And having had 2 truly appalling examples of poor reliability and crap service (2 months out of warranty and its totally useless, we don't care) we won't touch Panasonic, so take your pick. We've got a lot of Sony stuff, but they failed on the AV amp as their amps can't cope with the output of their own blu-ray players on SACDs (but Onkyo amps can). Sony UK are not great communicators, though... We are still aiming at a Sony TV after the TV folk eventually get off their fat lazy incompetent arses and give us HD Freeview (and maybe then I can stop shouting LIARS! at the TV every time the BBC advertise something as being in HD...) However, we looked at the KDL EX524, which ticked all the boxes, and recently we saw one in a shop, thought it actually looked quite nce, and then I grabbed the remote, and promptly dropped it. It is such an appalling un hand-friendly shape! Sharp corners on the back, and a concave rear. What idiot designed that? We're hoping for a new model soon, and hopefully WITHOUT stupid analogue options which are no use to man nor beast, but clutter up the remote and add needless cost.
Don't forget that some of the options are about the method of screen backlighting. We want an LED backlit one for its somnewhat enhanced energy efficiency. We also want internet connectivity, and the ability to record to an attached USB hard disc. This will save buying a new HD hard disc recorder for the few progs that are actually HD and worth the trouble to record in HD. the function of a telly seems to hve changed, its now for watching Youtube and iplayer, as well as viewing your photos. I spent an excessive amount of time watching Youtube videos of new Zealand steam engines, as our blu ray player already has access to this stuff.