What is the best Big Screen TV?

Not a rumour but a fact -- Sony has a 70" LCOS set (they call their technology SXRD) that they claim (made at CEDIA in Sept.) will be out in January 2005. I saw this set, and it is by far the best RPTV set I've ever seen. At its projected price of $10,000, it is still a bargain. There is no front projector at anything near this price that would look that good on a 70" screen, even in a room with perfect light control. Mitsubishi had the misfortune of having its booth near the Sony booth at CEDIA where its $20,000 LCOS set looked dim and dingy by comparison. The Mitsubishi set was in a dark "cave" while the Sony was in a fairly well lit public area, but the Sony more than took that disadvantage in stride.

Each technology has its plusses and minuses. One of the plusses of digital microdisplay (DLP, LCOS, LCD) rear projection sets is they do not have to stretch non-widescreen pictures to account for burn-in problems. Personally, I much prefer watching everything in Original Aspect Ratio (OAR), which is a limitation with CRT and plasma based sets.

Bruce

I watch TONS of 4:3 stuff on my fujitsu 42 and have NEVER had burn-in issues. good plasma or crt sets don't really seem to have an issue unless you leave a stock ticker on 24-7 for months etc...

Dmoffitt,

Very interesting about not seeing burn-in with 4:3 material. Appreciate that information. Do you do any gaming on your set?

I had always read burn-in was an issue, and every time I see a plasma or CRT based display (tv store, restaurant, etc.) 4:3 images are always stretched to fill the screen and that drives me crazy. Of course, that doesn't mean they know what they're doing.

Are some brands/models less prone to burn-in than others?

Thanks
Bruce

I also saw the SXRD Sony TV at CEDIA, and there's absolutely no question that its the best Big Screen TV out there - by a comfortable margin. If you have bucks you can't do better. And I hate you.