I researched for about 6 or 7 months (not sure if that trait is a shortcoming or a virtue?) before I bought a Sony XBR4. I thought that I was going to buy a Mitsubishi because it had the narrow bezel and a 52" could fit into my cabinet. Both the Sony and the Mits Diamond have the 120 hz refresh.
I was coming back early from a business trip around 2:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday. Since I was in research mode for a TV, returning to the office was the furtherest thing from my mind. I stopped into the Tweeter in Winston-Salem and I was the only customer in there for over 2 hours. The Mits and the Sony were together...so some of the sales staff and I sat down, adjusted the lighting so that it was not on the TV's and proceeded to play and adjust the TVs. We checked out all kinds of material and feeds from Blue Ray to regular upconvert DVD to cable. We placed the TVs on similar settings (out of torch mode) and compared and compared. For me, the Sony stood out and I ultimately bought it. Of course it is way too big for the cabinet, so I put it in the bonus room over the garage. The acoustics are much better there anyway - so when I finally go Large with the Axioms, the sound quality will be better with no need for room treatement. Truthfully, if you had either TV at home without the other to compare to, you would be stunned with the excellence of the picture - given a good input - but enough about me.
I do not see any funky artifacts or picture quality with the 120 hz. I have never seen motion blur during movies or sports - including the Superbowl, Soccer or the ACC Playoffs or the NCAAs. I have never seen the ghosting or clouding or flashlights or any of the other problems reported over on AVS. I purposely waited for the 120 hz to avoid the blur. It may not have been present on 60 hz - I did not bother to check it out.
I did have picture quality problems - but they were related to the cable signal strength and on the third service call, Time Warner sent in the "A Team". He checked strength up and down the street until he determined that I needed a booster. That cleared up the problems.......probably TMI (too much info - as my daughter says) but there you are.............Argon
