Mitsubishi WS-55819 55 in. TV

After much research and TV viewing, I recently replaced my Mitsubishi 45" projection TV with the 55819. Thus far, I have been happy with my choice.

Picture Quality
Along with the TV, I purchased a progressive scan DVD player. Watching movies (Phantom Menace is great) shows the true clarity that this TV can provide. The overall quality is excellent for DVDs. The quality via a DirectTV dish using an S-Video cable is also very good, but of course not up to par with DVD (or HDTV) quality. It does take a while to get used to watching the 16:9 format for normal TV. Depending on which format you choose, you will notice that items are stretched a bit (somewhat amusing when watching basketball games). One down side is that this TV does not have "Auto-Convergence" to automatically aim the RGB guns properly. You may need to adjust these to avoid shadows/ghosted colors. This is easily done manually using an on screen menu and the remote. Other TVs were just more convenient as they did this automatically.

Also, in the store, I watched this TV hooked to an HD broadcast and the picture was stunning. I hope that more HD programming will become available so I can use this TV to its full potential.

Format Options
There are many format options available on the remote to help you fill the screen. You can choose to stretch the image to fill the screen (letterbox movies), leave it in its native format, go to a 4:3 view (with annoying grey bars on each side), or zoom into the picture. Of course, zooming into the picture degrades the picture quality. It is quick and easy to "play" with the format that best fits the source that you are watching.

Inputs
The TV has many inputs for S-Video, Composite Video, HDTV box hookups and your standard multiple RCA inputs (including front jacks for camcorder hookup.) One great feature is that using the on-screen menu, you can "shut off" an input if it's not is use so you won't have to skip past it using the remote. Why more TV manufacturers don't do this, I have no idea, but now that I have one TV with it, I want it on all of my TVs. You can also name any/all of the inputs.

Sound
As with any TV, the speakers are skimpy. If you purchased this TV and used it only with the built in speakers, you are missing about 95% of any movie/sporting experience.

Remote
This is a standard backlit Mitsubishi remote with everything you need. Basic buttons are provided on the set to get you to about 75% of what the remote can do.

Upgrade Promise
Mitsubishi has a great upgradability promise included with most of its HDTV-ready big screens. The promise states: "We will engineer and manufacture the upgrades necessary so the television you purchase today can be made compatible with near-future advances in digital television and digital interconnectivity. Specifically, we promise that you will be able to have your television upgraded, at a reasonable cost, to include an off-air HDTV tuner, a cable TV tuner (for unscrambled programming), an IEEE 1394 (FireWire?) connection, HAVi system control, and 5C copy protection." You really can't beat that. Basically, you will be able to purchase at cost, all upgrades needed.

Overall Thoughts
I really like the TV after having it for about 2 months. The combination of features and nice touches make it a great TV with a great picture. With proper room placement (away from light sources which may cause glare on the included screen shield), it can provide stunning pictures from DVD and HDTV inputs. The upgrade promise sweetens the deal even more. One minor skimp is the warranty which doesn't seem to be as great as some of the others.

Overall, you will be happy with this TV from the leader maker of big screens.