This is an awesome TV. Really, it is.

OK.

So I decided one day, quite randomly actually, to upgrade my current TV (LG 42PC5D 42-inch 720p Plasma HDTV, for reference) to something somewhat larger and more capable of higher HD resolution. I was debating whether to replace with a newer plasma, or go back to LCD (the technology has improved significantly since the last time I owned one, specifically the blurring issue and sharpness). However, a lot of things are important to me that others might not care about. Some of these are:

- I like a TV to be light. Plasma screens for the most part are quite light indeed. The plasma I current have that I mentioned is quite light indeed, which was a selling point.
- The motion blur effect causes headaches and some lightheadedness. It's not pleasant. Any TV I buy must NOT have the motion blur, or have so little that I can't see it.
- I like TVs that can resize old 4:3 broadcasts to fit the screen without distorting the picture. My plasma actually couldn't do this, but I tolerated it for quality reasons.
- I like slim TVs. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the weight issue, but it's also a visual preference.
- I like my TV to have a small screen border. Maximize the viewable area.

After much research (and price checking), I decided on a DLP TV. Seeing that DLPs were just so darn cheap compared to LCDs of the same size, it only made logical sense. But I needed to actually see it for myself in order to make a decision; so I made a trip down to Circuit City. On display were the Mitsubishi and Samsung versions in this size. What I noticed was that the Samsumg retailed (at Circuit City) for over $2,000...mind you, the LED version was more expensive than the lamp version ($1,400). But Circuit City had an open box LED DLP for only $1350. My company has a discount deal with CC which effectively paid for the tax. Bought it on the spot (yes, I lifted it out of my car and up about 30 stair steps by myself, dead-lifted. That should indicate just how light it really is...lighter than my plasma yet 20 inches more screen space).

Once I got it hooked up (I have an integrated HDMI system, so I only have one cable to set up a new TV to everything), I immediately checked out some HD programming. I wasn't quite impressed...but I know that has to do with the fact that I'm seeing more defects on the larger screen than I did on the smaller screen, so no big deal. It's not that it looks bad...just not as great as I was used to or expected. It did do quite a bit of cleanup of regular non-HD broadcasts, especially close ups (far shots still looked terrible as always). There are a number of additional options in the menus to do more cleanup, but I didn't get to toy with them too much as the open box didn't come with a remote (had to order one. Be careful, they'll try to rip you off. Buy it from Amazon if you can).

The next step was to test true high definition. Of course, anyone who knows HD knows that there's really only one option to truly push a TV's HD output: Planet Earth on HD-DVD or Blu-ray. And my goodness...this TV is built for HD movies - 1080p. Videophiles will be able to clearly tell the difference between 720p on a smaller screen and 1080p. Additionally, this TV has a much more discriminate color space than my plasma; the plasma was more saturated but not as finely detailed. The DLP was so crisp that it felt like you were standing there. Someone new to HD likely won't be able to see the distinction, but after having viewed everything in 720p for years, I can easily tell the difference.

That doesn't mean there aren't negatives, some of which aren't the TV's fault.

- 720p and 1080i don't look so hot on this TV for some reason. Again, not terrible, and not bad, just not great. Why that matters? Everything broadcast on HDTV is usually in one of those two resolutions; there isn't capacity to transmit in 1080p. Doesn't mean you won't get enjoyment out of those shows and if your TV is more than 20 feet away from your seating area, you won't care.

- You have to "force" the TV to autoscan for resolution changes between shows. The problem is that most digital broadcasts of older shows send in 4:3, which the TV will show. If you don't like the black boxes on the side, you'll have to again "force" the TV to stretch the image. If you leave it on stretch mode and view a show that naturally fills the screen, it will overscan and you'll miss some of the edges of the show. Minor irritant.

- No carry handles. Minor irritant.

- Horrible built in speakers, but quite frankly if you're buying a TV like this you should have or be willing to buy a decent surround system to go with it.


I didn't cover all of the features of the set because honestly, I buy a TV to watch...well...TV. And movies and other video-centric things. I know it supports MP3s off the USB and other features, but I just don't care about those. If I want to play music, I can tap in my 360 Media Center and run everything that way, wirelessly, from my whole library rather than a few songs on a USB stick, but if you like it, to each their own.

This is a great TV. Don't let the display model throw you; it's not calibrated properly, I assure you. Additionally, it's hooked up to a terrible feed that is split amongst all TVs there, so the quality is severely degraded. Finally, stores are trying to steer customers to the LCD lines because sales of those models are bottoming out for a couple of reasons - VIZIO has stolen market share with rock bottom prices and DLPs like this one are showing that they can put out quality comparable to or even better than their flat panel counterparts. You walk into the store and they have a 1080p LCD hooked up by itself to a Blu-ray player that is showing some outstanding quality movie, and it's all a ploy to get you to buy it, when the truth is, space is really the only reason not to get one of these.

UPDATE: Something important you should know. This TV doesn't play nice with certain receivers; namely, the Sony STR-DG910. There is a setting under the Menu (I think it's 7-VIDEO), inside there is an Audio setting where you can set TV+AMP or AMP. It is CRITICAL that you set this to AMP. If you set it to TV+AMP, the amp will do its best to send audio to the TV, but the TV won't accept anything other than PCM - affecting all of your surround speakers. So set it to AMP so you get the optimal quality out of this thing. This is only an HDMI issue, to my knowledge.