I was looking to get a 16:9 at a good price, with good picture quality. This set seemed like the best bet for my price range. Having a built-in DVD player would have saved a bit of space, an added plus. The picture quality is as good as expected. Living with the set for a few months, I've become addicted to the 16:9 aspect ratio for watching DVDs, but have also become increasingly annoyed by the flaws in design.

Gripes:
1. Captions. When setting the display to wide screen format for DVDs, the captions are often truncated at the bottom of the screen. There is no way to shift the image upward, or to select a slightly smaller display which would permit viewing of the subtitles. People who don't turn on the captions wouldn't care about this.

2. Size. The depth of the box is about 2 feet. It's a real space hog. In my opinion, the picture quality is better than a plasma, but the bulk of the unit is a difficult trade-off to accept. The unit also has a wide frame around the screen, taking up more space. The makers should have tried to trim down the area outside the screen.

3. Sound/amplifier problems. I am using the built-in speakers at the moment. Intermittently, I will here a popping sound followed by severe muffling of the sound. Changing channels usually restores the sound. Once it starts, it keeps happening until the TV gets a rest.

4. DVD player. The player does a poor job overall. I've had to connect our old Apex player to one of the aux inputs. Problems include sound out of sync with picture, skipping, and inability to play some DVDs and many VCDs. The same disks are fine on the Apex.


Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 2000