Sony recently made an announcement that they were getting out of the Rear Projection game and would be focused on the highly competitive LCD market. So why is it then that I have just spent some of my hard earned cash on a Sony 55″ Rear Projection TV?

Well if we look closely at the reasons behind this it is purely down to the market in the UK - we seem to love our TVs flat and sometimes, in my opinion, can get blinded by a poor quality TV, in terms of picture quality, when it looks so sexy switched off.  I  know my wife would have preferred me to get an LCD or Plasma, but she agreed that when comparing like for like the Rear Projection knocked spots of other LCD and Plasma systems on display. Now I’m not saying Rear Projection is a better technology, what I’m trying to say is that bang for buck, in my opinion, you can get better picture quality, especially for standard definition TV out of a rear projection set.

Another complaint I hear is that the rear projection sets are too bulky. Now let’s consider the size of an LCD or Plasma for one moment. Unless you are going to hang it on a wall, which can present its own issues, then you will also require a stand. During the viewing in the shop we measured a range of stands and it turns out that having a 55″ rear projection TV would only add an additional 2 inches of depth due to the pretty standard size of stands these days. Finally the first thing a lot of people will say will be in regards to the bulb life. Well I’ve owned a 40″ Toshiba rear projection set for almost 7 years and it’s still running strong on the original bulb. The bulbs in fact should be good for between 4000 and 8000 hours and cost around £150 to replace. I wont linger too long on the subject but you can search on Google to find out the additional electricity costs of running an LCD or Plasma for 8000 hours in comparison to the  rear projection.

Now I don’t want to be seen as giving LCD or Plasma screens a bad name - in fact in the coming years I’m sure I will own one and you can pickup some pretty good sets already. Just right now, and before they are gone forever, you may want to at least consider rear projection. Did someone say Sony 70″ ?