One thing to remember when looking at projection screen TVs....

They work a lot like a laptop. Theire viewing area is not from all angles. TVs on display at the stores are usually set higher than they will be in your home. This is done so that they look relatively good while you are walking by.

I had a Sony Vega Tube TV that was replaced with an RCA 61-inch projection...My wife used to lie on the couch and watch TV. With the projection screen, if she does that, the picture becomes darker as she is no longer in the 'optimal viewable' area.

However, I do love my TV. You just have to get used to not being able to watch it from the sides. :)

Oh, and also, remember to use your convergence (may be named differentl on different TVs) feature once every couple of weeks. Convergence re-aligns the CRTs that make up the full picture restoring the projected image to the proper clarity and color. If you go too long without 'resetting' it, your pictures may start to look fuzzy, or ghosted.

RCA says you should only need to do it once every couple months, but if you are picky about your images, you will find yourself doing it every couple weeks to once a month.

Thanks for the tips! I keep wondering that if I end up with the Hitachi, that it will be 'more' TV for me than I need. Not in size, but because it is a wide screen, and I watch most of my shows off the network channels. Movies are probably only about 10-15% of my weekly viewing.

Julie:
I have actually been using a widescreen video projector with a 100" diagonal as my regular TV for the last 6 years...would never trade this one in...:-)

In order to answer your first question: Since the Hotachi uses CRTs and not LCDs or DLPs that require a lamp, it should "behave" like a regular TV as far as lifetime is concerned. Could be that the life of such a highpower CRT is somewhat shorter than the one of a regular CRT in a TV set, but I would not believe that this should be really a dramatical difference. Whereas with the lamps.. (I had a Sony LCD first, and since January I own the wonderful NEC HT1000 DLP projector)...you are entitled for a new lamp every 2000 hors or so...the way I use it this leads to $500 expenses every year...but then...I save a lot on cinema tickets, and expensive colas and popcorn...lol...

re. the screen proportion 4:3 vs 16:9:
If you really prefer, you can always watch in 4:3 mode and then have two black lines at the right and the left. What I do however: I always watch in 16:9 and use the zoom mode, which blows the picture up and cuts off the upper and lower lines. This can be disturbing for subtitles at times...I don't care...actually the Sony even had a "subtitle" mode: it would squeeze the lower third of the picture in total into the picture so you could see everything, even though distorted.

Whatever: I really feel that 16:9 is a much nicer way of viewing anything. I think the reason is that it corresponds much more to our natural way of viewing..(we see much more left to right content than up/down spread with one glance).

Whatever you decide to do: I hope you will enjoy your new TV...

Andy

That is where it gets dodgy.

Having an HDTV capable television (does the Hitachi COME with a converter, or do you need to buy separately?) can be wonderful...IF you have a way to view HDTV programming.

To watch HDTV you can do it one of three ways (this applies to me in Phoenix, AZ).

One, I can buy an HDTV antenna, which is a lot like a standard TV antenna for over-the-air signal. However, it specifically pulls for HDTV signals. Haven't tried it, as I cannot mount the antenna properly on my roof to get the best signal. This option also is only effective if you have stations broadcasting OTV HDTV signals. My area has only three out of our eight local stations (CBS, FOX, PBS).

Two, you can opt for the signal to be delivered via cable. In my area Cox Cable has HDTV channels. You must buy a special converter from Cox in order to receive and watch the channels. However, if your TV does not have a built-in HDTV decoder, the Cox box will decode the HDTV signals. If your TV DOES have a built-in decoder, you must still use the Cox box decoder. Go figure. Again, this only provides you with the channels that they actually broadcast in HDTV. In my area that is HBO, Showtime, PBS, Discovery, and our local ABC affiliate.

Three, you can opt for satellite. Downside? You must get an oval dish, which run a bit more, as they have dual LNB (or triple depending on the model). DirecTV requires a triple-LNB oval dish to get all of its HDTV programming. This option requires a built-in or self purchased HDTV decoder. Major downside? As satellite is nationwide they claim to have no plans on offering local channels in HDTV. They currently provide HBO, Showtime, a PPV HDTV channel, and HDNet (http://www.hd.net).

I had DirecTV, so I stayed with them.

The only other benefit is from a progressive scan DVD player (non-progressive scan works too, but doesn't look as beautiful :) ), as DVDs fill the whole screen and look wonderful.

All widescreen TVs can 'stretch' the image to make it will the whole screen...But if you remember older movies where everyone looked super tall and thin (stretched a widescreen movie vertically to fill the black bars), TV shows tend to look squat and fat. Otherwise you watch TV with black (or gray depending on TV model) bars on the left and the right.

Hope that helps. :)

I'm not going to do you a favor by telling you this (a true gadget freak like anyone reading this will be in trouble):

Here's where to get the best expert advice, bar none, on the web or in person, AVS Forum

You've been warned - prepare to enter a new realm of obsession.

Randy