Price Paid:  $2500.00 from Hi Fi Buys

Summary:
Great TV. Price was great. Picture looked outstanding at the store, but they were show HDTV. I am not currently recieving HD.

Strengths:
Easy to setup, remote is easy to use, good color, tv is on wheels

Weaknesses:
Picture had a slight red push, but doesn't seem to be too bad after a couple of months. Only the Volume, Channel, and Input buttons light up on the remote.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Mitsubishi makes the best displays I have ever seen! No other TV comes close! I'm not just talking rear projection either. I've yet to see the DLP front projector, Plasma or tube TV that looks better.

There are a few flagship displays from other manufacturers that are as good as mitsubishi's entry level sets but, that’s all.

Progressive scan DVDs look almost High Definition. High definition images look Amazing, breathtaking on the upper end Platinum plus and Diamond series sets.

My advice to anyone is to buy highest level Mitsubishi set you can afford.

Strengths:
Colors, Sharpness, Depth of focus (background images are still crisp, you can actually see that one image is 8', 10’ or 15' behind another).

Weaknesses:
Netcommand! It's more trouble than it's worth.

Similar Products Used:
Sony plasma, tubes and RPTV, Marantz plasma and RPTV, Hitachi, Samsung, RCA, Toshiba.

Price Paid:  $2900.00 from Soundtrack

Summary:
For the price i think this was the tv to get...no integrated HDTV tuner so once they figure out the specs i can purchase a STB. Nice picture, although with satellite it is a little weak...Great DVD playback, and the hi def at the shop i bought it was great.

Strengths:
great picture 2 component video inputs, lots of other inputs

Weaknesses:
red push...needs to be calibrated to get best possible picture

Price Paid:  $2799.00 from Tweeter

Summary:
Good looking clean cut set. Wheels make it a breeze to move around. I spent about 6 months comparison shopping. I narrowed it down to the Toshiba 50HX81, Mitsubishi WS-46809 and the WS-55819. I was tempted to purchase the 46 or 50 because of the size of the room I was placing the set in. I went with the 55819 because it seemed as though the Toshiba's picture was too pixelated for my taste and a little too much blue in the picture. I set the sharpness down low and adusted all settings, but It still seemed to me that the Mitsubishi set looked better, with less adjustment. I have hooked it up to a Panasonic TU-HDS20 with direct tv. The HDTV channels look as expected: incredible. I have yet to hook it up to a progressive scan DVD player so I cannot comment on that feature as of yet.

Strengths:
Excellent 1080i quality.
Excellent focus at the far edges of the display.
Vibrant color display.
64 Point Convergence.
Massive array of inputs.
Remote is a sleeper!
Looks great.

Weaknesses:
As with all big screen sets: pixelation with vanilla broadcasts.

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba 50HX81.
Mistubishi 46809.

Price Paid:  $2999.00 from Ultimate -

Summary:
Excellent HDTV Picture (I got it bundled with a Mits SR_HD400 tuner), very good progressive scan DVD, average cable reception (compared to Hitachi and Pioneer). One of the few 55" 16X9 screens available (most are 53 and 57). More inputs than you will ever need! Wish it had a 720P display option. I considered other models: Toshiba Theater Wide models and Pionneer 58" HD5 (non-Elite mode). I was leaning toward Pioneer at the local warehouse club but the Mits was close in quality and the electronics retailer was running a free HDTV tuner promotion that made this TV a good deal. Overall I am very happy with the Mitsubishi. Good off axis viewing for a projection unit.

Strengths:
Great HDTV and Progressive Scan DVD images, easy to use remote, good focus (in the store WS55819 looked slightly sharper than the next lower model WS55809 with DVD images), 3 component and 4 SV inputs - more than I have ever seen on a TV (now I have to go buy more things to plug into my TV!), love the fact that picture settings are saved with different inputs...I find this important with HDTV as I set the color a little higher on high definition images and lower on standard TV and video tapes...it reduces the need to constantly adjust the color. Very good flesh tones and color temperature settings. I noticed that some people have said they adjusted the color immediately because it was too red when they plugged it in...the installers told me not to touch the picture settings for 24 hours during the break in period (who knows if this is true, but I didn't take any chances...). The next day the color was perfect using the standard factory preset. A word of advice, when you do get an HDTV receiver don't set your expectations too high. Don't get me wrong, it's great. However, I think some people think it will make DVD look like regular TV in comparison. You will not notice much d

Weaknesses:
Lack of 720P display options (720P from ABC up converted to 1080i looks good, but I wonder how much better it would look in native 720P), Sound is not balanced with cable input. For example, cable hooked into a VCR fed back into the AV inputs has much softer sound than the cable hooked up directly to TV. This causes you to adjust the sound up and down frequently when you toggle between cable input and AV inputs. I also wish the Mits had automatic convergence...manual convergence is a must, but when you don't have time it would be nice to have auto...Like most projection TVs, there is a lot of glare in rooms with windows…(I purchased new privacy blinds because of this).

Similar Products Used:
Used Toshiba Theater Wide models and the 58" Pioneer HD5 (non Elite Model) in stores. Replaced 27" Hitachi.