Projection-TV Reviews

I dont know why would someone buy this television. I wanted a big screen television for a new X-Box console, but you cant use video game systems on ANY projection screen tv because it will ruin it for good, and then you money will go down the tube. This is just a warning for all of you wanting to buy a projection screen tv for a video game system. DONT BUY ONE FOR THAT PURPOSE, otherwise its an ok tv.

the "gray bars" that appear on the sides of a standard (square) TV image. Like when a movie is in widescreen, there are BLACK bars on the top and bottom, making the picture ever more viewable. Well, for a widescreen TV, a standard image has those sides to fill, so pioneer decided to have LIGHT GRAY bars which, in theory, make your TV last longer because the projector burns evenly. But this is lame because no matter what projector you buy, your going to have to replace the bulb in 5-7 yrs anyway. I would've gone with a plasma, but if you've ever seen an in-store display with plasma TV's (running all day for a few months), it becomes obvious that plasmas burn out even faster than projectors. Still, there is nothing like watching a movie on my pioneer. It is one of the best ones that you can buy, the image proves that. So, I do love it and opted for the pioneer above a 40" Sony Wega. But, if your going to watch TAPES or play GAMES, get a picture tube that will last 15 yrs. I've owned my pioneer for a year now, and already had to turn up the brightness by 4 notches, which does make black colors suffer. I estimate this TV will last me 5 yrs.

I have owned this TV for almost a year now and just recently added the RCA DTC100 (HDTV Reciever) to my system, WoW! You can't do better then Pioneer tv's. Recently I had a visitor to my home and he said "Why is your picture so awsome?". This person spent...more then I did on a Mitsubishi HDTV needless to say he was VERY upset. If you have the chance, BUY ONE! You will not be disapointed...I have had great success with my game console (sony) To bad Pioneer does not make one.

Good TV with excellent picture, hook up a progressive scan dvd player and it dosn't get any better. One thing to mention, this tv is advertised here and alot of other places as having a DVI input, IT DOES NOT. Hopefully this will change.

While this product is hailed for its glowing performance in clarity and picture (possessing 1280 horizontal scan lines) and Hitachi being a fine company - I think I should point out to those wary of statistical accuracy that it is listed here as having "DVI-HDCP input" but the downloadable owner manual listed directly below the aforementioned feature clearly shows the 43FWX20B model specifically as not being equipped with the "DVI-HDCP input."
As I have stated, the television is a statistical heavyweight in its class of rear-projection HDTVs but the DVI connection information is critical for those who are looking for that specific feature.

As a former salesman of big screens, this one is easily tied for my favorite with the Mitsubishi 46" HDTV widescreen. Mitsubishi has an edge on color and lighting, Hitatchi has the edge on clarity and overall realism due to the most lenses on the market.
First off, this TV is complex, yet simple. Plenty of features and inputs, but simple enough for anyone to use. The Magic focus is a great example. Hit one button and the TV automatically sets the convergence.
Next is the size. One needs to know the stand built for this TV sells seperatly...so that's one thing to consider before you buy. If you get the stand, you'll quickly notice how much easier it is moving a two piece system into your home instead of a solid one piece TV.
While small in comparision to a lot of HDTV's on the market, this TV still looks huge once you get it into your home. And with the quality of the picture, you'll be glad you didn't get a larger TV for the same price from some lower quality brand.
I'll admit, sound isn't the greatest. But if you're buying an HDTV, you should be investing in surround sound anyways.
Another huge feature this TV has that most brands don't is an auto refresh not found on earlier models and other brands. Basically, if you're watching something in 4:3 mode with bars on the side, the TV automatically refreshes the bars constantly so that they don't get burned into the screen. It's constant too so you don't even notice.
Overall, this is a great buy. Compare it to the Mitsubishi. Decide which is better for you. I can guarentee you won't be disappointed.

Inside of a year I had to have this TV repaired three times. I had the TV replaced based on the lemon law. I was givien the newer model, the KP43-T90. Now it too has broken. I don't mean that it doesn't work correctly. I mean that it doesn't work, period. The TV repair shop has now had it for two weeks and so far they don't know what other circuit to replace. Looks like I'm stuck with another lemon.

