Okay....I am looking into getting a new tv as well and have done TONS of research...
I am personaly going with Panasonic VIERA 37" 1080p LCD HDTV
Sadly the wife doesn't want me to get anything bigger due to size requirements of the room. She is probably right that anything bigger would just look akward in the room. Please realize that these are important things (how the room looks to company) once you get married... No matter how much you want the 50inch tv. Anyway...I digress.
I chose LCD over Plasma because I want the TV to last for at least 8 years. Plasma has to be refilled to keep the top notch quality about every 4 years. That is going to be about 1k to refill.
Now as for the European vs American functions can't you just order from an international shipper like Newegg and get the American model? I don't know why it wouldn't work overseas...I mean cable is cable right?
The current Panasonic VIERAs are getting awesome reviews from everywhere...including consumer reports, CNET, and regular people. If you get the size over 40 inches you can get it in 120 hz which will reduce the blur on everything, including gaming, like crazy. As of yet I have not found any TV that will cancel out ALL of the blur from my NES...I just don't think it was designed to handle it.