re: Samsung to end plasma TV production this year.

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When I was shopping for TVs recently the LCD seemed to have the best picture.

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LCDs pretty much all look great in bright showrooms. Where they fall apart is when you get them home in a dark room. (Obvious joke goes here.)

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Could someone please tell me pros and cons as far as LCDs and LEDs go.

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LED refers to the backlight. The panel is still LCD. The backlight used to be fluorescent tubes running behind the panel, but LEDs use less power and allow the super-thin (but not so good PQ) edge-lit sets. This year there is a small move back to putting the LEDs behind the panel and implementing FALD, but you will pay out the arse for sets with enough dimming zones to begin to approach plasma quality.

The problem with LCD is that the cells don't emit light. They filter light that is shown from behind them or from the edges with the help of light guides. To show black, they have to block that light, and they're not good at that at all, or the set can dim the light source, but that always introduces artifacts including blooming and brightness fluctuations. Plasma and CRTs work differently, using phosphors that emit light themselves, and they can get much closer to true black. OLED also emits light itself and can get black down to near zero.