After having to return the first box I picked up from Comcast (DOA) I got the HDTV cable box hooked up and all the cables routed and the MX-700 programmed. Fired everything up and wouldn't you know the first thing that was on to check things out 5 minutes later was Saving Private Ryan on Cinemax HD. And Great Gogly Mogly what an amazing picture! I have read the hype and the various much better/not so much better arguments but holy cow is it great! Although I must say the more gory scenes are now truly stomach turning. Spilled guts on the sand now look very much like spilled guts on the sand as opposed to an indistinct bloody mass. Yech. And the Dolby Digital soundtrack sounded as good as you'd expect.

I also switched between the HD and SD channels during some prime time shows. Lets just say the SD picture I thought was so great before I got the HD tuner hooked up suddenly looks pretty darn blah. I'd say the difference is equal to that between the old CRT and the new TV in SD. It's like taking two order-of-magnitude leaps in picture quality in 3 days.

BTW flipping between 480i and 480p on the DVD player produces a noticeably but subtly sharper picture. I'm not sure if this is because the tv doesn't have to deinterlace the progressive signal before upconverting. I'm going to order the Oppo DVD-981h today. It's be interesting to do a side-by-side between it and the old Panny S35 since I'll be comparing the upconverting prowess of the Oppo v. the TV. Since the Oppo sends a 1080p signal the TV will do no processing at all.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22." "It's the best there is." M22ti VP150 EP350 QS8 M3Ti