hdtv flat-panel lcd tvs

very sharp colors
excellent multiple view screens

My brand new LT26WX84 finally arrived a few days ago. I was so excited. First of all, I have to say this LCD looks very attractive on the exterior. It looks almost as good as the Hitachi 42" plasma where the front is all black except the speaker grill on the bottom which is silver. Just like most of the other LCDs, all the AV connections are on the side of the unit except the digital DVI-D interface which is at the bottom. There are a total of 3 sets of connectors although I am not sure why the components for Input 1 are on one side while the RCA audio for Input 1 are on the other side. This poses inconvenience if your component cable also has audio, which is the case of my PS2.

I have Dish network at home, but no HD yet. For standard definition (SD), the picture quality is slightly better than my 9year old JVC 27" CRT (my viewing distance is about 8 ft), but it's only on par with Sharp 22" Aquos. I was slightly disappointed in that. To put things in perspective, you can't expect an HD set to perform miracles on a SD source. The display can only be as good as the source. One thing that it definitly outshines the Sharp is the viewing angle. For the Sharp unit, the brightness of the picture changes significantly with the angle, but for LT26WX84, it's quite consistent (although still not approaching the CRT yet). The black level also appears to be slightly better than the Sharp by a hair.

Next, I tried my DVD source. Due to space consolidation, I was using my PS2 to playback DVD video. The PQ is quite nice--vivid colors while showing a lot of details. I am sure if you have a progressive scan DVD player, it will look even more amazing. Nonetheless, my PS2 games also never looked better. I am sure Xbox will do even better since it is HD capable. Regrettably, I don't have an HD source, so I can't comment on the PQ. But, based on what I have seen in the store, it shouldn't be short of breathtaking.

The only problem with this set is the red color. It appears that red looks a little bit fuzzy esp. for SD source. I tried to adjust the Tint, and it helped a little. But still, red is not as good as I hope it'd be. If other folks have the same set, I'd like to know your settings. Mine are (tint, color, picture, bright, detail) as follows: -8, -10, +10, +4, +10. Overall, if I were to rate this unit, I'd give it a solid 4 star. It needs some tweakings, but excellent bang/$ value.

Exquisite sharpness! However none of the four factory display settings (Standard, Dynamic, Theater or Game) produced a fully satisfying display--the colors were too saturated and a bit too red. I played around with various possibilities and once I made the following changes the display was perfect for me: Tint 00, Color -12, Picure +7, Brightness 00 and Detail 00. I now recommend this wonderful television with no reservations whatsoever.