Mitsubishi WS-65807 65 in. TV

I have had the Mitsubishi WS65807 for about 2 months. Couldn't be happier with it. I purchased it locally and did have to have them replace it when a high voltage block went out. Very happy I did not buy it over the net, as it was replaced with a new set no questions asked.

I had it hooked up to cable until about two weeks ago. The picture was just OK on most channels. I recently got the Mitsubishi HD satellite unit with a dish. It was very easy to install myself and I now have a great picture through DirecTV. The down side to a 16:9 set is that DirecTV only carries one HD channel (HBO) plus one pay per view HD channel. It would be nice if DirecTV carrier the digital signals of the local network stations, but they don't. I am going to try a roof top antenna for the local digital feed, but don't have my hopes up as I live in a very hilly area. The picture on most of the sat channels is very good on almost all of the sat channels (in between cable and DVD quality). The better picture quality does allow you to choose the expanded mode for viewing 4:3 images where you lose a little of the top and bottom of the picture (this picture was very poor on cable). The expanded (stretching) modes are not too bad, but you will notice the stretching. If any manufactures are reading this, why can't you move adjust the image location when using letterboxing each time the TV uses that format to avoid "burning in the letter boxes". It seems to me that you could then view all the 4:3 letter boxed material you wanted without worrying about damage to the picture tube.

DVD's look incredible on this set. I have a Pioneer 5 disk DVD player with progressive scan. I have heard Pioneer's progressive scan is only a line doubler and does not utilize the 3:2 pull down. All I know is that it is hard to tell a difference between the HD picture from the satellite and the progressive scan picture from the Pioneer DVD. I believe most people will never notice the difference. The same can be said for the picture quality of the TV's. I looked at all three Mitsubishi wide screen models (Platinum, Platinum Plus and Diamond), the Sony wide screen and the Pioneer Elite side by side and could not tell much of a difference between the Mitsubishi's and the Pioneer. The Sony did not seem to be as good. I would image if you had the "test patterns" on the screen you could probably notice a greater difference, but I never plan on watching test patterns on my TV. The HD picture on this set is truly amazing, too bad there are not more HD channels available on DirecTV.

I have no idea what the sound is like from the TV speakers. I never intend to use them. I use a Sony STRV 333ES for the sound using the optical outputs from the Mitsubishi HD satellite receiver and the DVD player. If you are going to make the investment in this TV, do yourself a favor and get a Dolby Digital receiver. Even a cheap one will make a world of difference in your viewing experience.

I also never use the remote that came with the set. I have learned all of the commands I need into a remote that controls the entire system. You can program the TV remote to give you direct access to the inputs by selecting TV on the selector bar and holding down the power button and pressing 090. Doing the same thing and pressing 000 will return the remote to the factory settings. Once you have programmed the 090 setting, push input and then numbered keys, PIP, power and stop keys to have direct access to power on, power off, and each input. I don't remember which numbers related to each input on the TV so you will need to experiment. This was very useful in macros on a learning remote I use to control my system (Home Theater Master MX-500, the best money I have spent on my entire system). Now if I press DVD on the remote it will select the DVD input on my receiver and select the DVD input on the TV. No more using the input +/- to find the DVD input on the TV.

This TV has plenty of inputs for all of your video devices, 1 component HD, 2 component that support progressive scan, a number of additional inputs including front panel all with S-video. The two higher end models also have VGA inputs, but I doubt if I will ever need them.

I did have to adjust the convergence a couple times and did adjust down the brightness and contrast for a better picture. But the picture is excellent. I did have to move the TV to a different wall in the room because with a window behind the viewing area it was very difficult to get a good picture during the day. The window, which is quite large, is now to the side of the TV and it does not seem to affect the viewing.

Lastly the price. The longer you are willing to wait to purchase the lower the price will be. I purchased this set in May 01 for $3,200 from a local retailer. Two months later the local price is $2,999. It was a great value to me at $3,200, so it should only get better.