A great TV, but with typical LCD problems
Pros:
In HD, a superb picture and sound. Make sure you set everything up correctly.
Cons:
In analog, only OK. Make sure you have HD service before buying.
The Bottom Line:
Again, If you have suitable HD programming to keep you occupied, this TV is the bomb. If not, then think projection or plasma.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I must start out by saying that my father has purchased this TV, not me. I can't afford to drop north of $2,500 on a TV, no matter how nice it is. I have, however, spent enough time watching it to have arrived at some conclusions.
1) If you are looking at a true HD picture, this is an amazing TV. Quite literally, if you have a picture of a landscape on it, it is a window looking outdoors. I haven't seen anything with a picture this good. You can actually see the faces of the people in the crowds of the NFL HD transmissions. The colors are magnificent and the clarity is superb.
2) If you aren't using a HD signal, then your problems will begin. The picture becomes fuzzy, much as if you enlarge a digital image too much.
3) You get artifacting (I believe this is the term) during periods of movement on the screen. It takes the screen a bit of time to fully register and show the movement on the screen, and you can tell in the picture. I haven't seen this in the HD transmissions, just regular TV. Some of the new computer monitors will have a reaction time of 2ms, and not the 8ms of this TV. When purchased, 8ms was the fastest available. We can hope that the quicker refresh time makes it to the larger TV's.
4) The separate digital tuner does an OK job of picking up the free over the air digital signals. My father has it attached to a set of powered rabbit ears and most of the time the signal comes in well. However, with fluctuations in weather, the signal has been lost before the analog signal goes.
5) Also, why doesn't anyone tell you that you have to dial to 3.1 or 11.1 or 11.2 to get the digital signals? I only found this out by talking to another salesman a couple of months after he purchased the TV? You would think that the guys at Best Buy would say that up front. (Sorry, that's not the TV's fault...) Allow the TV to search for the digital signals, it will find them well enough.
6) Not quite on topic, but probably applicable anyway to purchasers of this or any other HD TV. You will need to go into your dish box set up and tell your box to broadcast in HD. Again, we had the TV in my father's house for about 2-3 weeks and were wondering why the picture wasn't as good as advertised. By luck, I was playing with the dish box setup and stumbled across the menu item for the display. I went in and changed it and viola, the picture just lept out of the screen. Again, not the TV's fault, but it doesn't do any good to lay out all this money for a HD TV and then not understand how to get the most out of it.
7) DVD play is excellent on it. With the widescreen format and the picture clarity, you simply can't beat playing a DVD on this TV. Just phenomenal.
Conclusions
Is this a great HD TV? Certainly, I haven't seen one better. Simply a picture to die for.
Is this a great analog TV? Not really. I don't think you can buy a tube TV with a screen this large, so maybe it doesn't matter. If you want a screen this size with analog TV, get either projection or plasma. With the fuzziness of the analog signal (coming off of the dish network) and the artifacting, I find it hard to justify the cost unless you have a HD signal.
