If you can afford a Pioneer, go for it. If not, go for a Panasonic. They're pretty much the only brands worth buying. The Pioneer has better picture quality and signal processing and is definately worth the extra cash, in my opinion.
Make sure to check out
this chart to see if 1080p would benefit you at all. If you're not going to be sitting close enough to resolve the difference between a 720p and a 1080p image, there's obviously no point in paying the extra cash for a 1080p set.
Last thing, while people have pointed out 'disadvantages' (most of them are negligible), it is very important that you are able to control light in your room. Plasmas easily beat out LCDs and rear projection sets, but only in dark rooms. Natural light totally screws up image quality.