Toshiba 30HF85 30" TheaterWide HD-Ready Flat-Screen Direct View TV
Great TV at a great price!
This TV is a great value and a great HD solution.  One minor gripe is that it doesn't have a TV/Video button on the TV itself, and since I use another remote for everything, I have to hunt down the TV remote to change to a different video input. <br /> <br />As far as the gray paneling goes around the screen, I had that problem for about the first day until I set my HDTV settop appropriately.  We use the Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD/DVR box through Time Warner.  They don't tell you this, but if you just hook the TV up to it without running a setup wizard (activated by holding two buttons on the box itself while the power's off) it won't maximize the TV's ability to process different signals and make the images fit the screen appropriately.  What ends up happening is the TV converts everything to 1080i and images coming in at 480i (which are most non-HD signals, therefore most of what you'll be watching) end up in the gray-paneled box.  After running the wizard, the HD box and the TV work together to produce the highest-quality image on the screen without the panelling.  So make sure you run the set up wizard through whatever HD tuner you use.  (By the way, the Time Warner box also has an option to make the panels on the sides dark instead of gray). <br /> <br />I can't say much about the sound on this TV since I'm running it through a receiver.  I can say the HD picture is stunning and the TV is the perfect size for our viewing distance (about 8 feet).  Normal TV looks great, too, although images broadcasted in 4:3 are inevitably a bit stretched when they appear on the 16:9 screen.  This takes a little getting used to but it's going to be unavoidable on any theater-wide screen that receives non-HD signals.  The alternative is the paneling on either side of the screen, which I loathe.  But like I said earlier, if you set up the settop appropriately, the distortion will be at a minimum and the screen will be full. <br /> <br />Bottom line:  Good TV, snag it, but set itup right to enjoy it!!