Help me find a new HDTV...... for $3500

Read avsforum.com, you will find much more info there.

Samsung DLP has its drawback especially when watching non-HD program. The rainbow effect bothers some, but not others. You might be surprised how good a 42" EDTV plasma look on both non-HD and HD signals. Panasonic, Fujitsu, NEC are worth checking out.

Mine is the HL"N" model which should have the new chip. I seem to remember the previous version was HL"M" and did not have DVI input. Maybe it was $5k at one time but is much cheaper now. I think if I bought mine new and without a coupon it would have been around $3.6k

Thanks Ed and everyone else who have replied. I will indeed check out the Samsung, although if I buy one I'll have to tape over the name or something. If the moire is as bad as some have hinted, I might be looking at a good ol' three gun RPTV, though.

Pinkalby- The three sets I mentioned above have made the Samsung, and any other one-chip LCD rear projector obsolete. AND, they're all several hundred dollars cheaper than the Samsung. I went back to Circuit City for more viewing of the three three-chip sets, which are not only lined up next to each other, but the Samsung is right next to them. Disreagarding the fact that the sets are all on the floor out of the box (not well adjusted), the three sets blew the Samsung away for black level (should be called green level on the Samsung) .... for what it's worth.

I recommend you go to a different store than CC or BB, one where there is a better chance they have all the TVs reasonably well adjusted to provide a better comparison. You'll also get better advice IMO. I ended up buying from a relatively small local audio/video chain, and I got a better price than the big name stores!

Different people prefer different sets, and different people have different priorities.

For me, my first priority is DVD and I opted for the Samsung DLP (HLN617W on order) because it seems to thrive with a DVI equipped DVD player, much more so than other sets. DVI DVD on a Samsung is supposed to be outstanding, and this was very important to me.

My second priority is HDTV, and I did a lot of comparison viewing with HDTV sources. I thought all the new technology sets (DLP and LCD, never saw an LCOS) were better than CRT based sets. Of the newer technology sets, on average I preferred the Samsung. Sometimes the Sony GWIII looked a bit better than the Samsung while other times the Sony looked washed out and pale in comparison. The Samsung was more consistently appealing to me. The few times I saw the Hitachi and Panasonic LCD sets, they did not stand out to me compared to the Sony or Samsung.

SDTV is a distant 3rd priority for me, so I did not do any SDTV comparisons.

Good luck in your choice,
Bruce