I've always held Sony up on a pedestal in the world of electronics so I thought buying the Sony KP43T75 would have been a great choice. The picture quality in the sales store seemed to be just as vibrant and brilliant as the Tube televisions. It was just the right size for my apartment with the minimum 5ft viewing distance and 130 degree vertical viewing angle. So I bought it. From the day I hooked this TV up I've had nothing but problems with it. I have time warner digital cable and when ever I wanted to watch HBO I would get this weird rolling of colors on my screen that would come and go sparatically. I called Time warner and they sent someone out that said nothing was wrong with the cable. I then called Sony. Sony sent out a technician who put a new resistor in the TV and said that would fix it. Nope. Three weeks later the Sony tech returned to replace the entire board in the TV. That fixed the color rolling problem but now the TV had a convergence problem were it would rapidly jump in and out of convergence making it impossible to watch anything. Two weeks later the Sony tech came out again with another replacement board. This has seemed to correct the problems mentioned above but the Sony tech did not completely go through and set the TV up correctly and now my picture is not centered and I have about 1 inch of black(no picture) along the left side of the screen. The Sony tech said it would be another week before he could be out to fix it. Also during this entire time when the TV is working alright the convergence was never to my satisfactory. It would look good for about two days after the Sony tech came out and adjusted it then it would start getting worse after that, no matter how many times I pressed the flash focus button. I guess this is expected though with any projection TV. From the other reviews that I've read it seems that I may have gotten a lemon of a TV. I just thought this might help someone else before they bought this TV. If your a person that expects perfect picture quality then this is not the TV for you. Get a Wega or atleast a tube television. I don't think that picture quality should have to suffer this much to get a larger screen size. It's hard to rate this TV since I think that my problems may have been an isolated incident. I would give it 3.5 stars if it worked, but for my TV, I'll have to give it 1.5 stars.

i got this tv as an open box from circuit city, and it has been great since the day i got it. The tv is very big but takes up less space than a 36in tv. The qualtiy is very good. Exceptional with dvds and video games. A must buy unless you wanna wait for some money for a plasma.

My Samsung TXN2775HF worked fine for 8 months until the CRT failed. It has been in the shop under warranty for almost 3 weeks with no end in sight. Samsung Customer Service is an oxymoron. They provide conflicting information and their supervisors happen to be "out of the building" when you need to talk with one. To spend this much money on a product, have it fail after such a short period of time, and then have Customer Service seem unwilling or unable to do anything about it says volumes about a company.

Cheapest priced 16:9 HDTV monitor out there.

Not cheap in quality either

This TV has the sweetest picture one can imagine,crisp,deep and the color choices can please most anyone. The sound from the side firing speakers can be adjusted to suit even the most discriminating audiophile. Remote operation is simple (read manual first). DVD picture quality is outstanding and VHS is enhanced to a new level. Great entry level HDTV!!!!

The set I received had some problems. The user convergence of 9 point convergence, could not fix the edge convergence problems. The TV as it was originally received had screen tilt of about 3/4" to the right. The picture size was not adjusted to fit the screen (too big), and when picture was centered according to instruction manual, I noticed uneven presentation between left and right side of the screen.

I had service technican come out to fix the above noted problems. Technican found that he had to manually adjust the RGB guns as well as use the service screens(software adjustments were not enough), and even after gun was adjusted, the edge convergence was not very good. The 64 point convergence screen does not allow technican to adjust the bottom and the top row of cross-hairs(very strange). So, after all these adjustments, it looked better, but, still the convergence was not very good at the edges. When each gun displayed the grid separately, some of the gun could not be made to display straight lines on some of the lines, especially the bottom line.

I have other issues with this unit such as poor and insufficient manual, RF inputs that forgets channel memory when switching from cable to broadcast, and two RF input requirement of having same type of input (cannot have RF of cable, and regular broadcast), poor PIP adjustments/control etc.

But, basically, this unit is going back.

I recommend that you stay way from this unit. The factory settings were horribly out of spec. There must be QA problems at Panasonic. My experience with Panasonic has not been that great in recent years.

After several purchases of Panasonic, this will be my last.

