Apex GB65HD09W 65-Inch Projection Widescreen HDTV
The best bargain out there
Purchased the TV about a week before Christmas.  First of all, it arrived in less than 1 week, at the height of the Christmas rush.  Hooked it up and have been completely amazed with it.  Greenville cable doesn't have HDTV yet, but there are plans for it in the next few months.  Have thought about satellite, but not right now.  Anyway, even without HD, it's still amazing.  I just love the big picture.<br />It has several screen settings where you can either watch a regular TV signal with the black bars on the side, or stretch it out horizontally.  I usually watch with the stretch.  Everyone looks a little fat for the first day or two, then you get used to it.<br />Working the picture in picture (PIP) was a trick with a cable box.  You see, with your signal coming in from the wall, into the cable box, then out into the TV, you can only get 1 signal.  (This is why you can't watch one thing and tape another thing on your VCR with a digital cable box, like you used to be able to do with &quot;wall cable.&quot;)  What I had to do was fairly easy.  Just buy a cable splitter.  Split the signal out of the wall.  Run one cord into the cable box, then into the back of the TV.  Run the other cable into your VCR.  Then, instead of using the coaxial cable to hook your VCR into the TV, use the 3 sound and picture cords (red, white and yellow I think).  That way, you have your normal TV signal coming from the digital cable box, and your PIP signal coming from the &quot;wall cable&quot; via your VCR.  This was the only way I could think of to make it work, and it works great.  I don't know how you'd work PIP with a satellite signal (unless you dedicated 2 receivers to your TV), which is one of the reasons I'm sticking with cable for now.  If anyone has any other PIP ideas, please email me.<br />If you can get PIP working, split screen is amazing.  Watching 2 games, each on bigger screens than my old TV is awesome!  Can't split the screen into any more windows, though, although I don't think I could get this to work even if it had this feature, unless I went to &quot;wall cable&quot; and stopped using a cable box.  It does have a feature where you watch one channel on a big screen, with 4 smaller windows on the right which cycle through all the channels.  Again, I don't think you can make this work unless you use &quot;wall cable.&quot;  If you know of a way, please email.<br />Picture is great, as I said.  Sound is equally as good...I usually don't even use my stereo speakers even though I hooked them up because the TV is good enough.  I almost simulates a surround sound feel, although I must admit I'm not much of a sound buff.<br />Don't have a progressive scan DVD player yet, but the picture with my old one looks great to me.  I had a guy at Best Buy tell me that the difference between the two is negligible.<br />Haven't had any encounters with customer service, and hope I don't have too.  I've read here that Apex's customer support is so-so, but then again, in reading reviews of other companies, it sounds like this is a universal flaw with all the companies.  I've had an Apex DVD player for about 2 or 3 years and have been very happy with it.<br />Finally, the price was amazing.  I looked around for a couple of weeks at the various stores, and this was the best price I could find by almost $1000!!!!  Also, take advantage of the Amazon.com VISA where you get $30 off, a couple of $25 gift certificates, and most importantly, no interest for 12 months.<br />Email if you have questions.<br />Michael J. Bogle<BR>michaeljbogle@yahoo.com