[ls7z06]

Well, I messed around with my new TV all weekend and found it was hard to improve on a near perfect picture.

I did take the cnet review and use their setting for the Pure Mode. I know they say that is the most accurate TV they had ever tested with those settings in Pure. But personally, I thought it was just a little drab. Nevertheless, I left the settings in and found if I disabled the auto light sensor, the pic did brighten up to an acceptable level.

I thought the factory mode for Sport was too blingy. Seemed like everything was too bright and colors were over saturated.

I thought Optimal Mode was pretty good and not quite as over-done as Sport mode. But of course these settings are not adjustable.

I really think where I had my best luck was in Standard Mode. I think Standard Mode allows your adjustments to really work without neutralizing them some other way. I made a few tweeks and was just amazed at this TV. I paid for a ISF calibration when I bought it, but I can't see how you can improve on this.

So I think I will use Optimal Mode for sports, and Standard mode for most everything else. Pure mode might be good for certain movies too.

Hate to confess on this forum... but I do still have my old HD DVD player and I only have King Kong in HD DVD. So I plugged it in. Those jungle scenes are simply the best picture I have ever seen in my life. Period. Well maybe except for some of the Planet Earth series Blu-rays I also watched.

Then I got curious all over again about pic difference in HD DVD and Blu-ray. So I dug up my Transformers movies. I have it in both formats. I would run it up to the same frame on both players and freeze it. Then toggle back and forth. Very little difference if any and my Oppo BR player is probably a better machine than the old Toshiba. So I determined it was not the HD-DVD making the pic so good. It was just the TV doing its job.

I really cant find anything to throw at the TV that does not look incredible (note-I never watch standard def TV channels!). HD-DVD, Blu-ray, up converted DVD, all high def TV, football, baseball, car races all look super.

No doubt these are pricey TV's. However, I sure don't regret the investment and can testify that in this case you get what you pay for, if not more. If you are considering one of these..... Take the plunge. You will not regret it.