When I bought this TV in fall '03 it was by far the best value for an HDTV. Value is very subjective. I moved up from a fairly low end 27" tube to this. Compared to that, the picture is great. Compared to plasmas and LCD (direct not projection), it is certainly flawed. From 10 feet away the difference is noticable but unimportant. The only time I am aware of picture flaws is during credits. For some people that might be important and if it is I suggest spending the big dollars for a plasma or direct view LCD (or wait).
For the rest of you, TV viewing habits are important. We do not watch TV (no cable, no antenna), just DVDs via a progressive scan player. 3 to 5 every week. If most of my viewing was regular (non-HD) TV, I don't think the widescreen would make sense (nor can I tell you anything about the built in tuner or PIP because we don't have a use for them).
I have yet to see another name brand HDTV of this size in the just under eleven hundred dollar range.
I'd recommend this set for those who plan to use it mainly for DVDs and/or get HD programming (cable/sat.) and are not videophiles. As an analogy, we moved from a used Ford Fiesta (or old 27") to this Honda Accord V6 but if you currently own a Corvette, you probably should look into a Ferrari. Makes sense?

I bought this TV three months ago and like everybody said before, TV has to be carefully adjust. This TV has a high contrast and default picture is too flashy, too much color but once ajusted, very very nice. Also, convergence is easy to setup with the nine points adjustment, but for best adjustment, better go into the service setup menu where you have a generated color bar where it is much more flexible to setup convergence instead of the nine points adjustment in the customer setup menu. Very happy with this TV and watching a DVD with it is simply unbelievable

I have owned this set since June 11, 2002. It first broke on January 4, 2003 and was not repaired until February 10. Samsung admitted they had 'parts availability problems.' Then, on July 6, 2003, it failed again and as of August 6, 2003, remains dark with again, 'parts availability problems.' Samsung can not promise me ANY date it will be working, can promise no date for delivery of parts and generally does not follow-up or return telephone calls. I have hired a lawyer since after $1800 - they have very poor customer and warranty service - spend the $200 and buy a Mitsubishi.

Let me point out first that I'm a former Sears employee who had to sell these things on a daily basis. And I say former so that no one thinks we're out for higher commission, because Samsung paid about the best.
The fact is, though they look great when working, these TV's just don't last. We actually had a Samsung rep/repairman tell us one time that they are notorious for blowing out almost exactly at the three year point.
Second, while the picture is bright and clear, Samsung uses no form of screen refresher. While this isn't a huge problem if you're watching widescreen DVD's or a high definition signal in 16:9 mode, prolonged viewing in 4:3 mode burns bars into the sides of the TV. Expecially since instead of black bars, Samsung uses gray bars.
In the end, you get what you pay for. There's a reason you pay more for TV's like Hitatchi, Sony, Mitsubishi, etc. If you must buy this TV though, do yourself a favor and get the extended warranty if it's offered. It will be worth whatever you spend on it.

THIS SAME SAMSUNG IS SOLD AT BEST BUY AND CIRCUT CITY FOR 300.00 LESS.

I purchased this set and was extremely happy with the picture quality, brightness and features. However, after setting it up, I found that if there is any ambient light source directly in line with the set and the viewer (in our case an overhead living room light), there was a large white glare in the center-top of the screen.

This glare was so pronounced that it made viewing in a non-dark room unacceptable.

I went to the local electronics dealer with a flashlight and did some experimenting with different light sources on different sets. I found that all rear projection sets have this glare to some degree or another (there was some speculation on the electronics' rep's part that this is caused by back scattering reflection from the lenses in front of the projectors), but the 42H83 was easily 10 - 20 times worse than any other set.

To see the problem, stand in front of the set with a standard flashlight and shine it directly at the screen. Start in the lower left corner, and sweep the flashlight to the right, then up, etc... - you'll find one spot (about 1 foot by 5 or 6 inches) where the reflection from the flashlight is significantly brighter than anywhere else on the screen.

If your home theater room has no overhead lighting in line with the viewer and the screen, then this set is fine - but in the case of an overhead ceiling fan light, you might be dissapointed.

I called Toshiba technical support and asked about this - the rep denied that a problem existed, and that if there were manufacturing defects, the warranty would cover the problem. I asked about design deffects, and he pretty much said that was my problem not theirs.

Needless to say, I returned the set immediately - I think it says a lot when a company is not willing to stand behind their product, even if it has a design defect...

I hate to knock a product that has such fantastic features/price point, etc... but this one design problem, at least in my living room, was a deal killer.

