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The difference between HD and ED has to do with the horizontal line count on the display. HD is either 720 or 1080 lines, brodcast either progressively or interlaced. ED is 480 progressive.
(In case you are unfamiliar, interlace means that the odd numbered and even numbered horizontal lines on the screen are refressed alternately every 1/60th of a second. So, in the 1st 60th of a second, lines 1,3,5,7,9.... are refreshed on screen. In the second 60th of that second, lines 2,4,6,8.... are refreshed.
In progressive scan, all horizontal lines are refreshed at the same time)

The reason that ED actually does a better (not drastically though) job of displaying current DVD content, is that current DVDs play at 480 lines either interlaced or progressive depending on the model. 480 line output from DVD matches the 480 line screen perfectly. Converting that image to 720 or 1080 for display on HD will cause a small deterioration in quality. Again, it's not a lot, but remember that the EDTV set is substantiall less cost.

Now viewing HD content on a 1080 interlaced HDTV sounds like it would be more than twice the quality of that on a 480 interlaced EDTV, but it isn't. Quantifying the difference is obviously subjective, but the reviews from people who have looked at a lot more of these sets than I have generally put the drop in quality at about 10-15%. Remember, that's when viewing true HD content (and by the way, some broadcasters actually put out their HD content at 480p).

So, if money is an obstacle, EDTV is a great bang for the buck. If money isn't that big of an obstacle, go with HDTV. Or if time is not of the essence, I imagine that HDTV sets will continue thier price decrease and eventually EDTV will no longer be an attractive price/perfomance trade-off. Who knows how long that will take.

Again, I am fond of the Panasonic line of Plasmas (if Plasma is what you want). You can find the Panasonic plasmas in both "consumer" and "professional" release. These are basically the same display, but the professional series can be bought without the speakers - since you're likely spending thousands on seperate units, you won't miss the built-ins. They also have some that don't come pre-configured with all the inputs, but rather have replaceable boards that you buy and insert into the unit. So, if you have no need for Composit video, you just don't buy a composite video card, and you don't pay for one that is already built in (they may have a 1 or two built-ins on some models). You can buy HDMI, Component, Composite, S-video, etc.


As for the other components
I personally prefer Yamaha Recievers and Paradigm Speakers. If you've never heard of Paradigm speakers, do yourself a favor and try to find a local supplier and give them a look. They are great combination of quality/cost. And if you want to look for some independent reviews on them, you'll often find that the reviewer stacks them up against speakers twice the price or more just to make it a level playing field - they can be found in the price range of systems like Klipsch, Bose, JBL, Polk, Infinity, etc., etc., but IMHO are much better quality. (They do come in different price categories: Monitor, Reference, Premier, etc. - What I have and love, are the Monitor class - the lower price units).

Good luck and have fun - that's what is most important.