Great TV, Awesome value!

I wasn't actually in the market for a TV when I bought this one, but I saw a deal ($429 for a 32" LCD!!!) that I couldn't pass up. I thought that I'd just be getting an ok TV, because of the price and the brand, but I was pleasantly surprised...

First off, the picture is incredible in HD. Unfortunately, we live in an apartment complex that cannot currently receive HD programming. However, I still get a perfect HD signal on our over-the-air local channels. I've been to Best Buy to drool over the pictures on the popular name-brand sets on many occasions and I can honestly say that this TV can hold it's own against all but the best of them. Now, it might take some tweaking with the settings to get it just right, but that is to be expected from any new TV. SD programming in overscan mode looks decent, too. It isn't HD, obviously, but you won't be disappointed.

The build of the TV itself feels fairly sturdy to me. It's really rather light, but it doesn't feel cheap or flimsy. It has plenty of inputs, with nice little design features that they call SpineDesign and the Waterfall cable management system. Basically, it just just means that the inputs are organized in a way that makes it easier to organize your cables and keep everything neat. The remote is actually nearly identical to my 20" Polaroid, which means that I didn't have any real problems with it. Nonetheless, it is pretty straightforward, except for a couple of buttons that have some vague pictures. We've only had it for a month or so, but it seems like it'll hold up pretty well. We'll see, I guess.

I do have a couple of issues with it, though. First, the backlight stays on if you use the sleep mode. The picture goes off, but the backlight stays on until you turn it off yourself. If you don't use the sleep mode, then its no problem, but I try to avoid it not, since I'd rather not run up my electrical bill if I forget. Second, the speakers are not that great. They get plenty loud, but the quality of the sound just isn't there. If you turn the high and low all the way up and leave the mid-range at the default setting, it sounds acceptable, but don't expect it to sound great without external speakers. They could be worse, though.

Overall, I think the value that I got couldn't be any better. I'd be satisfied if I'd payed twice as much. If you have external speakers, you won't be able to tell that it isn't a cheap brand TV. Amazing picture, plenty of inputs, and lots of room to tweak it. How can you go wrong.