Hello. I personally have a 36" flatscreen Sony direct view XBR 4:3 in my game room & the 60" Sony Grand Wega II XBR LCD 16:9 in my living room and love both. I've been a production manager for Sony for 8 years now - however I am VERY unbiased even though I get a HUGE discount on all Sony gear. As a matter of fact I recently traded my PS2 in for an Xbox. Plus even all of my home theater audio equipment consists of all Infinity speakers & a Denon receiver & DVD player. As for the TV's - I've had the 36" for 2 years now & the LCD Wega 60" for 8 months. Directview sets by far have the best viewing angles. But this is where I believe the advantages end. All plasma, DLP, & LCD PJ have much better resolutions & much longer lives plus no burn-in for DLP & LCD which is big for me seeing I use my Xbox often. I auditioned the Samsung HLN567W 56" DLP for 90 days before I got my Sony 60" LCD to see which I liked best (luckily my brother owns a relatively large home theater store and he let me do so). The Samsung DLP was very nice indeed - however the rainbows are too apparent, especially during dark scenes & viewing from angles which is VERY annoying. Also the Sony LCD has higher resolution & more pixels which easily gives it a better picture quality at all times regardless. And though both do have great picture quality you'll definately find especially when viewing progressive scan high resolutions & HDTV the Sony LCD has a much brighter, clearer, crisper & overall better picture. As for the 'black levels' this is a complete non-issue. People blow this way out of proportion. The black levels are very good on the new generation Sony LCD - actually just right. Not too black like direct view sets & yet not too light. I find it better this way as it is MORE theatre like. When you go to the theatre & the screen goes blank/black it looks MUCH like the Sony LCD giving THE best theatre like experience IMO. The theatre movie screen never gets pure black like a plain direct view CRT set. Anyways enough rambling - please feel free to e-mail me with any questions. Have a great experience!

Greg