I agree with Woodman. I'm in the process of finding a mid-priced HD RPTV. The companies represented in my area are Sony, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Hitachi, RCA, Magnavox and Samsung. I wanted a 51" Hitachi 'S' series (S500 no HD tuner, S700 integrated HD tuner), but apparently you can't find them and Hitachi's new models aren't out yet. As an alternate I had the Mitsubishi WS55613 delivered, but it was terrible. Very out of focus and soft on SD Dishnetwork programs and the different "stretch" formats only made things worse. It's going back this evening and will hopefully be replaced by a Hitachi 57S500/S600 or a model from the 'T' series. They didn't have the 51", but I'm hoping they'll have the larger versions. I looked at these and didn't see the softness or distortions I saw with the Mitsubishi. After looking at most brands offered above I'd rate them in the following order:

Hitachi,Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, RCA, Magnavox

The Hitachi's have good features, picture and build quality. The Toshiba follows with just a few less features. The Mitsubishi had good features and build quality, but I didn't like the picture on SD. The Panasonics looked good, but less features and I didn't like the styling as well as the Hitachi or Toshiba. I used to be a big Sony fan until my KV36XBR250 started having the color distortion on the picture tube. I can't see spending premium cash for a product that has problems throughout their line. The RCA's looked good and were priced well, but are reported by all salepeople I spoke with as having the highest failure rate. The Maganavox had only limited models, no frills, seemed pretty generic. The salesmen didn't push the Maganovox' at all. Hope this helps.