Sony KDF-E50A10 50-Inch LCD Rear Projection Television
Incredible picture quality -- looks like a flat panel LCD
Over the weekend a friend invited me to come along to Best Buy to look at HDTVs as he was set on buying one.  When we walked in our attention immediately turned to a large-screen TV set in a sofa-seating area.  We both thought it was a flat-panel TV, because the image was both bright and sharp and looked great even under the poor lighting conditions at BB (you'll know what I mean if you've ever been inside a BB store).  We sat down and flip through a few \\"channels\\" (mostly demo videos).  We then tried to view the screen from the sides and found the quality still excellent.  It was this point that my sharp eyes discovered this was a rear projection TV, not a flat panel.  And the one on display was this 50\\" LCD rear projection Sony TV.<br /><br />One advantage LCD projection TVs have over LCD TVs is the LCD silicon chip is very small in the projection TV which means it's much cheaper and easier to make.  Many LCD TVs, (esp. those from second-tier brands like Philips, Westinghouse or Samsung), suffer the dreaded \\"dead pixel\\" problem, whereby some pixels will be stuck on one color (usually green or red).  From what I've read, this is not a problem with LCD projection TVs.<br /><br />If you want a large-screen TV and don't want to pay an arm and a leg for a plasma and don't care to go for the vanity of hanging up your TV on a wall, this Sony is a very good choice.  It's the best rear projection TV I've come across, be they LCD-based or DLP-based or CRT-based.  I also think it's stylish and looks solid built.  If you have the dough, a 50\\" plasma is also a good choice esp. when you look at the excellent picture quality of sets from Panasonic and Pioneer.  Plasma TVs also give you slightly better \\"cinematic\\" modes whereby different levels of black are better reproduced.  Better, personally, I prefer bright pictures with rich colors when I watch TV and movies, so I think this Sony will please most consumers -- and won't cause too much eye strain after watchign the \\"Twilight Zone\\" for 48 hours straight.ght Zone\\" for 48 hours straight.