Great if used for HD, progressive sources

First of all, I originally purchased a 23" Samsung LCD for my den...but it was a little small for the room and lacked an HDTV tuner.

So, I ended up back at Circuit City (great price match program) and purchased this Sharp TV. I would have went with the 26" Samsung HDTV w/tuner but it wasn't within my budget.

First off, this may not be as aesthetically pleasing as last year's Sharp models, but it does have a very shiny exterior that matches my other black components. So, while I could go on and on with the pros of this screen, you'll be able to notice these while demo'ing a model; instead I'll elaborate on some of the cons I've noticed since setup.

The good:
is the HD tuner, I was surprised how easy I could receive HD channels. Rabbit ears gave me 35% reception without dropouts, and a $50 HDTV antenna from Radioshack pushed it to 100%. Though the set lacks the contrast seen in Samsung screens, HD programming is very nice on this panel.

The bad:
Some reviews have criticized Sharp for using Orion-thailand to assemble their TVs, but the quality is still pretty high. However, the panel is a little lackluster. There is a noticeable red tint when the screen is displaying a black or dark image. And depending on the source (HD vs SD) there is a blotchiness to some of the darker colors. I haven't noticed this during watching HD programs.

I believe the below average SD picture quality is affected by the cheap A/V inputs when using composite or s-video inputs. For example, my non-HD satellite box is connected via S-Video and there is noticeable ghosting of the image from this input. If you watch the same program (for example Seinfeld on Fox-Chicago) through the OTA HD tuner, there is no ghosting and no blotchiness.

Nevertheless, the extra features this set has, especially the Dolby Digital coaxial output, 2 HDMI inputs, and simple OTA HD tuner make this set worth it. But I'd still go for the Samsung if you can afford it.