Yes, when I bought the TV it had a great picture in the store, and still does. I just like the picture of DLP's much better. That is probably in no small part due to the fact that they are all running HDTV loops which look GREAT.
The biggest knock which has bothered me since day one is the Toshiba RP CRT's of a couple of a years ago had a real strong green push. Combine that with an iffy cable signal and you a get a grumpy little hermit.
As for my present DVD player it is a decent unit (Panasonic DVD-F65). The quality of the DVD picture is at LEAST twice as good as my cable picture, and probably a lot more depending on the channel.

Shane D