 Versatile, if small monitor/TV Strengths: Good picture, sound
Weaknesses: Screen options, channel delay, no DVI, unsupported options
Summary: This is my first LCD TV, after owning a rear-projection and tube TVs in the past. I set it up in my bedroom across the room from the bed and I appreciate the 1000:1 Image contrast ratio, 8ms pixel response time and supported DTV resolutions of480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i. Although, like most HDTV-READY TV sets, this model does not have an HD tuner, just the regular NTSC one, so I could not verify the picture with an actual HD source, but it gives a passable picture from a standard TV source as well.
There are some options for inputting audio and video sources, 2x composite video inputs (RCA phono), 1 x component video input (RCA phono x 3), 1 x S-Video input (4 pin mini-DIN), 3 x audio line-in (RCA phono x 2), 1 x audio line-out (RCA phono x 2), 1 x VGA input, 1 x Audio line-in, 1 x Headphones. However, no DVI/HDMI inputs, so the only way the manual advises to connect a digital source is via RF or component connections in the back.
There is Vchip and closed captioning support as well as the ability to use PIP (picture in picture) but that option is only available if a PC is connected, if you try to access the PIP function with a VCR or DVD player attached you will get a "not supported" message. You will also find that many other buttons on the remote will get you a "not supported" onscreen message such as: SWAP, FREEZE, FAV and EPG.
The three picture options are 4:3 (normal, square, non-widescreen TV), FULL (supposedly for widescreen pictures such as anamorphic widescreen movies on DVD or HD, but the picture failed to fill the screen for me the way my projection TV does and left the small picture even smaller with 2/3 of the screen still having letterbox bars) and NONLINEAR which is supposed to be a middle ground between the vertical black bars left by the 4:3 mode and the widescreen mode which fills the standard picture to fit the screen but distorting it. The nonlinear mode supposedly leaves the middle of the picture alone and just stretches the sides to fill, but in actuality it seems not much different in looks than the FULL mode and the picture on the sides can definitely be seen as distorted when any action gets too close to it. Again, my projection TV handles this mode much better.
I bought this during a sale with a rebate so I ended up paying only about half the MSRP for it, so for that price, it is not too bad. However, for a TV viewed across the room, 20" is just too small a screen size, and that is even made smaller when watching a widescreen movie that is reduced in size further by the letterboxing, even on a "widescreen" TV such as this. The lack of digital inputs does not seem to me to make it very "HDTV-ready" either.
I would recommend this as a great way to combine TV and a PC monitor but not for use strictly as a TV for any future proof or distance viewing.
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