Sony KV-36FS100 36" Flat-Screen TV

This television is a great example of Sony's quality. The 36" set is big and heavy (approx. 220 lbs), but once installed the picture and sound quality are impressive. The color is accurate, and the set has several picture settings such as movie and sports which help tweak the picture to what is being watched. What is especially surprising is the superior sound quality from the two side speakers. I have the television hooked up to a component audio system, and in many cases, the TV's audio is as good as the component stereo's output, with the exception of a deeper and more resonant bass.

This television has an analog tuner so it will not receive over-the-air signals when the conversion occurs in 2009, but it will continue to work perfectly for cable TV.

I highly recommend this set. Probably all of these are now on the used market, but a well-cared-for model should be a great investment.Buy Sony KV-36FS100 36" Flat-Screen TV!

Sony Bravia XBR-Series KDL-40XBR4 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

We purchased this television one year ago today. It has not worked for two months. We have spent endless hours with the Customer Service Dept on the phone. The parts (computer & panel) just went out on it for no reason. They do not have the parts to fix the television. They offered us a refurbished TV (someone elses problem TV) which we declined. If you take the refurbished TV, our warranty and extended warranty are null and void. We wanted ours fixed. Customer Service (India I suppose) lied numerous times regarding the delivery date of the parts. We went from "the Authorized Dealer will receive the part in 2 days" to "it is backordered until the end of February". They offered us a brand new xbr6 television replacement for an additional $300.00. They said it would be here within two weeks. No sight of that. Sony Customer Service is the worst I have ever dealt with, a bunch of liars. If you get lucky and get a TV with no problems, then you are good. I advise against buying any Sony products. I know I won't.Buy Sony Bravia XBR-Series KDL-40XBR4 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV!

Pioneer PDP-6070HD 60" PureVision Plasma HDTV

After about 2 months of research of looking at Samsung, Panasonic and LG I finally decided on Pioneer. I couldn't afford the high cost of the newer generation of Pioneer plasmas. So I took a serious look at the PDP-6070HD (720P). After doing exhausting comparison between this model and the 6020/6010 which are 1080P units. I came to realize that Pioneers plasmas are made so well that you would be hard pressed to actually see a deference between the sets. After getting this unit home the picture is just simply "Jaw Dropping" I am amazed with the PQ. I also have the PDP-5070HD in my bedroom, that is what made me to start the search for a replacement of my HLP-6163W (Samsung DLP). The picture difference was like night and day. I am very happy to have purchased this unit. One of the best buys that I have made. I have been running this unit for about a month now and have not been able to find anything bad to say about this TV. It may be a couple of years old (in model #) but it still reviles the best units on the market today. Buy Pioneer PDP-6070HD 60" PureVision Plasma HDTV!

Philips 20PF5120 20-Inch Flat LCD TV

I bought this tv in March of 2006 from SAMs to use in the kitchen of my vacation home. Shortly after I got it (July of 2006) I had problems. When I turned the set on the green light would come on but almost at once the green light would go out and the red light would come on in it's place. No picture, no sound, nothing. I called customer service and went through a couple of tests and was told to send it back by FedEx - which Phillips didn't pay for. I would think that if the set was under warranty they should pay shipping but they didn't. I got a different set back (different serial #)in a month to 6 weeks and it seemed to work fine but a couple of weeks later I noticed that when I would turn the set on the picture would come on but no sound! However I discovered that if I turned the set off and back on I had sound. I called Phillips and reported this but they didn't know what was causing this. Since it did work I didn't want to pay the freight to send it back again and get another one that might do the exact same thing so I got a case number and made a record of the problem. Then in December of 2008 I had exactly the same problem I had the first time (green light then red light no pic no sound) I called Phillips again and was told that I would have to take it in for repair but the set was out of warranty. When I gave them the two case numbers from before they had no record of those cases. The woman said that they probably cleaned out the database and deleted old cases after some period of time.
I called the phone # of the service center she gave me and was told that it would cost me $89 non refundable to have the problem diagnosed. She also told me that there were very few parts listed for this set and even if they couldn't get the parts to fix it I would still have to pay $89.
My advise is not to buy this set.Buy Philips 20PF5120 20-Inch Flat LCD TV!

