Rear Projection TV

Although I do beleive that Mitsubishi is better than average ( I own one ) If I had the money to spend it would have been the Pioneer Elite. Regular Pioneer is not on the level of Mitsubishi or Sony, It would be better compared to the RCA,Hitachi,Toshiba, Samsung,Sears LXi. The Elite is in a class by itself. In my area it is usually easy to distinguish the combination of quality and price they are not far from each other in most cases. Remember once its in your house there will not be anything beside it to compare it to so its even easier to look good there.

EG1 is right. Pioneer is tops, but depending on whose model is most current, Toshiba and Sony are next. Mitsubishi does not withstand comparison, although they make a good TV.

One manufacturer left out of this discussion is Zenith. They have two new HD units, one a 56", the other a 64". VERY impressive picture, and priced competitively with the Elite and others of the same caliber.

I looked at all the above mentioned and I thought the Pioneer excelled above all but one. I bought a 60" Marantz. I thought the Picture quality was the best I have ever seen on a rear projection. No matter what you decide on spend the extra 50 bucks and get Vedio Essentials to set it up. It makes a huge difference.

Unfortunately, there is not one best rear projection manufacturer. Mitsu is O.K., and so is Pioneer. Pioneer's products are usually priced at higher price points, so its not fair to compare them to cheaper alternatives. Currently, Toshiba's products will give you some of the best picture for the money (after you have it tweaked by an ISF technician). This is ABSOLUTLY CRITICAL in order to get the best picture. There is no, I mean no rear projection tv that is set up correctly out of the box. Most manufacturers realize that consumers don't know what proper black levels or gray scales look like, or flesh tones for that matter. They do realize that people will try to make a purchace decision based on what the set looks like in a flourscently lit showroom. So they tweak (read innacuratly adjust) the set to look appealing in this environment, exagerate the blue gun to make the picture punchy, and throw in a little red to make the fleshtones more appealing. No matter how you try to adjust the picture from the user remote, you will not see the actual potential of the set. If you want a great picture, plan on spending that extra $300 or so and get it "fixed" by your local area ISF technician.