I bought this TV as a "new in-box" freight damage (small crack in the plastic case), so I got an unusually low price of $650. I was willing to work with the weight at such a good price. I would have loved to get an LCD flat panel and hang it on the wall, but prices are to high for my desire to pay multi-thousands. My friend who works in TV broadcast said there are still many changes coming in HDTV and that was the other reason I did not want to fork out so much for a expensive widescreen. I can wait for pricing to stabilize.

What clinched the deal for me was that the speakers are on the bottom. Most of the competition places the speakers on the side and I have not seen removable speakers on CRT models. On the bottom was the only way I could pack the most screen size into my current entertainment center. Otherwise, I would have had to drop down to a 28-30 inch if the speakers were on the side.

The other awesome feature that I will appreciate every time I turn it on is the widescreen stretch the I have not seen in the competition in this low a price point. Most other widescreens stretch a standard 4:3 format signal evenly, thus stretching peoples faces. Extremely annoying. Toshiba only stretches the outer side edges, so unless a face is at the side edge (most of the time it is not, as the subject is centered) I never notice the stretch when viewing standard format in widescreen.

In some reviews, people do not like the gray side bars that Toshiba chose instead of black, when viewing standard format. It does not bother me because I do not view anything in standard format anymore. I set it on widescreen stretch and view everything in widescreen.

At this point I do not have an HD signal and cannot comment on HD viewing, but everything I watch has such a panoramic feel to it. It's fun watching all my old standard format movies, plus the 16:9 ratio takes full advantage of widescreen DVD's.

Here's some other reasons why I like a CRT over what I feel is still "not ready for primetime" plasma's and projection's. I'm too spoiled with a CRT's longevity. I don't want to pay thousands and then have to keep paying when the gas needs recharged, or burn in, or a $300 bulb needs to be changed a year later and every 3 years thereafter. Also, I can place a CRT in a window lit room and still see the picture and viewing angle is not only side-to-side, but I can place the TV high or lay on the floor without blackout.

Another great feature of this Toshiba is the well designed remote. It's amazing to me that so many TV remotes are designed so poorly when remotes have had plenty of time to evolve. Toshiba has a great feature that lets you program up to 12 favorite channels. Instead of toggling between two channels you can for example, program your favorite news channels and rotate through only those channels. Also, the remote allows you to name the signal inputs for connection flexibility.

This TV also has two separate NTSC tuners besides the HDMI input. This way you do not need to use a VCR tuner as your second signal source. It also has split screen picture-out-of-picture (pop) which many higher priced widescreens include.