Samsung HC-R4755W 47-Inch HD-Ready Rear Projection TV
For just over a grand, none better
Like most, I spent many months reading reviews and researching big screens. I only had about $1,500 to spend and was looking to purchase a used or refurbed Samsung DLP in the 50\\" range. Then I saw this one for $1,000 (including stand) and decided that this was too good an offer to pass up. Thank you, Sam Walton! <br /> <br />After a quick side-trip to Radio Shack for cables to hook-up the HTS and DVD, it was back to the house for the unveiling. It took two people to get it up the stairs to my apartment, but only because of the bulkiness of the box. The TV itself is a featherweight. In fact, the stand weighs almost as much as the TV! <br /> <br />After about 2 hours of assembly and hook up, I stood back to take a look at this thing. My first impression was, \\"Wow, that's big!\\" I was initially concerned that it might not be big enough. But on the stand, this TV will dominate a large to medium sized room. My living room is about 300 square feet and this thing is definitely the 800-lb gorilla. The great thing about it is that it's almost all screen. Samsung is well-known for their ability to maximize viewing area. Also, it's not very deep (less than 2 feet), so there is the possiblity that it may one day fit into a standard entertainment cabinet (I can dream, can't I?). <br /> <br />Since I already had a prog scan DVD player and digital cable, I was anxious to see how this hulking beast was going to stand up against my old, standard view CRT. I popped in everyone's favorite TV/DVD/HTS testing movie, Jurassic Park, and flipped ahead to some of the better scenes. It took another 30 minutes of tweeking the color, contrast and brightness, but pretty soon I had an amazingly clear, vibrant image of rampaging dinosaurs on the screen.  <br /> <br />The auto-focus feature is a nice feature for your grandmother, but for anyone serious about their movie watching, it's a bit of a joke. Definitely take the time to manually converge the lamps. Although it doesn't say so in the manual,it's best to start in one corner and make your way around the perimeter, spiraling inward as you go. Also, view each crosshair at precicely eye level, and as close to the screen as possible. If you can make the colors line up fairly close when you're a couple inches away, it should be just fine when your sitting 8 feet back. <br /> <br />The Verdict: At just north of $1,100 (which includes the stand and all the additional connecting cables), this HDTV is a tremendous buy. Picture quality on DVD and HDTV is great. The sound output is pretty good (although any decent HTS will put it to shame). Normal television is fair at best, so just know that going in. Picture quality for lo-def channels is somewhat pixelated and small text is blurry. But if you are like me and do not watch much cable or network television, then it really won't matter. Besides, if you're watching HGTV or Oprah, how much definition do you really want! <br /> <br />If you're a die hard must-see-TV person, you may be better off getting a large Sony CRT or spending the extra $2,000 on a higher-end flat panel or DLP. However, if you are a moviephile who occasionally loves to watch Monday Night Football in high-def, you will be very, very pleased. With its 16:9 native viewing ratio and integrated HD tuner, you definitely won't regret this purchase.