Panasonic CT-34WX54 34" TheaterWide HDTV-Ready Flat Screen TV
Excellent Value, Wonderful Picture, Great Sound, Heavy!
We recently purchased this television after only about a week of research into the HDTV market.  I had seen plasma screens in other people's homes, and while the picture on those sets is fantastic, the units are far more expensive.  We decided to go with a direct view set because of the price and the size of the room that the TV now sits in.  We picked the Panasonic model over the comparable 34\\" Sony model based largely on reviews from this site, as well as Circuit City's site, all of which said that Sony's model had \\"grainy\\" SDTV (normal cable) reception.   <br /> <br />We have Time Warner Cable service, and the picture is really spectacular (especially on channels like HBO HD and Discovery HD Theater that feature full screen HDTV - ESPN HD has dark gray bars on the outer most edge of the screen for most programming).  Standard cable channels come in great, although in my estimation not as good (about 95% of the quality) as the 27\\" Sony Trinitron from 1987 that the HDTV replaced.  Also, unless you want to have SDTV channels stretched out to fit the 16:9 ratio, there are light gray bars that run from the top to bottom of the screen on the sides of all SDTV channels (similar to the horizontal, black letter-box bars that show up on a widescreen DVD).  It takes some getting used to, but really does not matter to us. <br /> <br />All-in-all, buying an HDTV is an investment for the future, and I think that if you have the space for this unit (it is quite large), it is an excellent value (we bought it from J&R Music World in NYC for $1200 in late November 2004).  On that note, the TV has an HDMI input in the back, which from what I understand, is the best way to connect HDTV boxes and also leaves open the possibility that HDTV will not be the standard in the future.  Keep in mind just how heavy this unit is.  My brother and I (both in our late 20's) really struggled to get it inside the house.  But now that it is here, we could not be happier.   <br /> <br />Finally, thisstand complements the unit nicely: [...] (available at J&R or on Amazon.com).  Enjoy this set, highly recommended!