After a brief but intense period of widescreen HDTV comparison and study, we picked the Toshiba 42H83 rear projection HDTV (HD-ready). Tons of features, lots of inputs (including a DVI input) and it looks great. On the showroom floor, its picture outshone many other tv's two or three times its price, very bright, detailed, intense colors. The 42H83 is very compact depth-wise, and weighs only 130 pounds - pretty amazing. I have a small viewing room, and went with the 42" (once it was placed in the room, it was clear 42" was plenty, almost too big). GREAT price, got a 10% discount, with the money left over (plus a little extra) we also grabbed the new Samsung DVD player with DVI 1080i output.

Got it home and fired it up. I believe (if I read the manual correctly) that the 42H83 upconverts regular signals (S-video, etc.) to at least 540 lpi (?) Scan lines are non-existent, even on regular broadcast/cable signals. Picture is brighter and has more accurate color than my old Panasonic Superflat CRT. The picture using the Samsung DVD with DVI connection is like looking at a Kodachrome slide - no scan lines whatsoever. The Samsung HD931 upconverts DVD to 1080 lines interlaced and the picture and color are absolutely stunning.

The 42H83 has different screen modes to allow widescreen viewing of 4:3 signals. One in particular stretches the sides of the image but leaves the center relatively unmodified. This provides for a pleasing widescreen view of non-HD signals, and the effect is more or less transparent - nice. Also featured are multiple Picture-in-Picture modes, which go far beyond the small image in the corner that you might be familiar with.

Due to the built-in resolution, any flaws or artifacts in the signal will be magnified; it is easy to tell which cable channels are strong and clean, and which are not. Plenty of rear inputs, including two sets of component, two S-video, coax, etc., as well as DVI input (DVI is the ultimate input for HDTV signals - requires a very expensive computer cable). Also has front panel S-video input set for easy connection of your camcorder or console video game box.

This TV has scads of features that I won't try to recall at the moment, but it is a complete package. I haven't delved completely into fine-tuning the picture yet, but the adjustment menus provide plenty of tweaking if that is desired. The set also features Touch Focus which automatically adjusts the focus quickly and accurately with the push of a single button - for most folks, this handy feature is all that is needed to obtain a good, sharp picture. The 42H83 has a very full-featured and advanced sound system, although I've bypassed it altogether to use my home theater sound setup, so I can't describe here how it actually works.

Reservations: By using the 9 point manual convergence, color bleed can be minimized to a large extent, but there seem to be some types of signals where it isn't completely tuned out (although it comes very close). Some DVD's have a lot of dark scenes, which do not come out pure black, but have a dark grayish tinge - although this may be particular to RPTV's. These might also be remedied by going deeper into the picture settings. Much of it depends, of course, on the quality of the signal... One last nit-pick - we've had some experience with occasional momentary signal "dropouts" using the rear S-video input - it's possible these are due to a complex home theater switching system I'm using, but time will tell on that one.

But I'm being a perfectionist here - the picture is truly amazing for a RPTV. We are very happy so far with the 42H83 (we hope we don't have any reliability problems, but so far so good).. Huge amount of features, small footprint, gorgeous picture, and a truly reasonable price. We can't wait until ESPN HD comes to our area.
Update: 1 month later of steady use, and no quality or reliability problems. Still churns out a big, beautiful widescreen picture - Monday night football is truly satisfying and DVD's are like going to the theatre without getting gum stuck to your shoes. Forgot to mention - we were a little shocked to realize this set was "Made in the USA." Nice surprise these days.

Thanks in great part to the helpful other reviewers on this site, we selected this set after about a year of research on HD-ready tv's. Prior to checking this out, I'd looked mostly at flat-screen 36-40" CRT's, but since most of the best-reviewed were Sony, and I've had bad recent experience with Sony electronics (an expensive 5-disc DVD player that completely died 1 month after the 1-year warranty expired...which I'm reading is all too typical these days), I decided to seriously consider alternatives.

My spouse & I decided impulsively to toss our Christmas lists out the door last December and instead splurge on a big-screen tv as a mutual gift to each other; it was to replace our 10-year-old 27" stereo Zenith CRT. Having the reviews/specs in my head for the few models I'd narrowed to, we went to the showroom of a large local retailer who had dozens of brands and models so we could compare, and yes, as another reviewer noted, this Toshiba had the clearest, sharpest picture of any other RPTV's its size. Though a bit concerned about the "black" issues of RP's that others have commented on, we just couldn't overlook the value for the price. Plus, we have a very small space -- barely 12 feet from one wall to the other in the viewing area we favored -- and the narrow depth of RP's meant we could get a 42" screen where with a CRT we'd probably have to go smaller. (But it's true; there is a slight graying of the blacks, evident mostly on non-HD signals and from our PS2 when playing DVDs over its standard cables. My spouse doesn't notice it.)

