Philips 50PF7320A 50-Inch Widescreen Plasma HDTV
NEW TO HDTV
IF you do not own a HDTV you must READ this before you buy ONE!!!! <br /> <br />We thought it was time to upgrade our standard  36\\" 1999 TV to HDTV since it seem that the ONLY type of TV they sell these days in stores. So after much research we decided to get a Philips (as seen in reviews here how great the picture is) so we order it, hook it up turn to NBC to watch the Olympics and we were extremely disappointed in the picture!! <br /> <br />It was fuzzy, fast moving action had doubling it look worse then our old TV!!! It did not have a prefect picture everyone had described in the reviews. We thought something was wrong with the TV when we called the service department we were told to get that perfect picture we need to buy an HD receiver, HD cables and HD service so we did. Which add another $400 to the price of the TV!!  NBC did get a little better there was less fuzz and not that much doubling but the picture still was not Prefect, there was some hazing, it just wasn't  a perfectly clear picture. Our friends said it look great but they have a 20\\" tv so of course our 50\\" looks good to them. But we had a really good 36\\" tv it was top of the line when we bought it back in 1999 we have it set up next to our new 50\\" Phillips and our old tv has better color and picture on regular channels then the Phillip and our old one is not even HDTV!!! <br /> <br />I called to express again that the picture wasn't that great I was told to turn to an HD channel YES the picture on HD channels are absolutely beautiful, crystal clear, the color are outstanding,  like watching  a big screen movie it is better then our old TV. But there are ONLY 5 (that the number FIVE) HD channels in our area which are; discovery, 2 espn, HBO and showtime that is IT!!!.  <br /> <br />I had 3 people explain to me that how HDTV are: Regular channel you have to adjust the TV setting a lot  to get a some what OK picture because regular channels are sent in 4:3 and HDTV are 16:9 so regular channels just are not compatible with HDTV, but with HD channel which are sent in 16:9  you'll have no problems and get a prefect picture which is great.. <br /> <br /> But I'm sorry I didn't spend  $3,000 to have only 5 good HD channel and 200 other blurry ones, I was told by the sell person; people don't buy these TV for the regular channels they buy then for he HD channels, well I'm sorry but I watch the regular channel 10x more then I have ever watch Discovery channel. We end up putting our old 36\\" 1999 TV back on the stand which has fabulous pictures on ALL the channels. The only thing this Tv is good for is if you only watch DVD movies and HD channels only!!