Mitsubishi LT-3280 32-Inch LCD HDTV
awesome image quality, but quirky
For about a year I perused the HDTV section at Fry's looking at various makes and models of flat screens.  By far, the best quality images came from the rather small, but insanely pricey 32\\" and 37\\" Mitsubishi LCDs.  I think this item initially listed for $3k and over the last several months worked its way down.  When it dipped below $1k I decided to purchase one.   <br /> <br />An ususual thing about the LT3280 and 3780 is the included controller component.  It is connected to the display by two very long cables: HDMI and RS-232.  All the other peripherals (including flash memory and SD cards) connect directly to the controller.  The various useful functions of the controller are tuning, signal upsampling, and a TV Guide channel index.  Drawbacks of the controller are its large size - it is very deep, almost 2x as deep as a DVD player, and the constant powered on state.  It gets hot and needs a small but certainly audible cooling fan to be running at all times.  If you stack a component on top of the controller, make sure the cooling air flow is adequate.  I found that the sound system begins to emit a high pitched whine/hum when the controller gets too hot.  The size and overheating issues of the controller unit are stick out as poor design compared to the otherwise ultra-premium qualities of this product. <br /> <br />As for the display itself, I just can't say enough about the picture.  Even though it is only 720p, it is far and away the best I've experienced.  My friend has the 32\\" Hitachi 32HLX61 which was very highly praised in online reviews, but the LT3280 beats it out in our shared opinion.  Drawbacks are very slow channel switching and turn on response.  The maddeningly slow tuning will probably cure any compulsive channel surfing behavior.  However, I don't watch TV all that much, and when paired with a premium DVD player this is IMO the best looking picture you can get.