I looked for over a year at HDTV's before deciding on the Sony 50" SXRD television. Having owned it for over 6 months now, I can honestly say this is the BEST television I have ever owned. The picture is incredibly clear and crisp when it is displaying High Def sources. My local cable company only has 9 channels of HD programming but it does have INHD and INHD2. These channels show a lot of IMAX based movies and on this television it is jaw dropping beautiful. You simply have to see it to understand. If you would picture in your mind the difference between a Polaroid and a 35mm picture you can start to get an idea of how much better HD is than standard programming.

The television is fairly light in weight and my wife and I were able to transport and put it on the stand very easily by ourselves. Hookup was a snap and I decided to go with an HDMI input from my HD cable box. HDMI also transmits sound so it cuts down on cable "nesting" behind my tv.

The television automatically detects HD signal and converts to widescreen. Setup was a snap, the first time I plugged it in (I did not have the HD cable box yet) it searched all the channels on the regular cable and found all analog and digital channels automatically. I turned down the brightness based on the recommendations on sound and vision magazines web site. At first, I thought the picture was too dark but decided to stick with it for a week. Now I see a much clearer picture and feel that most tv's I see are way too bright.

This TV has no less than 8 different input jacks on the back and can handle 2 HDMI as well as RGB input from a computer.

The remote is solidly built out of metal and has options for controlling a myriad of Sony devices. I don't use it much though unfortunately because it doesn't control my Motorola cable box.

This television delivers a superb picture right out of the box and has endless tweakability for those that like to really get in there and run THX type utilities.

The speakers that are located on either side of the set add about a foot to the overall width but deliver adequate sound for general use. I pump up the home theater for anything that I really want to "experience".

My only pet peeve with this television is the long turn on time required. I understand that a projection television is different from CRT based tv and that a slow fire up on the bulb makes it last a lot longer but once I decide it's time to watch tv I want to do it NOW.

This TV won Sound and Vision Magazines product of the year AND best video product for 2005. I recommend that you DO NOT make a purchase decision without giving this a long look.