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True Blue,
I was in the same situation until recently. I previously had a Panny 32" Quintrix CRT which I have been more than happy with, but wanting to upgrade to HD, I have been watching events all this year as to determine which TV to buy. My viewing distance recommended 40/42" and I have been wavering between Panny's and Sony's. After many, many viewings, seeing the TV's in friends/family's homes in "real" conditons, and reading all the write-ups I choose the Sony KDL 40W4500 and Sony S550 Blu ray player. I basically let my eyes do the talking and I just found the Sony's overall picture quality, definition, colours, contrast and motion, to be the most natural and pleasing. I too was concerned about backlight/clouding issues but just as concerned with screen burn problems. I was also concerned with SD quality on the Sony's. Well, having collected my new TV on Monday, I can happily say I am gobsmacked. Easy to install and set up, brilliant Digital tuner in both SD and HD (I live in France and receive the French free to air channels (TNT) of which 4 are HD), awesome upscaling of my existing DVD collection and equivalent if not better SD pictures from my Sky Digibox via scart. The downsides are slightly inferior sound compared to my CRT TV and image quality reduction on Sky SD via scart when 45 degrees or more off-axis. Sound though is adressed through my surround sound system and the Digibox will be swapped out soon for a Humax HD Freesat box giving me TV via HDMI. No backlight problems. I do get the "four torches" in each corner of the TV when the screen is completey blank/black but I would expect this to a degree given the level of backlighting, which you can turn down anyway. The acid test is whether it affects the viewing pleasure/image quality, but it doesn't seem to, to me. I have been a life long Panasonic fan so the switch has been a hard one from a brand loyalty point of view but one that I now don't regret. Apologies if I have thrown a spanner in the works.
Sony KDL 40W4500, Sony DMP-S550, Yamaha DSP E800 AV processor, Arcam A85 amp, Roksan Caspian CD, Monitor Audio Gold Reference 20 fronts/surrounds, Sky Digibox
Sony KDL40W4500, Sony BDP-S550, Humax Foxsat HDR, QED Performance HDMI cables, Yamaha DSP-E800 processor, Roksan Caspian CD, Arcam A85 Amp, Monitor Audio GR20 speakers,Chord Chorus interconnects.
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