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- Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 6 reviews Back to product review
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Best HDTV on the Market Today."
Pros: All around best HD image you can find.
Cons: Audio pass through could be better -- LAG!!!
Summary: I recently moved to a bigger place and therefore needed a bigger TV. I have read just about every review of just about every HDTV on CNET and elsewhere. Then I went to various stores and looked at just about every flat panel LCD and Plasma on the market. I knew this was the one to buy when I happened upon the 65" version, which I would've purchased if I had an extra $10,000 lying around.
With minor tweaks to the tint and color saturation levels the picture is as good as it gets. I would have preferred an LCD, but they still cannot compare to the higher end Plasmas - especially in a large room where you can see the screen from any kind of angle. I compared the Pioneer Pro plasmas and the black is black, but the picture on every one I saw in the stores looked LCD flat.
I base my image quality opinions on viewing the screens from 10 - 15 feet away from multiple angles because my viewing distance at home is between 10 - 13 feet depending which sofa you sit on. I found that at distances over 10 feet away only the plasma screens have depth of image without softening. LCDs either flatten or soften and for some reason seem to have redness in the black/very dark areas of the screen. The lesser LCDs seem to have blues or greens and video noise in the darker areas of the screen. (some of that may be due to the quality of the source image the stores send to the lower end models). The reputable brand plasmas do not appear to have this problem.
My only complaint with this TV is the sound synchronization on pass through. I have a Direct TV HD box and a Sony upconvert DVD player (at least for now) connected via HDMI. I have the TV connected to an Onkyo HT-SR800 receiver via optical audio cable and the thing is that the sound from the TV to the receiver is about a quater of a second off sync. If I put the receiver on and play sound through it and leave the TV speakers on, I can hear the difference in synchronization come through as an echo - the TV speakers are faster. If I hook either device directly to the receiver there is no lag.
That shouldn't happen with a TV that costs this much. I would've rated a 10 if it didn't have the sound problem.
Aside from that flaw, which can be dealt with with more cables -- this is the best HDTV out there now, especially when it comes to HD image quality.
