I have put in both the Mits and the Elite and even though I bought the Mits Diamond, the Elite does ever so slightly look like a better picture to me. From what I understand (and I could be wrong on this but I read it somewhere) it has the ability to Progressive scan its inputs like DVD even if you don't have a progressive scan DVD player? As I read from an earlier post my Mits only has 3 screen modes where as the Elite has 5. Maybe the 2001 mits has 5?

I have been itching to upgrade to a digital TV. About 75% of my viewing is TV through a Dish satellite, so I have been leaning towards the puchase of a 4:3 set since everyone says it will be a couple of years before HDTV broadcasts become mainstream. (I really like the 61" Sony) I would like to purchase a 16:9, but I am worried about how regular NTSC broadcasts will look on these sets. Most of the places I have seen TV's have a programmed HDTV feed, and not an NTSC signal. My question is how do most 16:9 owners view NTSC broadcasts, and how distorted are these images when they are stretched? I have seen Mitsubishi TV's that use the grey bars on each side, but I do not like that mode. Also, a salesman stated that you should not use that mode more than 15% of your viewing time since it may burn the bars into the monitor.

Should I stay with 4:3 and deal with black bars only on DVD's?

You get used to the slightly stretched mode very quickly. Even when switching between 4:3 pictures broadcast as 16:9 with bars on digital stations, which appear in normal proportion, and 4:3 pictures that are stretched to fill the screen, the distortion disappears in a matter of seconds.

Interestingly, switching between either mode looks funny for a few seconds.

I was told (and saw for myself) that the new Mist's have a feature that only strecthes the outer edges to fill the 16:9 when watching 4:3 tv. This is my greatest concern, as 90% of tv is still 4:3 analog. The stretching feature looked real nice, as the central part of the image is unaffected by the strecting and thus less obviuosly tweaked. Also of note, Mits has some sort of built in upgradabilty which the company promises will allow NEAR-future upgrades to the newest technologies. I now have criteria before I buy my 55" HDTV. 1)The HDTV decoder must be built in, and 2) It must be less than $2,500. When these requiremnts are met, I will buy one.

Steve

IMHO

Just thought I'd pipe in on this one. I have the 46" HDTV from Mitsubishi. I looked at the Pioneer and the larger Mits but decided early on that I didn't want anything larger than ~50" for my room (15'x19'). I didn't want the TV to dominate the rest of the room.

I'd have to say that I made the right decision. The 46" is very easy to veiw from 20' away and still looks good at 8-10'.

Before buying a REAL beig TV make sure that you determine the viewing distances for the room where you are going to use the TV. If most of your viewing positions are under 12' you might not like the 60"+ tvs. I think many people buy tv that are too large for their veiwing areas and then end up paying restocking fees to the stores.