Syntax Olevia LT26HVE 26-Inch HD-Ready Flat-Panel LCD TV
Great LCD
I've had this LCD for a couple of weeks, and I have to say it has done everything I could throw at it extremely well.   <br /> <br />I had it running straight coax cable, which yields a fair picture (which is what I get generally from straight-up cable).  Running from the S-video off of an Adelphia cable box gives a noticably better picture.  I would rate the SV output from the cable box as very good to excellent (probalby depending on whether the signal from the box is true digital or analog converted to digital).  As I don't have HD from cable yet, I can't comment on that.   <br /> <br />I do, however, have HD 1080i coming from my Xbox (component video HD adapter), and that looks spectacular.  I think there were a couple of times in Doom III where I physically ducked.  Gaming with this thing is excellent. <br /> <br />I'm also running the VGA output from my PC in to it at 1280x768 (what it does natively - if you do other resolutions, expect some compression/expansion and some loss in picture quality).  It looks every bit as good as the Dell 17\\" LCD it was replacing, and a heck of a lot bigger to boot (26\\" at 1280x768 is freaking huge). <br /> <br />DVD's look great too.  I've run s-video from my cheap DVD player, and it looked great, and I've played DVD's on my computer fullscreen and it looked great as well.  I'd be interested to see if one of those up-converting DVD players make any difference, but as it is DVD's look teriffic. <br /> <br />The PIP options are very nice.  You can take any of the inputs and PIP them, so you can have your computer running and TV in a window or vice versa.  You can also do a split screen, though both sides will be a bit compressed, so don't expect great picture quality there. <br /> <br />The only knock I would give it is the remote is a bit spartan.  You have to do a lot of toggling around to do some things they could have made a button for.  For example, to get the PIP you want you may have to hit the View button several times and the Swap button once or twice.  Rather than having a button for each AV input, you pull up a menu on the screen and toggle around for a bit to change sources. <br /> <br />Despite the remote, for everything it does extremely well, the vast array of inputs, and the overall design and picture quality, I have to give it five stars.  If it were over $1k, I'd knock it a star for the little things, but for well under $700 with rebates it's a steal in my opinion.