or three years. They sell lots of Sanyo sets dirt cheap at places like Walmart, Kmart and the like, the picture quality tends to be OK, not great, not horrible, but they last forever. They sell a lot more Sanyo sets than they do Samsung, I see more broke down fairly new Samsung sets than I do Sanyo, I see lots of Sanyo sets that are pretty old but still working more or less as well as when new.

To be honest I wouldn't buy either a Samsung or Sanyo, I like Panasonic, LG can be a decent value for reliability and quality, Sony make fairly nice sets, and are fairly reliable, but they are very expensive and don't look as good as the Samsung sets, so they really aren't much of a value.

Vizio sets tend to have a much better picture than the Sanyo, and their reliability is much better than it was, once again I don't own, nor do I plan to own a Vizio.

Element sets are a complete crap shoot, they are dirt cheap, some last forever, some don't, some look great, some don't. Checking them out in store doesn't really help, because the one you take home may or may not have the same image quality as the one on display.

Beyond that, go to a couple of places, take a few minutes to tinker with the ones you like, and buy whatever you are most comfortable with. Most retailers have a decent return policy if you get a dud.