Sony BRAVIA KDL-40S2010 40" LCD TV

Spent a lot of time researching tv's. Liked the LCD's vs the Plasma. Plasma's have the glass screens. We put this in our family room were there are 4 large windows and lots of light and I was quite worrried about glare with the plasma. Our LCD never has glare even on a sunny day. Plus, you find out that Plasma's burn in and LCD less so. The LCD seems to have a better price point than the Plasma's up to about 46". Anything 46" and up it seems they flip and the plasma's become a little cheaper for same quality. With this 40" I feel like we got a good deal for the quality. We bought from Best Buy. Keep in mind that all these stores display in upconverted format of 1080 so that everything looks awesome. We liked this bravia first, but they offered us a great deal on the sharp aquos which was 1080p and 42" for the same price. Seemed like a better deal so we got it. This sony is 720p. What no one tells is that these tvs totally depend on the input quality. We have directv service which of course is digital. Once we got it on a larger screen the quality of very poor inside of 10' and I was disappointed. So, we returned it and got the Sony. I think - and it was very very close, that the picture was a little better but I believe that was b/c the direct tv service is 480i. with the sony only having (less resultion) at 720p vs the 1080p of the Aquos and the extra 2", the 480' was stretched over more area - i.e. more space between lines and thus looked a little worse - but again - no not very much. In an odd twist, the "higher quality and capability" actually served as a detriment. Actually neither tv looked that great. From more that about 12' both looked very good, but not what I would describe as awesome. Plus we found more variance in the resolution of stations broadcasting. We have since upgraded to high def service with DirectV and are very very pleased with this tv. Stations look AWESOME, the menus are easy and intuitive. I love the LCD vs the plasma b/c there is never glare and it looks just a fabulous at any angle and in bright daylight to totally darkness. i think you do also notice differences in true black. Have a sales rep put in movie with sark scenes. Our Sony still looks great, but check out and advent model or something and you'll see the difference in the higher quality unit. I have freinds that have the plasma and the plasma would blow away a cheap LCD in terms of dark scenes, but I think they have nothing on my Sony and I paid less. Maybe in 5-10 years people will be broadcasting in 1080i and 1080p but when we get there, I don't think I'll highly regret that my Sony can only do 720p. Actually, since 720p does every line and 1080i does every other line (540 lines), the 720p is actually painting more lines, so you really need a 1080p to get a truly noticable better picture and I don't think anyone is doing that other than some Blueray DVD. Also keep in mind that in many major markets the local ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates broadcast in HD over the air. In my familiy, these major affiliates are 80% of what we watch on TV, so for while we watched these programs over the air in HD for free. The downside is the directv/cable comes in one input and the over the air is on a different input, so in order to switch and watch HGTV, you had to change inputs and change channels and the wife got tired of doing that, so we did the upgrade to HD DirecTV. We are thrilled and highly recommend this TV.