Panasonic CT-34WX54 34" TheaterWide HDTV-Ready Flat Screen TV
Tubes are still the best....
Unless you're prepared to go above the $5000 price tag for a TV, tubes still rule.  In the computer monitor world, I still have yet to see anything better than my 22in Sony Trinitron monitor from 2001(!).  Tubes still provide the sharpest picture and the truest color.  For the same price as we paid early this year ($1200 +the inevitable service contract) my parents bought a 42in projection model.  The colors on our Panasonic are much brighter, the blacks much deeper and darker (on their Samsung projector the blacks, esp with HD/DVD look more gray than black). <br /> <br />The clarity for DVD and HD is orders of magnitude better than both my 27in Sanyo (the set this one replaced when we bought a place with a bigger living room than our apt.) SD and my parents' projector.  For SD channels, the Sanyo doesn't look better but does lack the \\"gray bars.\\"   <br /> <br />The Sanyo, of course, is a 4X3, and this set a 16X9; fortunately more and more DVDs are being made to take full advantage of the latter's ratio and more and more programs are being broadcast in it (meaning that \\"letter box\\" using \\"anamorphic ratios\\"--another way of \\"stretching\\" video--will hopefully soon be a thing of the past).  However, for the time being, its either gray bars or using the cable boxes' \\"stretch\\" function.   <br /> <br />If you're fortunate enough to have a cable box which doesn't take over all the functions of the TV regarding picture size, the Panasonic deals with this is better way than the Scientific Atlanta cable box.  There's a setting called \\"Just\\" (justify?) that does what the CPLV function of Cyberlink's PowerDVD program does: it \\"adjusts\\"--i.e. stretches--the picture at the edges while leaving the middle 2/3rds untouched.  This is a much superior method for 4X3 programs.  (Unfortunately the cable box just stretches everything, making Gwynneth Paltrow looks like she might weight more than 100lbs!) <br /> <br />The Panasonics five modes, 16x9, ZOOM, Full, JUST and 4X3, are quite handy.  When watching, say, \\"Friends\\" on DVD--all of which were filmed in 4X3 ratio--the ratio on the Panasonic can be switched to the 4X3 setting, thus allowing them to be viewed as they were intended. <br /> <br />And that's another thing that was not readily obvious on SD but can be glaringly obviously on HD: quality of the source makes all the difference.  You can really tell when a show or film was shot on the cheap.  The early years of \\"Friends\\" were clearly shot for a low budget.  The later years (7 thru 10) look much better. <br /> <br />Finally, SD channels look worse on this TV because they are of lower quality.  It has NOTHING to do with the TV.  I find it odd that none of the half dozen reviewers I read seemed to have understood this. <br /> <br />If one goes from a 5x telescope to a 10x telescope the garish billboard several miles down the road isn't going to better looking!  It's going to look even worse. <br /> <br />The one drawback for all HDTVs has nothing to do with the sets.  Unfortunately, there is still little true HD content available.  Those satellite providers who say \\"ALL our channels are HD!\\" are trying to exploit the misunderstanding of those who do not realize that most HD content (50 to 75% on avg) is really SD content that has either been up-rezzed or, to borrow a term from the music world, \\"remastered\\" from the source (i.e. a new transfer has been made from the original film or tape).  Only Discovery HD, to my knowledge, carries 100% truly HD programming. <br /> <br />The set also has nearly every type of connector one might need.  I haven't tried the HDMI mostly because they cost about $150!  But also because my beloved Sony 5-discchanger nor does my cable box have the output ports.  The optical input port has made a gigantic difference in the sound quality as compared with the RCA connectors I had been using (i.e. the two cables, one white, one red, for right and left channels respectively). <br /> <br />Those expressing enthusiam forHDMI should know that built into its specifications are measures allowing \\"content providers\\" to destroy your legal rights to make personal copies of shows.  In other words, the HDMI interface makes so-called \\"Digital Rights Management\\"--in reality Rights Destruction Technology--that much easier to implement.  (The ultimate goal, obviously, is to charge us, say $15 or $20 a pop to record \\"ER\\" or \\"Deadwood\\" in the idiotic war against \\"pirates,\\" a war in which the only tactics considered are those which penalize those of who are law-abiding; but, of course, it has nothing to do with stopping piracy in the first place.) <br /> <br />Bottomline: it's a great set with bold brilliant color.  Since I already had a surround sound system, I've never used the on-board speaker (and probably never will, after hearing true surround, how can you ever go back??). <br /> <br />It's clearly worth the money.  As one reviewer notes, those obsessed with size (no pun intended) shouldn't fall for the salespitch.  Obviously, the dimensions of one's room have to factor in, but if you have a cozy living room (euphemism for smaller!) or, better yet, the money for a really nice TV for the MBR, this set cannot be beat. <br /> <br />We looked at four different retailers for a 36in but found only ONE 36in and it was a Sony SDTV.  Apparently, as manufacturers are phasing-out CRT (tubes), the bigger tubes are disappearing first.  I would have preferred a 36 or 40in tube, we were out of luck.  The 34in has proved excellent for our room size and lay-out.  A 42in or bigger set would dominate the room and put us uncomfortably close to set. <br /> <br />My grade an A- (only because of the aforementioned size issue). <br /> <br />I will concur with the one reviewer who remarked on the set's weight.  It is prodigiously heavy.  Fortunately, we had it delivered.  When my wife and I have had to move it, it is a bear.  Be very careful, especially since these days, nearly all the weight is in toward the screen, making the set extremely uneven and awkward.