I have had pretty good results with CENTER WIDTH set at 4 or 5 - you can try both and see what sounds best to you.

Re: "I would have assumed that in this day and age almost every TV broadcast would be in stereo." While with most major stations the signal may utilize the stereo feature, my experience is that in all-too-many programs the same signal is broadcast in both the right and left channels. This explains the lack of sonic impact with PL II - and it is not the fault of the equipment.