Would it be a good idea to have a thread here on all-things HDTV, i.e., both tv sets and content?

I finally joined the bandwagon and purchased a 42" Panasonic plasma, replacing a set that was at least 15 years old. And I'm eager to talk about it, particularly since it's all new to me.

For example, this set allows you to customize the settings in various ways. But while I have been reading up (at places like avsforum.com, a pretty techy place), I have many questions about how to go about customizing.

Shall I get more specific, or should I bring my questions to another forum?

Well, I'd definitely read Astroglide's thread in EDF. It's a great resource, not just for HDTV, but everything home theater.

When customizing my HDTV (Sony SXRD projection, 50"), I took the thread on customizing it on avsforum and implemented it verbatim. It made my TV look a little better. Could I do better still? Maybe, but I don't have the time or desire to really eke out every last drop of image quality. It looks great to me, and that's what matters.

The problem with the avsforum (as it pertains to my unit at least) is that there are countless suggestions on the proper settings, which I suppose reflects how subjective this all is.

I'll check out Astroglide's thread, even though I rarely venture to EDF land.

I've got an Hitachi 46" HDTV...looks so spectacular I've become spoiled for HD programming.

I recently bought a cheap HD-DVD player...apparently the wrong choice, however, as 80% of the movie studios are going with Blue Ray...

The more I see, the more I'm convinced that one of the biggest things you can do to improve your picture is just find a way of protecting the screen from as much light as possible. Virtually every set I ever see has its screen hit by direct or reflected sunlight or lamplight, or occasionally even glow from buttons in nearby electronic devices. That grays out the blacks, washes out colors, creates patterns of light on the screen, makes you squint to keep out the glare or just make out what is going on, etc. If light isn't hitting the set, then it's a competing source of light shining into your eyes from another part of the room, fighting to see who's going to win the battle for the size of your pupil. Sometimes you get one eye lit kind of unmolested by outside light and one eye blasted by it. It seems to me that most people think too much about everything but how the rest of the light in the room works, which can have by far the most effect on how richly colored and pleasing your picture is.

Yeah I did the same thing, looks like I'm stuck with the Betamax of DVD players.

My unit is the Panasonic 42" 1080p Plasma TV TH42PZ77, which comes with an anti-glare screen that I really like. It does a terrific job of flattening out the light reflection so that it is not an issue.

Before making the purchase, I had to check it out personally and compare with the version without the anti-glare screen; for some people complain that it has an adverse effect on the picture. But my personal side-by-side comparison made it obvious that any difference was beyond my own powers of observation.

The morning before I made my tv purchase (last Saturday), there was an article in the NYT mentioning the fact that another studio had gone the Blue-Ray route. This was great timing for me, because Best Buy was offering a deal which basically amounted to throwing in a Blue-Ray player for free (a $500 value).

Looks like Blu Ray may win the war.

Wynton - you should ask the place that sold you the set to show you how to save settings for different inputs - I know sets can do that. And seriously look into treating yourself to a professional calibration.

I figured out how to save settings.

Are professional calibrations really worth it? Stupid question, I guess, otherwise you wouldn't have said so.

I'd be pretty skeptical about the merits of professional calibration unless I had a seriously dedicated room to watching TV. Like, it might be worth 20-50 bucks to me, but any more than that and I couldn't believe that it'd be worth it. Any more than that, and I might as well just spend the time fidgeting w/ all the settings myself until it looks perfect to me.

Read the calibration thread on AVS - people swear by them - It just depends on how much you are into it ike any other "hobby" Are 3,000 speakers worth it to some people? Are 2,000 lenses worth it to some photographers. You have to decide.