Thanks for your question. It's a great one because there are so darn many choices and because it's tricky to know what's important until you've already bought something and set it up in your house, just to realize... well, you know...
In terms of Costco, I have seen the Vizio TV's and they're decent. The trick is to test it out: bring in a Blu-Ray disk of your choice -- and a regular DVD -- and try both on the TV. You need to ensure that the TV is full 1080p and check the number of HDMI inputs it has: many have fewer than you want. I use four on my (Sony) HDTV: 1 for my cable box, 1 for my Blu-Ray DVD player, 1 for my AppleTV and 1 for my other video player device.
Something else to be aware of is that a lot of modern TVs have rear-facing speakers rather than front-facing speakers, so if you aren't planning on adding a home theater system of some sort, be aware that you'll either have to crank it to hear what's going on (and expect much more dynamic range, especially with movies) or be frustrated that it's hard to hear.
Modern HDTV systems also have sophisticated video processing capabilities, so you can zoom in, turn on "motion smoothing" and so on. In my experience, the zoom is easily processed and can be nice with films in VistaVision or CinemaScope (based on personal tastes), but the motion effects can slow down the frame refresh, turning any show into a kind of disconcerting home-movie running at closer to 25fps than 30fps that we're used to. Hard to describe, but weird to see.
The latest generation of TVs also support 3D processing capabilities. I have to admit I'm not a big fan of 3DTV at this point and the idea of having to wear special 3D glasses to watch my show? Not so much, thanks. But if you're into it, you'll need a compatible 3D system on both the Blu-Ray player and the HDTV itself.
I have an LCD TV system both because it has less screen glare and because - very important in Colorado where we're at a 5200ft elevation - plasma screens are known to be adversely affected by altitude. I have read that it's over 8000ft that it becomes a problem, but definitely check out both technologies, especially their refresh and decay rates on really fast action: do the pixels tend to stay on a fraction too long, leading to 'ghosting', or is it crisp and legible even as the car races over the bridge / the fighter leaps off the building / the lion pounces on the zebra?
For a purchase like this, I am a big fan of Amazon's "Price Check" app in the App Store. Put it on your iPhone (it's free) and check the user reviews of different TVs before you buy them. Darn helpful.
For the record, I have a 43" Sony LCD HDTV, a Panasonic Blu-Ray player and a terrific Yamaha sound system. It's a great setup, but it also cost me quite a few dollars, all told.
Readers, what other advice would you offer this new HDTV and Blu-Ray fan?
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Not much to add, really. But, if you have a Playstation 3 already, realize that it can play Blu-Ray movies without the need for a dedicated player. I also understand that it can play 3D movies as well, though I don't have a 3D TV to confirm this.
Also, when buying something like a Blu-Ray player, consider the possibility of spending a few bucks more and getting the extra features that you don't need / can't use just yet. And be wary of the difference between "internet ready" (can be connected to your home network) and "internet capable" (needs additional hardware in order to hook it up to your network).
We recently bought a Blu-Ray player for my mother, and after comparing prices, we found that we could get the 3D internet-ready player for only about $30 more than the non-3D internet "capable" player. And when you add in the additional hardware needed to connect the "capable" player to the network, the actual cost was less.
So, even though she doesn't have a 3D TV, nor high-speed internet (yet), her player is ready when she does upgrade.