Sony 50″ SXRD Rear Projection TV - 1080P $1350 ($1499-10%Coupon) at Circuit City

• 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution
• NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuners
• Widescreen (16:9)
• 2 HDMI inputs
• SRS® Trusurround® XT
• WEGA Engine­™ system

After a couple months of research and indecision between DLP, LCD Rear Projection, and LCD Flat Panels, I decided on this Sony. I bought into the buzz around SXRD and discovered it is well worth the money! Bought it over the phone through Circuit City andhad it delivered the next day! Be sure not to leave it on the factory settings, otherwise you will have an overly colorful/overly bright tv. After calibrating, I was blown away by the amazing picture! This rear projection HDTV has the best black level I’ve ever seen in a non-plasma tv! I don’t have a 1080p source, but 1080i still looks awesome! I had an HDTV before this one, and the amount of detail produced from this tv totally blows my old tv away! I didn’t test the sound, but not really concerned aboutit because I have a surround sound system. I highly recommend this tv!

PROS:
- 1080p!!
- SXRD technology stands up to the hype
- Very fine detail - can see people’s blemishes on tv shows! (Could be pro or con :p )
- Best black level in a rear projection
- Pixilation almost non-existent from 1080i source (was watching Planet Earth on Discovery HD)
- Standard viewing distance calculation would suggest 12.5 feet for a 50′, but even at 8 feet viewing distance, it still looks very sharp and would have to bevery picky to notice any major pixilation.
- Excellent viewing angles…picture does not look too much light even beyond 60 degrees horizontally.
- Standard def looks fine
- No banding issues
- Pretty accurate colors, once calibrated
- Aesthetically appealing black frame
- While I use the cable company’s HD DVR Box, the TV’s built in HD tuner works great. If you hook up a regular RF cable into the tv and run the cable tv setup, it will find all the HD broadcast channels and quite a few digital channels
-Saves screen settings individually per input
- Tons of inputs!
- Pretty low profile
- Very light for such a large tv
- Setup menus easy to navigate

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CONS:
- Takes a minute to start up (30 secs of black screen, then another 30 secs for thepicture to come to full brightness and focus.
- Glossy screen very reflective and hard to watch in the daytime. (The manual recommends not to place tv in room where window is behind viewing position. Unfortunately I don’t have any other options with my current room arrangement…Not Sony’s fault)
- Remote control kinda confusing at first. Takes some getting used to…
- No ‘favorites’ button on remote’favorites’ button on remote

Sounds like great deal if you don’t mine to buy Rear Projection instead of Plasma or LCD TV.