Panasonic TH-42PX50U 42 in. HDTV TV

Bought on sale for 2,100. For plasma I was expecting more. I wanted HDTV for the best fidelity, only to find out just a handful of programs broadcast in HD.

There are 300+ channels on the dish, all premiums like showtime and HBO and not 5% of shows are broadcast in HDTV. I had to upgrade the satellite dish AND receiver to get HD which resulted in equipment and installation fees of over 300$. While the remote is the best around, and the TV is sleek and stylish, what they fail to mention is that just because you have a WIDESCREEN doesn't mean the picture will look great.

Even if you have it tuned to top resolution, about 1/2 of the programs broadcast are incapable of rendering in high res. If the movie was filmed for 400dpi, guess what - thats the max you get.

If you love old cable reruns, you will be disappointed. Also nearly nothing and I do mean nothing, less then 1% of channels, programs broadcast natively in widescreen. Even movies dont adhere to this TVS natural widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio.

Literally with every program that comes on, the aspect/format must be adjusted. Full screen clips the edges off, wide screen shrinks some programs to the point it is no longer a "big tv" effect, or squished heads. I mostly just suffer in full screen mode.

If you are buying this for the big screen for sports, you might be ok because many of the games do broadcast in HD and often in widescreen and they look good.But remember, you can buy a non HMDI/HDTV and add HD antennaes to pick up local HD for FREE!

If you want this for movies and everyday watching...you are better off to go with a letterbox (square TV) or you will just find yourself very frustrated because none of the programs adhere to the widescreen "YET".

I wish I had been educated about the screens and aspects and HDTV before being suckered into a lot of technology I can't use. So for the price, I really don't find this television to be anything special.

If you have never owned a big screen or plasma before and are considering HD or widescreen, please do your homework so you do not end up like me staring at a 2000 TV that cant braodcast in the dimensions it was built for. Its very unnerving. The TVs themselves are far far ahead of broadcastng technologies.

So now I get to address the broadcasting issues with HD and antennae fixes...