Right out of the box, we thought the picture looked great. But, as another reviewer noted, it looked even better after playing with the foolishly-easy menus. And it had stunning sound; crisp in the upper ranges (i.e. dialogue), solid midrange, and a rather surprisingly impressive bass. We've since hooked it up through a new A/V receiver (Yamaha HTR-5650 -- very nice also, although a bit more brilliant & less mid-rangey than I'm used to), and are even happier.

Pleasing remote, with larger, intuitively-grouped buttons, backlit.

As one of the other reviewers mentioned, there are several screen appearance settings, and I agree: The one that stretches the edges of non-HD images does so imperceptibly. The tv knows when you switch to an HD station, and adjusts accordingly, so we leave it on that setting at all times. Wonderful.

As for the glare that the disgruntled reviewer mentioned: We hate overhead lighting, especially in our viewing room, so we can't comment on that. We have ambient, 40W incandescent lamps, one stationed above-right and others to the sides of the room. (If you have overhead lighting, get a dimmer on the light and maybe that would solve the problem, if there is one. Who wants to watch TV or a movie while there's an overhead light on, anyway? :-)

There are tons of hookups on the back of the set, so if we wanted to, we could hook VCR, DVD, PS2, cable, etc. directly to the tv instead of going through the A/V receiver. We just ordered a Toshiba progressive-scan DVD player (& of course component cables) from Amazon today, and can't wait to get it & hook it up. (We've been using our PS2 to play DVDs ever since our Sony DVD player died, and have been waiting for progressive-scans to come down in price before replacing it.)

And just wait 'til you see HD on this set! Our local cable company provides an HD receiver & the DVI cables "free" (well, their usurious monthly fees subsidize that), and we get several channels in HD. Jaw-dropping clarity. We'll even watch shows we have no interest in just to be transfixed by the amazing picture, and this unit with its great price is a fantastic, value-crammed way to experience HD.

Footnote: As mentioned before, this unit can shine as a stand-alone, but we have it hooked into a home-theatre setup that we've built over the years, that includes the Yamaha HTR-5650 (which replaced an older Pioneer A/V), a DCM center speaker, 5-1/2" Advent front speakers, Sony 5-1/2" rear speakers, and a Sony SAWM500 subwoofer (overkill for our little room, but the smaller one was out of stock so we got a discount...being a Sony we are nervous whether it will last, because we love it -- rounded, customizable sound, great features including a 20Hz basement, good price).

One little watchout re the universal remote: Our cable box is labeled a "Pace" brand, which the Toshiba owner manual doesn't show as a programming option. Closer scrutiny of the back of the box showed it was made by Pioneer, so I programmed the Toshiba remote for the Pioneer setting that successfully turned on/off the box. Later we discovered it somehow squirrels the cable box when using certain commands, so that the standard cable picture was loused up, & HD was completely deactivated. (To correct, we'd have to disconnect the cable box from its power supply to reset it.) We've never had the problem again once we stopped using the Toshiba remote to control any cable-box functions on this hybrid, private-label box.

Toshiba Projection TVs are the worst in the market. And when calling their customer service, forget it. They are just too ignorant and clueless as to how to resolve any problem.

After the 6 month of possession, this TV went down miserably. Oneday, while I was watching the tv, I heard the 'pop' noise from the speaker and the picture went out. After a second or two, when the picture finally came back on, I noticed the semi-transparent vertical streaks across the screen. The artifact was like watching the tv through a screen door. The picture still goes out time to time but the vertical streaks remain the same.

Toshiba tried to have someone come out to repair the tv for 3 month without success (couldn't find a repair shop near by Topeka, KS). After I filed the complaint to AG's office and BBB, Toshiba finally decide to give me a refund but it will take another 4 more weeks.

When this tv works, it works great but now I have serious doubt about this product and Toshiba's customer service (one of the worst I've ever had). I just hope that nobody has to go through what I have been going through for the past 3 months.

