I purchased this TV for $2400+tax in November 2005. In April 2007 it ceased to function. Fortunately I had the Best Buy (should be called Worst Buy) 4 year performance service plan (for which I paid an additional $400). It took a few days for the independent contractor that services the warranty to pick up the set, then it took 2 weeks for me to get it back. When I got it back it turned on just fine the first time. The second time I tried to turn it on it no longer worked. It's back in the contractor's shop now for who knows how long. Best Buy won't replace the TV until the FOURTH time it fails to work....I will update this review...

I was afraid to order a large screen HDTV over the Internet, but the entire experience with the vendor and product was fantastic!

The TV was easy to move and easy to setup. I connected an indoor antenna to it to setup the over-the-air local HD channels and it picked them up immediately. I am amazed, especially with football games and travel shows in HDTV. I am also very pleased with the ease of setting the Sony for up to 6 inputs.
I was able to call Sony and purchased a 5 year warranty extension on this 55" HDTV for less than $300.

Can't say enough good things about this TV. I am an avid Xbox 360 gamer and games look AWESOME at 1080i! I also have about 300 DVDs I am currently enjoying another viewing of on this beautiful screen. Great size for my room as I am only about 10 feet away from the TV. I wouldn't want to be any closer, as in bright scenes, I can see the "screen door affect" that many people complain about on rear LCDs. It bothered me at first, but I quickly got used to it.

Color was kinda crappy at the factory settings. I popped in a copy of Finding Nemo, and went through the THX Video Optimizer, and now it is beautiful.

I've seen a few reviews that said their satellite or digital cable looked better on this than their old CRT TV. I find this hard to believe. I had Dish Network hooked up with an S-Video cable (no component outputs on my receiver), and it is OK, but it is not nearly as good as my RCA 36' by any stretch. I quickly upgraded to an HD satellite receiver, and couldn't believe the difference. Crystal clarity. Even the non HD programming looked better because the satellite upconverts SD programming, but HD is where this baby really shines!

Speaking of upconverting, you might want to consider investing in an upconverting DVD player, unless you want to wait and see what happens with Blu-Ray/HD DVD. I got the Oppo 971, and using the DVI to HDMI interface made a world of difference in picture quality, even compared to my progressive scan DVD player with component outputs that I already thought was pretty decent on this TV.

Also remember garbage in, garbage out. Some of your older DVDs, and anything on a video tape will look mediocre to terrible on this HD set. It will show every single bit of noise and quality flaws.

I can't fault the TV for any of the issues described above, so that is why I still gave 5 stars. Just be aware if you are not planning to upgrade to HD cable or satellite, you may be disappointed with picture quality. If you plan to upgrade, then I highly recommend this TV.

I was considering buying a Samsung DLP as that was what many suggested...even had one on order...but cancelled to purchase the 55" Grand WEGA. Several reason included:

1) I found the contrast of the DLP to be too unnatural. I know that it is good to have a bright picture...but it was too contrasty. Movies which I have seen in the theatre didn't look proper.

2) I like the speakers on the side of the screen. Reason is that it creates a consistent backdrop that is at the same distance from the viewer's eye to the image and backdrop... to accentuate the picture. Too bad not very many TVs follow this...as I guess that it is a fashion item where consumers want less of a tv frame.

3) Lamp should be easy to change when that is necessary. From what I can gather from the manual, you pull open a door on front and slide in a unit. Reasonable at about $160 so no big deal.

4) Non-HD programming looks good. Sony has an 'upconverter' through its 'digital reality creation' video processing. So non-HD programing is upgraded to near HD by digital mapping.

For those that are shopping....make sure to view the TVs at various stores. Each store have different setups and configurations.

This TV should suit us fine for years ahead.

We saw this tv at circuit city for 2500, and I told my husband we should go home and look on Amazon, well needless to say there it was for 1999, plus no tax and free shipping. The picture is good, we love it. The only bad I have is that we were supposed to have delivery and set-up, but the delivery guys said they do not do set-ups. I was suprised to find out that set-up was easy and the tv was not very heavy at all.