Sony KDF-E50A10 50-Inch LCD Rear Projection Television
Excellent by my eyes
This is my first bigscreen, and first hdtv. Previous set was a 36\\" Toshiba CRT.    I've been sitting on the sideline for 3 or 4 years waiting for prices to drop, and the technology to stabilize. I was sold on dlp, but the color wheel reliability and rainbow problems finally pushed me toward lcd (50\\" hd plasma was out of my price range). So, I anxiously awaited the arrival of these Sony sets at the brick and mortar stores. These are the first Sony sets I would consider, since they finally decided not to waste the width of the tv on speakers. The hidden speaker design on these sets is brilliant! Neither the height or the width of this set is very impacted by the speakers, which makes this set WAY more comapct than most sets out there.    So, what's the picture quality? Well, after seeing a couple of these sets in person, I was initially very dissappointed. Bad screen door (black lines between pixels) and a very underwhelming picutre. Then, I finally came across one that had a high quality HD feed, and was blown away. Very sharp and colorful (though with red push). So I pulled the trigger and brought it home that day.    When I got it unpacked and set up I did a channel scan and immediately was blown away by the picture quality of 1080i HD on TNT. I watched \\"Fellowship of the Ring\\" that night with my jaw on the floor. I am officially addicted to HD! Standard definition is more than acceptable though, and dvd's look great even being upconverted from 480i over component cables. I did not find any stuck pixels or other defects, though I did see one floor model with a block of 3-5 pixels that were stuck. It was not noticeable past 6-8 feet though.    My viewing area has some seating on the sides, with the worst being around 45 degrees off center. The viewing angle on this set is excellent, and the brightness even that far off center is practically the same as straight on.    The highly anticipated feature on this set is the Automatic Iris control which throttles back the light depending on the overall brightness of the scene being displayed. In theory, this allows the tv to produce deeper blacks on dark scenes. Personally I don't think it does a whole lot to automatically improve the PQ, but I like the adjustability that it provides from the menu. I crank the iris open during day viewing, since I have a lot of windows in my room. At night I cut it back to minimum and the black levels are much improved.    HITS  - Great Picture!  - Compact dimensions, and light weight  - Great upconversion of 480i dvd and standard def tv.    MISSES  - Sony deleted their excellent Twinveiw PIP for these models  - Only one HDMI input  - Does not convert all audio to the optical digital output      like the Mitsubishi LCD RPTVs do.    I will not be using this set for gaming, so I can't comment on that aspect.    Why 4 stars? I think it was very cheesy of Sony to delete PIP on a $2k+ tv!    Update:    Sports broadcast in 720p are absolutely amazing on this set. I got pulled into watching a Nascar race just because the picture was so incredible.    12/7/05 Update: I continue to be amazed by this tv. I saw it side by side with the new Sony 50\\" sxrd set at Sears, and while the sxrd definitely was a slightly better picture, it isn't worth practically 2X the price. Especially in your home, you won't have the 2 sets to compare to each other. I've been over to friends' houses who have hd projection crt, and it just doesn't compare. I'm still sold.    I do have 2-3 stuck pixels that have shown up, and they are all green. The ONLY time you can see them is on a completely black screen (an unused input works), when you're standing less than about 3 feet from the screen, and when you know exactly where to look. You'd have to be the most @nal person on the planet to get annoyed by them.