This is a 2 year old model and the new model is $[money]less and is alot better. Model number on the new one is 65HX81, it is now called the cinema series, and it is toshibas top of the line. I own the 50 inch model and it is awesome. If you buy one, make sure you buy it from a dealer with ISF certification, that is needed to calibrate the set after a burn in time of 3 months. It is usually around $[money], but if the person you buy it from has the certification and the equipment, it might be free. Mine was. All projection tvs need to be calibrated after burn in, then every 1-2 years. Picture quality is greatly increased, and so is tv life. Only ISF trained people with the proper equipment can do this. ISF.com.

My tv was delivered 30 days ago and it has already broken!!! The bulb, which is suppossed to last 10,000 hours, has gone out. My husband did some research on-line and found lots of people complaining about this problem. The authorized repair facility is trying to find out from Panasonic if it's a problem with the bulb or a deeper problem with the tv. The picture is great and I would like to rate this a 5, but a $2700 tv that breaks after 30 days qualifies for a low score. In all fairness, I will update this once the problem is resolved. I just think we should have waited a year or two for them to resolve all issues before purchasing this item.
We ended up exchanging the tv because Panasonic couldn't give us a time frame on the bulb. The new one has been in place for a week and my husband is in love again. I'm reserving judgement for 30 days.

I bought the 50LCX63, same as the 50LC13 except it has an integrated HDTV tuner.
The picture is excellent. Easy to use menus (it probably runs linux code because the user manual has a copy of the GNU license in the back). Well thought out connections in the back.
My screen had 1 bad pixel (always on, blue). It's noticable in menus and playing games, but when watching TV you can't tell. I'm getting it fixed under warranty.
The main reason I can only give this product 3 stars: the cooling fan for the light bulb is amazingly LOUD. If you have a big wall unit that will insulate the TV's fan sound, this would be a 5-star TV for you. The noise is making me wish I had bought a quieter LCD-projection or settled for the older but much quieter CRT-projection technology. I don't have the guts to open up the unit and put in a silent fan like you can in a PC.

The 50LCX63 also makes noise when turned "OFF". It's another fan (for the HDTV tuner). That noise probably doesn't exist in the 50LC13, but you should check. But if you're considering the 50LCX63, it's yet another annoying noise you'll have to live with.

I purchased this 50" LCD Multimedia display for Christmas to complete my entertianment room and have not been disappointed. It was a race between this and a similar Hitachi model, but for the price the Panasonic won. In playing with the various settings I have discovered one thing that may work for others regarding regular cable viewing. If you choose to watch cable channels directly through the TV itself (that is changing channels with the TV remote without the use of a cable box) I agree that the picture looks so-so. However, in playing with the settings I discovered that if I watched TV through the assistance of my VCR (using it to change channels) the picture quality was dramatically increased for cable channels (non-digital) as well as the picture automatically filling the entire screen without distortion. I am not exactly sure why this is so, but it may be in part due to the fact that I have the VCR connected to the TV using higher quality Audio/video (Y,W,R)cables, assisting the overall picture output quality.

I purchased this product from Costco. It was borken the third days. I called two of their service centers to look at it. Both recommend me to exchange for a new one. Since I have to pay the delivery (Costco doesn't delivery big item TV), I called Toshiba customer support and try to get the refund for the delivery. They just refused and their attitude was very bad. Since I got a defective product up front and I just want to exchange for the same product, it is fair to ask for refund for the delivery. Toshiba support doesn't want to even accommendate this. It is very bad customer relationship management and their attitude is just arrogant. I won't recommend this product based on my experience with both the product and its services.

They may mention 16:9, but it's actually a 4:3 set that can play 16:9 on it. Heck my 32 inch tube can do that. I can't stand when they put deceptive information on product descriptions.

We had reservations about the purchase of so complicated a product by E-mail. On arrival our fears seemed justified, the picture was rotated about 15 deg. Several calls were required to Toshiba before a local service center could be found that would perform warranty work on a set not purchased at their facility. One agreed but said they couldn't come for three weeks!? Finally, we located one that came in two days. The serviceman aligned everything; color, symmetry, focus, etc. It made a tremendous difference in the picture. Actually, we were fortunate that the set required adjustment. This procedure should be part of the delivery of every television set!! Sound is good for built-in speakers but no match for the clean, transparent sound of a good quality component system. (Bose for example.) Reliability remains to be seen, but initial picture quality is so good, (at least the equal of anything, regardless of brand, we have seen at shops and friends,) that the several anxious days we spent wondering if we had made an expensive mistake, now seems worth it!