[citanul]

TWP,

Many people are perfectly happy with plasmas.

The Panasonic TH-42PX60U 42" Plasma HDTV, (amazon, $1.4k)
and larger TH-50PX60U 50" Plasma HDTV, (amazon, $2k)

are both incredible TVs. As far as I can tell, burn in is no longer considered a problem on good plasmas.

You should be able to get away with a system that has:

A good DVD player ~$200
A good "Home Theater in a Box" ~$400-500 tops
A Tivo ~$100
A great remote ~$100
ex) A 50" Panasonic Plasma ~$2k

and still have ~$2k left.

Where you could spend that (if you wanted)?

Wall mounting or getting a really chique piece of tv/equipment furniture.

the "home theater in a box" part of this is about as scalable as you want. you can do "a receiver and seperate speakers" and do pretty well for yourself with $2k. you could add a good dedicated standalone cd changer if you wanted for $150-$200, but that doesn't seem to be a priority for you. for ~$2 you should be able to get a cable to connect your ipod to your stereo. aesthetically not the best, but way better sound-wise than some fm transmitter.

c