RCA P52940 52 in. TV

We wanted a new television, hey who doesn't right? Well we don't want this one anymore! We shopped around for a new Home Theater, did our comparisons, and decided on the RCA for three major reasons....1) Price 2) quality of picture and 3) Reliability of the RCA name. You will read that I'm not happy with this TV and don't recommend anyone buy one, but for a die hard RCA fan, here's the specs...

We sat on showroom floors, comparing the quality of the video we were looking at. When you're looking at screens this large sometimes it can be crystal clear the differences between models and then sometimes you really have to look close. So it's quite easy to eliminate some right off the bat! Another thing to consider if you are buying a television this large is, where are you going to put it? We really didn't think about this like we should have. But I'm not sending it back. We have a fairly large living room and new space wise we'd have plenty of room, but what we didn't think of was how close are we going to be to this behemoth? You don't want to sit closer than 15 feet, the picture gets fuzzy, lined and annoying if you are. I prefer to be more than 15 feet from it. In fact if I'm sitting in my office across the hall from the living room I actually get the best quality picture!

The set-up on this TV was a snap, and we had several other pieces of equipment to add to the system, a DVD, a SAT receiver and a VCR. Even this wasn't difficult, the manuals are very explanitory, have great pictures, and make this set-up quite easy.

With one click of the remote you will however be launched into a set-up screen that if you're not using a satellite receiver I could see as being an afternoon process of setting up your channels. I'm grateful we had a sat. dish and were up and running in no time!
All your cables are pretty much color coded which helps too!
The onscreen set up will let you select your language, do auto channel searches,

If you don't have a satellite, then you can use a feature called Guide +. Guide Plus+ is an interactive program guide that lists your TV guide basically. It allows you to control your cable box and VCR. The first time you set it up you will have to download the program information. According to the manuals, downloading can be a process that occurs several times a day, and unplugging can cause a data loss.

There are so many features on this television it would take a novel to explain them. The TV has picture in picture operation. This is a favorite, but we have yet to figure out how it works with the satellite.

There is a parental controls menu that allows you to program your TV so that kids can't see certain programs. Each program comes with a rating and you can set which ratings you will allow your children to watch.

The sound on this Home Theater is just that, even without another premium sound system attached you can feel the sound when watching a program or movie. But this is also where we experienced our problems with these units. After having my first one for 3 days the sound went out on it. We weren't blasting music or anything, it just quit working one day. Our unit was replaced by the store we bought it from and the second unit worked for about 4 months. Again, same problem. When this happened we decided to go with another brand. I could see getting one bad TV but not 2 in this short time. When I spoke with the store manager about this issue he told me is was a frequent problem. Enough said. But if you still want this TV here's some details.

The case itself is black, there are other models with a wood look. Ours has a marble looking top, nice clean look. The TV weighs about 300 pounds so I recommend having it delivered unless you just want to lug this monster into your home.

While I am not satisfied with the television, the support people at RCA have been very helpful, the manuals are clear and easy to understand, the sound is excellent and the warranty's are standard.

I don't recommend this TV unless you want to experience similar problems.