I purchased a floor model JVC HD-56FN97 from a different store for Christmas because I was floored at the price of $899 that I got and I succumbed to temptation to by my first HDTV.

I love this set! The picture at full 1080p resolution, which is not so hard to find anymore, is just breathtaking, and the 56" size is enough to make it feel like being at the movies. It's amazing! There is no lag effect with this set (maybe because it's a projection TV), frankly I think it's way better than most LCD's that I've seen. The only drawback is you can't hang it on your wall since it's about as deep as an old fashioned TV, but I wasn't hanging mine anyway.

The only downside so far are two things, for which I'm subtracting 1 star from my review:

1. At factory settings the color green/yellow does tend to explode on the screen with neon life! I have made some adjustments to tone things down that have fixed most of this, but there is still a slight tendency to be a little overdone on the green/yellows. I have read elsewhere that you can completely correct this by accessing the Service Menu, but then again that's not something you should have to do! Anyway just by adjusting picture settings and using HDMI input it is no longer a big deal. Frankly the picture is just amazing, especially at this price.

2. The menus are not super easy to use - in particular changing between input sources is a pain, and I find I have to do it frequently. The main problem is there is about a 3 second delay with each input as you scroll through them. It should let you scroll through the input choices and only do the picture adjustment delay when you actually switch inputs!

Overall I've got to say I'm super happy with this set. Those are really the only drawbacks for me. Having a 56" 1080p set that looks awesome in this price range (even the $1550 shown here) seems like a great deal to me.

I bought this TV almost a year ago. The only problem I had with delivery was it came much sooner then expected. I ordered it Dec 19 and Amazon estimated a January delivery date, which was fine because I going to be out of town Christmas week. Eagled called Dec 23 to arrange delivery! Eagle held it for a week until we got back into town.

This is my first HD TV, so I don't have anything to compare it against. I don't see the green hue noted by other reviews. The first thing I noticed was the cooling fan was really loud. A co-worker bought the same model and said his was quiet, so I called the TV repairman and they replaced one of fans because it was very loud. The TV has 3 fans.

After using the TV for 6-7 months, the bulb blew up, which is very pre-mature at 600 hours. Fortunately, the bulb was under warranty, which normally costs $200 to replace. I didn't want to wait 2-3 weeks for the TV repairman to come out and replace the bulb, so I drove across town to picked it up myself. The bulb is easy to replace.

I have basic analog cable, which carries the HD broadcast channels un-encrypted (clear QAM), so I just plug the cable into the digital coax input to get digital HD channels. The analog SD channels don't look very good, but I suspect this is common for most HD TV's.

I use my 5.1 sound system, which sounds much better than the TV speakers, which is probably common with most TV's.

I recently purchased an HD-DVD player (Toshiba hd-d3/a3) and it works fine with the HDMI input. I have The Bourne Identity on DVD and HD-DVD and noticed more detail in some of the scenes, but the improvement of the HD-DVD over the up-converted DVD wasn't huge.

Pros
o Great picture for the money.
o Good connectivity options

Cons
o Poor user software interface (setup menu's)
o Slow switching between channels
o Long term longevity doesn't look promising after replacing the fan and bulb the first year.
o PC input only supports 1024x768 and I cannot get the HDMI input to work with the DVI-D output of my computer (the manual says this isn't supported)

Overall, I'm happy with the TV and hope it lasts a long time.

This TV is an upgrade for me in two ways. First, I was replacing my 42 inch Sony 42A10. Second, I actually ordered the JVC 56FH96 from Pavilion Electronics.

After not hearing that my order had shipped 5 days later, I decided to contact the seller. I talked to a nice guy named Mitch and he informed me that there was a problem with my order and he was about to call me. I thought, "Oh great..."

Well, it turns out that the '96 was discontinued, and even though the Amazon page showed that the '96 was in stock, they had actually sold out. Before I could argue with Mitch he said, "So if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to upgrade you to the 56FN97 at no extra charge." I told him I didn't think that would be a problem, and he put me on hold for a minute while he made sure he had that set in stock. While I waited I reviewed the '97 on Amazon. He got back on the phone with me and had me confirm the change in the order. My set was shipped out the next morning. Unfortunately I had to wait through the weekend before it arrived, but it was worth it.

The set is great. Right out of the box it wasn't really impressive, but after breaking in for a few hours it really started to shine. Detail is very impressive and black level is much better than my Sony. The only gripe one could have with performance is that colors tend toward green (whereas my Sony pushed the red.) This can be remedied with a professional calibration, or by yourself if you are brave enough to use the service menu (you can learn how to do this on AVS Forum, but you really shouldn't monkey around in the service menu with reckless abandon) Any TV of this caliber really can benefit from a professional calibration though, so you may want to consider adding $300 or $400 to the actual price. Don't get me wrong, the TV has a GREAT picture, but with calibration it can be even BETTER.

I've really never seen a better hi-def image than I have on this set. Watching Casino Royale on Blu-ray was a revelation. Playing games on the PS3 is just awesome. This TV has a great picture whether in a dark room or bright room. Off-axis viewing is excellent.

You may hear people complain of "silk screen effect or SSE" which is when you can see the surface of the screen on really bright images, but to me this is not a problem. What is a problem is watching plasmas, LCDs, or conventional TV's with shiny screens that reflect any and all light. RPTV's like this one have a non-reflective screen. No glare! I'll deal with a little SSE any day.

This TV is phenomenal. I can't imagine that it wouldn't make you happy.

I paid a premium because I purchased it over a year ago and I bought it at Best Buy (usually not the cheapest). It is a GREAT TV. We love it.

Broadcast HD looks great. OTA HD looks great. Upsampled DVD looks great. The only picture I have seen that looks better is the high end plasma panels. Most plasmas don't look near as good.

I wouldn't change a thing unless I was able to make myself wait until the prices started to drop.

JimC

Best for Gaming with my PS3. Blue ray looks great. EVERYTHING else is not so good at all! even 1080i dvds do not look very good on my sony upscale dvd player using hdmi. analog tv is absolutely horible. it has issue reproducing ANY image that is not 1080p. AND IT DOES NOT UPSCALE ALL IMAGES TO 1080p LIKE IT SAYS IT DOES. (GENESES TECHNOLOGY) ITS BS. IM TRYING TO SEND MINE BACK BUT IT COST 250 TO SENT IT BACK INCLUDING 10 PERCENT RESTOCK FEE. if you want a good all round tv, dont get this.