Sony KDF-E55A20 55-Inch LCD Rear Projection Television
Our Television Upgrade
We just upgraded from a 19\\" set we'd had since college to this 55\\" beauty.  Before settling on this sony television we did a lot of research.  Here are my observations about the tv that prospective buyers might be interested in.      Visibility from the side was much better with this television than with non-LCD modes of projection, and it is even better when compared to other LCD projection tvs of different brands.  We specifically compared it to the panasonic 61\\".  The image does get a little darker when viewing from the side, but you can still totally see what is going on.    Our 6-year-old DVD player did not have the progressive scan technology needed to view dvds in HD.  So, if you have an older DVD player you can plan on replacing it if you want to make this tv worth while.    This tv is huge.  We debated going with the 60\\" sony, but we are glad we kept it down to 55\\".  We sit about 17' away from the television, and I wouldn't want to be any closer than that with a set this big.    When we first started watching regular DirecTV programming with this set, we were thrilled to set it to wide zoom so the picture was huge.  But then we noticed the picture was fuzzy.  Other reviewers say the picture gets distorted when you have it set to view 4:3 ratio stuff using the whole wide screen.  And I expected everyone to look stretched out.  But actually, you end up with a little fuzziness around the edges of objects, which totally gives you a headache.  It is best to view 4:3 ratio stuff in the normal mode, and after a short time you don't even notice the black vertical bars on the side.  When you watch 16:9 stuff in the wide zoom mode it doesn't distort the image, but some of the picture gets cropped off.  For instance, the bottom line of subtitles disappeared on a movie we were watching.    We've used a regular rabbit-ear antenna with our old tv, and I mistakenly thought we'd need some super-duper antenna to pick up the local HD channels.  I was wrong.  Our rabbit earspick them up wonderfully.  It is just a shame DirecTV doesn't have more HD offerings.  We could get a special HD dish, only to get an ESPN and Discovery channel in HD and some movie channels, with everything else staying the same.  So, don't expect all your channels to miraculously look brilliant just because you buy this set.  As most people know, a channel has to be broadcast in HD to be viewed in HD.    We've only had this television for a couple of days now.  And we still have a lot to do as far as setting up the remote control to be most convenient.  It is a universal remote, so we will be able to use it for local channels, DirecTV, and our DVD player once my husband sets it up to do so.  And speaking of the remote... it is huge, which is one of my slight complaints.      We love all the inputs, including one that you can open up on the front of the set.. perfect for the Playstation and the camcorder.    I feel that you can't expect to get a better television than this one, for a comparable price.  My only real reason for not giving it 5 stars is that I feel this set requires a lot of tweaking to get everything to look good.  And sometimes there seems to be an issue with HD broadcasts where shows will be quiet and then the commercials will be really loud.  However, I'm sure this is probably the case with all HDTVs, and it may not be a reflection on this set in particular, or there may be a way we can fix it, which we haven't figured out yet.  But once you get the HD broadcasts looking good you will start to be so disappointed by how regular channels look.  The thing I noticed most watching an HD football game, was the grass on the field.  You can actually see individual blades of grass being kicked up into the air with each tackle.  I don't care for football, but watching it in HD really blew me away.      Lastly, my personal preference is that the stands made specifically for this type of television are ugly.  We bought a nice 64\\" wide oak piece, and it adds anice modern-meets-traditional element to our traditional living room.  There are a lot of natural wood television stands on the market now, designed specifically for large wide-screen televisions such as this.