This TV was a bit of a compromise for me. I did a great deal of research on HDTV's and this is not the best rated microdisplay projection TV out there. I bought it because the price was right, it had a 50 inch screen, it had a built-in HD decoder, and there were enough video connections for all my gear. I knew I was going to have to live with the drawbacks of LCD microdisplay TV's like poor black levels, the screen door effect, and limited viewing angles.

TV PICTURE:
The HD picture is very good. I've watched HD shows from an HD cable box and from over-the-air HD broadcast signals and they were all quite impressive. The colors were very vivid and the detail was very sharp. The 50 inch screen size gave the HD pictures an immersive feel. Live sports events (like the NBA finals) in HD are awesome and gave me the feeling of actually being there. Black levels are poor, but if that really bothers you then go buy a DLP. Also, the picture is bright for rear projection, but it still looks best in low or dim lighting.

As for regular TV (NTSC), I was not so impressed. I was already warned by other big screen TV owners that standard TV would look bad, but I was still disappointed by the low quality of the picture. The big screen really shows all the flaws of standard NTSC broadcasts.

I was more disappointed by the DVD picture. I had my DVD player hooked up through component cables and was watching in progressive mode (480p). I knew the picture was not going to match the HD picture, but I was still expecting more. I think the size of the screen actually detracts from the picture quality because I really noticed the lack of sharpness and detail. The DVD picture looked better on a smaller screen.

SOUND:
Surprisingly, I was quite impressed by the sound and power of the TV speakers. The sound was full and rich and actually had decent bass to it. It was good enough that I stopped using my surround sound system for watching all TV and used it only for shows that required surround sound or for watching DVD movies.

VIDEO CONNECTIONS:
There were more than enough video connections for me. I was able to connect all my gear to this TV (cable box, DVD player, DVD recorder, VCR, game console) plus hook up a regular cable and an antenna. It could've used a second HDMI plug, but that's just me nitpicking. There's no computer hookup, but I really don't understand why someone would want to use the TV as a giant monitor anyway.

OTHER FEATURES:
The HD decoder worked very well and I was able to pick up HD signals easily through the regular cable (not the cable box) and over the air. FYI, I used an powered and an unpowered, directional antenna for testing. The TV had two cable inputs so I could watch from either source.

The menu is standard Sony and was not difficult to use.

The remote was good. My only gripe was that there was only one button to control the video input. You can edit out non-used video sources, but if you have a lot of video gear (like me), then it can be annoying to have to hit the input button several times to get to the HDMI input, for example.

My one piece of advice for setup is to ignore the seating distance requirements on the instruction manual. They say that you can sit as close as 6 feet from the TV and this is alright if you want to avoid eye strain, but sitting anywhere less than 10 feet away you will notice the screen door effect with HD broadcasts (If you don't know what the screen door effect is, then shame on you! You haven't done enough research on LCD projection TVs!). You might think that you don't care about the screen door effect, but it sure annoyed the heck out of me after a while, particularly HDTV shows that had lots of white objects in it. After I moved my sofa about 12 feet from the TV, that problem stopped.

Also, if you like to watch TV from very wide angles, you better think of buying something else. The viewing angles are good for rear projection, but nowhere near as good as normal tube TV's or flat panel TV's. Also, the TV needs to be at eye level to someone sitting down so if you don't have a fairly large TV stand, you're going to have to buy one.

Don't worry too much about moving this TV because it is surprisingly light; only 85 lbs.! You still need another person to move it because it's so big, but you won't hurt your back moving this puppy.

The TV design itself is quite unimaginative. Ok, it's pretty ugly, but I didn't buy it for looks.</p>

Update: I returned this TV and bought an LCD flat panel. The narrow viewing angles really got to me.



note: I wrote this review a few months ago under a 2nd entry for this particular TV (that review has subsequently been deleted). For some reason, that other entry is not easily accessible.

Recommended:
No

Amount Paid (US$): 2599