I have used this TV now for several days, and I really like it.
FYI, I have PDP-436HDG with two side-mounted optional speakers and a Pioneer XV-DV333 home theatre-in-a-box system, connected via component cables, for much better sound experience. Although the side-mounted speakers provide fairly nice sound, the additional 600W speakers really help enhancing the overall movie watching experience. I also use this system to listen to the music CDs with the TV turned off. It makes for a great replacement for my old stereo system.
I also have a Toshiba E350 HDMI DVD player connected to the TV using the HDMI cable. The sound output is connected to the DV333 receiver unit so that I can listen to through the surround sound system. This HDMI connection does offer slightly better DVD/VCD viewing experience than the DVD player on the DV333 unit.
Starhub cable box is connected to the TV via normal composite cables. (:<)
Based on your question, I finally tried my laptop PC connection to the Pioneer TV, and I am quite satisfied. It's so much better (XGA) than Sony Bravia V40" which supports only VGA resolution. The optimal viewing distance away from the screen for PC operation seems to be around 8-10 ft, to be able to read small text display clearly. I can still web browse from 10 to 12 ft away though.
In fact, I am writing this looking at the TV screen!
My sofas are placed about 14 ft away from the display for good normal TV viewing. If you sit at least 10 ft away from TV, the normal Starhub channel viewing is acceptable, though not great. It's similar to, if not better than, watching a VCD disk on a DVD player. However, the viewing experience varies from channel to channel. Some channels are clearer than the others. So there seems to be some signal quality difference amongst different channels as well.
In summary, I would highly recommend this Pioneer PDP-436HDG TV to you over any other Plasma or LCD TVs currently available in the market place. Unless you intend to sit farther than 14 ft away from the TV, I would not recommend a TV offering larger than 43 " display screen, as you will see the noise even more so on a larger display set.