inch to 35-inch

I had been shopping for a new TV to replace our 10-year-old 27", and wanted to go with flat-screen, direct view, 16:9 switchable capability. HDTV is available by broadcast in our medium-market area on two stations so far; digital on 4 others. Of several 32-36" sets we looked at, the Zenith C32V37 was the only one found under $1000 with the HD receiver built in. No $400 add-on receiver needed!
After 2 weeks with it, we are very happy with the choice. We receive the HD signal with a small, amplified disc antenna (the stations are either already in the UHF band, or were translated to UHF), and the HD picture (broadcast at 720p by CBS and 1080i, I believe, by ABC) is all it's promoted to be. The TV is now integrated with an inexpensive, progressive-scan DVD player, and with a regular 2-channel sound system. They play together very well. DVDs have a great look in all aspect ratios, and the details are amazing - very crisp. Zenith touts the feature that the black borders above and below a 16:9 picture don't have any scan lines wasted on them, and that is not an insignificant thing: the full vertical resolution is packed into the viewing area.
The picture quality from DirecTV (not digital) is excellent - 'way better than any analog picture I've ever seen. The NFL playoff games on CBS last weekend convinced me that HD will be the real deal, as soon as the broadcasters can concentrate on the wide ratio without the need to compromise on picture composition for analog sets. And your camcorder and digital camera's pictures have never looked better.
The TV was easy to set up, its weight notwithstanding. Lots of wires (we're using S-video cable for all those peripherals); but the access points, including full AV ports under the front panel cover, are well labeled. The user has complete control of all set functions, including automatic and manual screen aspect ratio control, full audio options, inputs, channel scanning, surfing -- on and on. The remote is above the capacity of my wife, but she's catching on. So many features are available by remote, that it's a bit overwhelming.
Any downgrades I would give are only small observations: (1) the need to rather slowly scroll through all the input options when switching between over-the-air digital and HD channels and the DirecTV input; (2) the complexity of the remote -- some learning curve is necessary, though; and (3) small variation in picture settings among the various inputs.
Overall, a very good choice for value, picture quality, and functionality. A satisfying upgrade, and that's exactly what I set out for in the first place.

this is a good tv. the HD picture is very sharp. the dark is very dark and the bright is very bright. the sound is quite good, with 2 surround mode. for this price, with a built-in HDTV tuner, that's a pretty good for this price.

there are something the tv can improve on:
1. the power cord is coming out from the front-left side of the tv. it is less messy if it is coming out from the back of the tv.

2. the tv still does "overscan". that means all left, right, top, bottom of the screen is missing 5% of the picture. try watching a DVD on this tv and on a PC, and you will see that you see things on the PC that you don't see on the tv. i think the tv should have a "non-overscan" mode to let people choose how it displays.

3. there is no program guide... my other HDTV over-the-air tuner box has it (Samsung SIR-T351).

4. The composite output cannot down-convert the HD video into the 640 x 480 NTSC signal, for recording the program to VHS or DVR.

5. there seems to be no way to let me choose between 480p and 1080i myself. the tv set chooses whatever it sees fit. but i want to be able to set it myself too, such as when hooking up my computer with DVI output to the tv.

But it is a good tv set. Enjoy HDTV ahead of schedule! The 1900 x 1080 resolution on PBS Channel 9-1 at night makes this tv worth every penny.

Also note that some stations are broadcasting in 720p and some broadcasting in 480p.

Lugged it home and re-wired my home theater system for componet connection, turned out the lights ,hit the DVD and was amazed at how well the picture looked right out of the box. I made some adjustments and got aquainted with the remote and it's controls and was really impressed. Watched it for about 45 min., turned everything off and felt like I had made a great purchase. Came home the next day and was planning to really enjoy my new toy but was really upset to see in the daylight that all around the dark gray collar, surronding the glass, had divits all around it. I was bummed but figured that a service call would take care of this so I sat down to enjoy a movie. When I turned it on, right as the picture was viewable I heard a static pop. I was concerned but still not ready to through in the towel. I started to play around with the PIP functions and all was working fine when the right side picture went snow-city, with cable, and then went blank. Then I went to turn the set off and investigate but I got two more static pops and then it turned off. I wonder if this set is made in two differant plants since the folks that are having problems are experiencing similar defects while others are having no problems at all. When I took mine back, I noticed that there were two of these units on the floor already, marked as open box specials so I didn't exchange it. I haven't bought anything yet because I'm so bummed out and confused, this was everything I was looking for and then some. East Coast Best Buy Shoppers BEWARE