Sony Bravia XBR-Series KDL-46XBR5 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

"I'm in love". oh what a beautiful television. It shines in all catagories from watching Blue-ray movies-to playing video games, It is all good. My only regret is that i didn't grab the 52" before they were all sold out. thank God the 46" are still around. Grab it while you can because XBR5 is unique in appearance as well as performance. I treasure this television in such a way that i don't even want to turn it on because i want it to last for a very long time. simply beautifulSony Bravia XBR-Series KDL-46XBR5 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTVBuy Sony Bravia XBR-Series KDL-46XBR5 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV!

LG 42LG60 42-Inch 1080p 120hz LCD HDTV, Gloss Piano Black with Scarlet Red

After waiting 2 weeks for its arrival you can only imagine my dismay when I took it out of its box, pluged it in to see a 1/4 inch wide grey strip running from top to bottom in the middle of the screen. Picture was great if only the stipe was not there. Needless to say, TV went back and the supplier does not have any more, so here I sit trying to decide on another brand of TV. Buy LG 42LG60 42-Inch 1080p 120hz LCD HDTV, Gloss Piano Black with Scarlet Red!

Sharp Aquos LC46SE94U 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

This is among the best quality TVs made in 2008.
There are now sets with better picture quality, such as the Limited Edition series (also from Sharp) which use LED backlighting, but they are quite expensive.
There are many brands of television, but Samsung and Sharp manufacture the vast majority of LCD panels.
Other brands, even big names like Sony, Toshiba, and Pioneer, only buy panels from manufacturers and build electronics around them. Sony, in particular, charges quite a lot for their brand name even though they didn't even make the panel!

Some Sharp panels from past models were known for having a color banding problem. This was endemic in Sharp televisions for a long time, though most peopled did not notice. I am happy to report that this set does not suffer the same problem.

Absolute contrast is 3000:1, 3 times that of most other sets. Dynamic contrast (contrast achieved by adjusting the intensity of the backlight) is 27,000:1, and in practice, the brightness this set can produce is almost over the top. It literally hurts my eyes and lights up the entire living room, though I usually keep it at low settings because I am not into intensely bright screens.

My 46" set uses about 150W of power at 20% backlight -- not bad. It can use just over 300W at full brightness (actual measurement).

The internet service, "Aquos Connect", is fairly worthless. It is slow, takes up screen space (or the whole screen), and has terribly response latency -- if you switch views or turn it on/off, it takes a while to comply. It may be handy for showing weather or stock information occasionally, but you will probably be more likely to walk to a nearby computer or change to an appropriate TV station rather than work with the clunky TV internet interface. The possibility of remote servicing and diagnosis sounds promising, however.

I can't comment on the speakers as I use an external stereo.

The connections are well placed and, in particular, the HDMI and RCA ports on the right side of the TV are very useful for connecting temporary hardware, such as a friend's game console.

This TV handles many more resolutions with the VGA connector than any previous HDTV I've had. I tested it at 1600x1200, but no higher. Works well.
I use this screen mainly as a computer monitor, connecting my computers DVI-out to one of the TV's HDMI connectors using an HDMI cable and adapter. It looks beautiful and works very well for both business applications (even Photoshop, which has long been a poor program to run on other LCD screens due to color accuracy problems) and gaming. The response time is so fast as to not notice any blur or shearing, and the TV works perfectly at a full 1080P, 60 Hz.

This screen may be able to display at 120Hz, but it cannot accept input at 120Hz. 60Hz is the maximum, at least at 1080P. This leads one to wonder how it can play a Blu-Ray movie without shearing at 24P if it cannot accept input at an even multiple of 24.

One final noteworthy comment is that this screen does NOT have a glare problem at all. Many glossy screens, especially those on notebooks, reflect the surrounding light so well that you can shave in your reflection. Very distracting. This television has absolutely no glare problem whatsoever. Its glare is even lower than the previously popular matte (non-shiny) LCD panels.
I can only see noticeable light reflection at about a 60-90 degree viewing angle (though even at extreme angles, the picture still looks fine).

Overall I am very happy with this TV and find its faults to be incredibly minor. I'd recommend it over any other 2008 television set (though Samsung has very nice panels as well). However, if you want the highest-end and are willing to pay for it, look for something with LED backlighting.Buy Sharp Aquos LC46SE94U 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV!