Sony KD-30XS955 30-Inch FD Trinitron WEGA CRT HDTV
Big, bold and beautiful!
I am not a videophile, but I did research purchasing a TV for about 5 months.  After considering most of the important options (CRT [no ghosting], 30\\"-34\\", under $1000, HDTV) I decided on this model.  I am VERY happy with the purchase. <br /> <br />First of all, the image is incredible.  Being a newbie to HD, after I first plugged it in and found the channels, we ended up watching half of \\"24\\" in regular broadcast on channel 9.  My wife commented how she didn't see any difference from our regular 27\\" Panasonic.  Commercials popped on and she started channel surfing, and I realized that HD channels are actually different numbers altogether.  We switched to channel 9.1 and enjoyed the rest of Jack and the team taking on the president's men in HD.  Needless to say, my wife took her words back.  Total night and day between regular broadcast and HD.  \\"They\\" say that HD is to regular broadcast as the switch to color was from black and white. No kidding! <br /> <br />The set up was so easy.  It took about 10 minutes for the TV to search for regular and HD channels before we were mesmerized.  There is a cool option to preset your channels and the translucent display is great.  Its great that I now can read the name of the show, short descriptions of the content, and the resolution that it is broadcast in.  This is all over-the-air, not cable!  I definitely like the over the air option, as we are not interested dishing out $70 a month for TV we probably won't watch.  However, if it's snowing outside, the picture can sometimes cut out, the screen will turn black and \\"no signal\\" will pop up.  We feared it was the TV set, but soon realized it was the snowstorm outside.   <br /> <br />Sound is fantastic.  It's a bit of a mute point however, since I have a simple surround sound system.  If I didn't, though, I may not have felt justified in getting one, since the sound is so good on this TV.  I cannot yet comment on DVDs as I am waiting for a Monster component cable to arrive viae-bay.  I watched a bit of the Matrix using an S-video cable and was not impressed.  It didn't look bad, just not up to potential.  You will definitely need to upgrade to HDMI or component cables to take full advantage of DVDs or game consoles. <br /> <br />Finally, the option of viewing photos via the Sony memory stick slot is a great bonus. The pictures are clear and colorful.  You have the option of zooming, flipping, playing a slideshow and using piano music set into the TV or MP3s your memory stick.  Cool.  Well, I am still playing around with the options and feel very lucky to have this set.   On top of that, I paid $835.99 including shipping.  If you look around, you might find that deal too!   <br />