Panasonic CT34WX52 34" 16:9 HD-Ready Pure Flat Screen TV
Great picture -- dark scenes a bit of a problem, though
...shipping all the way accross the country to California.  It fits perfectly into my entertainment center area -- but this set is VERY HEAVY to lift and tips easily when handled.  Be careful. The factory default settings were brilliant, just like in a showroom, but the blacks and darks drop out, expecially in dark scenes.  This is a common complaint with this set.  I had to punch up the \\"Brilliance\\" setting almost to maximum, and I'm now satisfied with the picture.  Some folks mentioned the need to have the set professionally calibrated, but I'm not that picky.  It looks fine to me now. I love viewing widescreen DVD movies on the 16:9 screen.  I use the set's zoom feature to minimize the top and bottom black bars and spread the picture out to the edges of the screen.  Then, I use my DVD's zoom feature to zoom in once more to get rid of the black bars and fill the wide screen.  The result is a near movie theater quality picture.  It really makes watching movies at home an excellent alternative to going to the movie theater. I did not need to invest any money for extras to start enjoying this television.  I do NOT have HDTV, satellite, digital, or anything else extra.  I have standard analog cable, a standard Magnavox VCR..., an inexpensive APEX DVD player..., and a Panasonic \\"boom box\\" with two inputs to enhance the already very good sound from the TV.  (Any standard stereo with auxilliary inputs would do nicely.) All of these components, which I already owned, work very well with this set.  So, if you are worried about having to shell out lots of money for extra goo-ga's, relax.  This set will work with what you already have, and it works great. This TV is a good way to get started on the \\"new wave\\" of high definition television.  It's HDTV compatible, so in the future I can upgrade it -- although frankly -- the picture looks so good, particularly with widescreen movie DVDs, I probably won't bother for the time being. There are drawbacks/tradeoffs with a 16:9 screen:  normal analog broadcasts (95 percent of all existing television) are broadcast in 4:3 ratio. You can display a normal broadcast in 4:3 (which results in black bars to the right and left of the picture that can \\"burn in\\" if this setting used too much).  Other options are to zoom in, which results in the top and bottom of the picture getting  cropped (my preferred setting); or stretching the picture so the people look short and squatty; or \\"justifying\\" the picture so that the middle part is normal, but the edges are stretched.  I prefer the \\"zoom\\" setting. However, just the pleasure of being able to watch widescreen movies, with a clear DVD picture, in their original aspect ratio, adds so much to the enjoyment of seeing movies on TV, that I put up with the tradeoff. I also like this set because its size does not dominate the room, like a projection TV would.  Yet, the 34-inch widescreen diagonal picture is very impressive and shows a lot of detail that you would not normally see in a 4:3 screen...Buy this set.  You can use your existing cable/satellite and components, and upgrade later, if you don't want to spend a lot of [money] initially.