Mitsubishi WT-42313 42 in. HDTV-Ready TV

When shopping for a big screen TV, I quickly realized that the choices were wide-ranging, and wide-priced! I have a fairly small living room, so I wanted something that would look good, but not so big that I would need to sit in the back yard to view it! I am very versed on the quality of Mitsubishi televisions, and have long felt that they are among the best made. The first one I looked at was the 55" models that offered great pictures, but seemed just too large for the space I wanted to fill. I finally stumbled upon this 42" tabletop model, and fell instantly in love! The fact that it was a wide-screen, was HD ready, and came with a large amount of features was a driving force. The fact that there was a special on the TV, and I got what was a $1,500.00 television for $999.00 at The Good Guys was enough to seal the deal!

The picture quality on this bad boy is phenomenal! Don't watch a nature program with lots of charging beasts alone in the dark, or you might be diving behind the couch out of instinct! It is amazing how crisp and clear the picture is even on non-HD channels. The best feature of all to me is the fact that all of the component plug in's (RCA inputs) are located on the SIDE of the unit, not the back! This makes adding or removing components such as DVD players, video game units, or surround sound components a breeze! The unit comes with a cover to hide the inputs, so you can protect the ports from dust, as well as hide them from site. This is an ingenious feature, and I have not seen this same feature on any other unit for ANY price point. The unit offers several picture settings to add to the viewing experience, from 4:3 aspect (standard), to 16:9 widescreen format. The nice thing about the settings for this feature is that it is expanded for HD channels, if you have the optional HD receiver. You can zoom in, expand the picture, stretch the picture, etc. The sound quality for the built-in speakers are not highly powerful, but they have a crisp sound, and are more than adequate without surround sound, though I would recommend hooking up additional sound to complete the home theater package. The television also comes with 2-tuner picture-in-picture with several viewing options, including side-by-side, and snap-shot, which will give you several screen shots at one-second intervals, much like time-lapse.

The only real complaints I have regarding this wonderful television starts with the remote. It is a universal remote, but adding components to the remote is not easy, as most of the codes don't seem to work. I am quite electronics savvy, but I struggled setting up the television. It took a while, even with the manual, (yes, men do occasionally use the instructions, if we are forced to!), to get all of the components running correctly through the television. Another problem is the shear size of the remote. In this age of "smaller is better" for electronics, this remote is HUGE! It's about the same size as the original "brick" cellular phones. I've seen DVD players that are smaller than this remote! It does have a wonderful variety of functions, though. It has a button located on the right side of the controller that illuminates the buttons for easy navigation at night.

With the many features that this television has, and the fact that the picture is nearly as crisp as many plasma selections that are 3-4 times the cost, Mitsubishi offers high quality performance for a reasonable price. This is a must have for anyone looking for performance at an affordable price!