Syntax Olevia LT30HV 30-Inch HD-Ready Flat-Panel LCD TV
Important Defect: Zoom, so 27
&lt;UPDATE>: Would like to re-rate at 5 stars (but can't).<br />I called my cable company (comcast) and asked if there was a way to zoom with the cable box.  They said no, but I pressed on, saying that the installer had done something to bring up a menu. I was told that pressing power (off) and then menu brought up a menu, in which I changed a setting, (the 3rd one - 4:3 off) and now the Olevia's zoom works properly!<br />More info, making this a comprehensive review:<br />I got mine from Amazon, and just got my (...) (we gotta buy stuff from Amazon to show our support for cool features like the reviews. Amazon's reviews were helpful, and they're good netizens, so I didn't wanna screw 'em; thank you fatwallet for informing me of this great TV!) I made the delivery guy wait while I unpacked and inspected it, as Amazon refuses returns of 27\\"+ TVs.<br />Issues:<br />1)Quite Grainy with standard TV quality signal (good otherwise), but if I turn the sharpness to 0 and the noise reduction to high, it's OK (but there are annoying side effects of this solution - the picture becomes cartoony, and the noise reduction option is disabled on component video in, which I mostly use!)<br /><br />2)channels: I had a regular TV plugged into cable, and it got ~80 channels. The Olevia was only able to display channels up to channel 31, 'till I figured out that I needeed to switch it from TV to CATV mode.<br /><br />3)PIP - was confusing to get working -<br />The UI(User Interface) of the remote is weird - e.g. with many remote UIs, there's a consistent way to select something. In this TV's UI, to select something,<br />1)sometimes you just move the cursor to it and hit menu to exit,<br />2)sometimes you move the cursor to it and hit enter,<br />3)sometimes you just move the cursor to it and hit the &lt;right/volume up> button.<br />For PIP, you have to use method 3).<br /><br />I tried to resolve these issues:<br />1-888-Syntax8 (1-888-796-8298),Tech:2 - no answer - tried 2x, then got through and they were helpful.<br /><br />Oddly, their FAQ suggests 1280x768 resolution, while 1280x720 is better IMO (perhaps because it's hard to set up a computer to run at that resolution-I used EnTech's PowerStrip software, which is great!)  I can hook up my 14\\" iBook too, but can't customize the resolution, so I see 1024x768, which looks very good anyway.<br /><br />Mine has one dead pixel, which is in the corner and only the blue part of the pixel is defective, and it is always dark, so I don't care. It's hard to find w/o displaying a static blue image. The picture is bright and contrasty, as the impressive specs made me expect.<br /><br />&lt;/UPDATE><br />Lots of great reviews, but here's some key missing info:<br />Review the 3 customer images I uploaded.<br />Zoom mode is defective - instead of being straight zoom it's zoom+extra horizontal stretch, which is not very useful.  Instead of simply zooming in on a letterbox image, it distorts it as well, cutting off the sides and making the image look unnatural.  So for stuff shot in HD, but broadcast in regular NTSC format (which I expect will be an increasing proportion of programming for several years - until everything is HD) I end up viewing a 20\\" image on my 27\\" TV!!!<br />Newer episodes of The West Wing and a few other major shows are like this, ESPN is mostly like this, etc.<br />I spoke to Syntax support and emailed them, and spoke to management, but they said sorry, they see the problem but won't fix it.  I'll updateD this review.<br />Support was helpful in getting PIP and CATV working right.<br />Otherwise, it would be (IS) a 5-star.8 resolution, while 1280x720 is better IMO (perhaps because it's hard to set up a computer to run at that resolution-I used EnTech's PowerStrip software, which is great!)  I can hook up my 14\\" iBook too, but can't customize the resolution, so I see 1024x768, which looks very good anyway.    Mine has one dead pixel, which is in the corner and only the blue part of the pixel is defective, and it is always dark, so I don't care. It's hard to find w/o displaying a static blue image. The picture is bright and contrasty, as the impressive specs made me expect.     </UPDATE>  Lots of great reviews, but here's some key missing info:  Review the 3 customer images I uploaded.   Zoom mode is defective - instead of being straight zoom it's zoom+extra horizontal stretch, which is not very useful.  Instead of simply zooming in on a letterbox image, it distorts it as well, cutting off the sides and making the image look unnatural.  So for stuff shot in HD, but broadcast in regular NTSC format (which I expect will be an increasing proportion of programming for several years - until everything is HD) I end up viewing a 20\\" image on my 27\\" TV!!!    Newer episodes of The West Wing and a few other major shows are like this, ESPN is mostly like this, etc.  I spoke to Syntax support and emailed them, and spoke to management, but they said sorry, they see the problem but won't fix it.  I'll updateD this review.  Support was helpful in getting PIP and CATV working right.  Otherwise, it would be (IS) a 5-star.