Thanks, billyTHE kid for your suggestions. Regarding #1: I guess I haven't yet figured out how to feed audio out from the TV without turning off its speakers.

Regarding #2: I'll do that. I suppose I haven't fiddled around with the input on/off's yet. The TV is very intuitive, but I need to read a bit more.
....and thanks.

FWIW, I ordered a 50" version of the Sony SXRD set the other day. I'm out of town for a week, so I won't be able to report on the set for a while, but the early reviews are good, and as my wife said "anything will be an improvement over what we've got now." She is actually excited about the new set.

The other new equipment she may begin to wonder where it came from though.

I also ordered the 50in - it has been shipped to me and should be delivered sometime in the next day or so.

Early reviews were good...but now those crazies over on AVSForum are reporting a bunch of issues/shortcomings...I'm kind of getting scared and asking myself why I ordered this thing so early without even seeing it.

Oh well, you live and learn.

ralittle2 wrote:
my wife said "anything will be an improvement over what we've got now

RIGHT-ON

My wife said something like: AT LAST WE HAVE A TELEVISION AT LEAST AS GOOD AS THAT OF OUR CHILDREN!!

I can recall sitting for hours listening intently to different CD players to the minute differences between them. I went with the more expensive one and it broke. I then brought home a fine Denon unit that cost less, and once set up in my house I enjoyed it for many years never once thinking about almost inaudible subtle details.

I'm sure it'll be the same with this TV.

I'm glad to see the progress in display technology. I'm not ready to jump yet because:

There is too little material currently available to justify buying true 1080p at this time. This may change soon, but not quite yet.

Over the next year or so, the brand new technologies will be maturing and become more cost effective.

The new triple-color LED light source DLP looks interesting - no color wheel and the light source seems to be rated at 20,000 hours. A 20,000 hour light source wouldn't have me sweating every hour I'm watching, but then this system uses 'wobulation' to acheive 1080 lines. Let's see what develops.

Actually, from what I understand the new laser DLP systems won't be wobulated. They'll be full 1080, although as it's still only a single chip design, I would expect to see more motion artifacts and what not when compared to SXRD. Oh and you pay $1000 more for the priveledge of buying a newer technology, whereas the new 50" SXRD is $2800 MSRP.

I have to say that based on my research, at the moment for 50" to 60" screens there's nothing that touches the SXRD in performance and price.

For DLP RP with a multiple-LED light source, after a bit more searching, depending on the brand and screen size, I've seen descriptions stating that some models will and some models won't have 'wobulation.' The earlier articles I read only mentioned models with wobulation. Depending on size and brand, the prices seem to be ranging from $2K+ to $4K+. Less $ means a smaller screen with wobulation, more $ means a larger screen without wobulation. Either way, I'm not too concerned right now as I will likely be waiting a good while before moving toward 1080p HD. Sony SXRD may be the way to go if you are buying quite soon.

Perhaps a new topic is in order: "DLP with LED's as a Light Source"

bestbang4thebuck,
i happen to see a live and working LED samsung at 54". it was showing a HD brodcast of a college football game.
in a word: WOW!. Then the source material was switched over to a NASCAR race. I wish i had a cold one. I was ready to watch the entire race and i'm not much of a race fan.

BloggingITguy,
Have you checked out a properly set up HP DLP at 65"? ssaaweeeet. And yes i have seen a sony SXRD.
And the motion artifact will probably disappear.... considering the mirrors dither extreamly fast.

From the stuff i have been hearing/reading - there are some cool things happening in DLP.

A little off-topic.
I get sales bulletins from buy.com.
While I don't need this I thought I'd pass it on to the forum guys:

BUY.COM 50 inch Plasma TV on sale