"I am extremely pleased with Westinghouse TX-42F430S. The picture is bright and clear and the colors are excellent. I am completely satisfied with the purchase and recommend this device to anyone.

Expanded Review:
First, I defined my goals: From about 8 feet away I want to watch High Definition DVD's at 1080p, watch High Definition television including local channels, connect some gaming consoles, connect a PC, and connect my surround sound receiver.

I looked at different products for a year. I would compare the appearance between the different sets in the store, read online reviews, talked to friends, and read product specifications.

I decided on the following and intended to act before the end of summer: I would obtain a decent 42" LCD with all of the necessary connectors for under $1600, I would purchase a PS3 for Blu-ray as well as HD gaming with the bonus that it will upconvert my current DVD's, and upgrade my current cable service to HD for HD television viewing. I figured to spend about $2000-$2200.

When the PS3 price dropped to $500 it figured it was time to move. The contenders after my research included the Samsung, Sony, LG, and the Westinghouse LVM-42W2. Most were over the limit to what I was comfortable spending so it came down to the LVM-42w2. When I went to find it I discovered the TX-42F430S that had been recently introduced. Additionally it was available at a local yellow tagged electronics superstore for the best price advertised. I was able to view this unit side by side with the other available LCD's and it looked just as good, to me, as much more expensive models. I realized however that the signal being pumped into those devices on the wall was not a 1080p signal and that the picture at home might look different. At that point I figured it was bright, the colors were coming through, the menu system was functional, and it was the lowest priced 42" 1080p LCD available ($1299). I bought it with a matching of the online deal that threw in a Sony HT-DDW790 home theater system and a 60 day in house price match. The following Sunday 7/29 it went on sale for $1099. I got the price match ($200 back) and sold the HT system for $120. So, total for this system with PS3 was right about $1500 plus cables, controllers, Blu-ray Planet Earth, and a couple of games for the PS3. I feel good.
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    "I love Westinghouse TX-42F430S, bought from Costco about 5 months ago because of the price. I had Samsung that I returned to Amazon, I could not watch the Samsung in daylight unless I sat on the floor...Westinghouse gives great picture night and day. Westinghouse scanned antenna channels better than Samsung and has more options if you want to make adjustments.
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    "owned Westinghouse TX-42F430S Two weeks. I'm a technical person, but did not deeply delve into the finer details of HD TV's. I bought this because it hit my primary criteria: Really good HDMI support (4 inputs); 1080i/720p (this does 1080p, bonus); support for an antenna to get local over-the-air digital signals (most of the HD I've been able to watch has been using an antenna - I live within 15 miles of Seattle). Now I'm in the market for an HD Tivo. I'm not a huge TV watcher (~five hours weekly), I own Tivo so I can scrape together the meager shows offered by local channels, rather than pay $1k annually to cable/dish. Pros: The HD picture is excellent, bright colors, sharp; stunning compared to the 480i/p sources (regular DVDs, Tivo Series 2). I'm excited to be watching 720p/1080i over-the-air in this quality, it's impressed the entire family. Cons: Power On/Off and switching between sources is slow (4 seconds), no big deal to me, but it kills me when my family isn't patient enough to let the universal remote do it's job and they repeat uneccessary commands until everything is confused. My TV had a cluster of permantly-on pixels - hard to see from 7 feet, and up closer most thought it was a smudge; it can be seen only when the there's no picture. I suspect I can get that taken care of via the 90 day warranty. Next, black/dark colors are pretty blotchy, I knew this was the case from other reviews - doesn't bother me still now that I've seen it; but you will "know" what I'm talking about when you see it. Most annoying: sometimes, when watching 1080i/p sources, the very lowest, and/or highest line of pixels flash white noise. Meaning right at the top of the screen, or right at the bottom of the screen (no research done yet to see how to remedy or if it's even the TV's fault, might be my source, not the TV, but I've seen it with both antenna, and a cheap upscaling DVD player). Worst case is I install 1/16" opaque strip of something along the top/bottom of the screen. Overall: For the money I'm way happy. This is a huge upgrade from the 25" CRT that's been the family TV for the last 10 years. I don't like to pay for the bleeding edge of technology and I think this TV is going to be an excellent value, to bridge the 3 year gap (my novice estimate) while the industry gets its act together (while more and more broadcasters dump their low resolution camers; while cable/dish start to think about packaging content for cheap skates like me). And then this TV can move into the bedroom when "

    "Strengths:Westinghouse TX-42F430S has PRICE, QUALITY

Weaknesses: OCCASIONAL WHITE LINE ACROSS THE TOP RIM OF TV SCREEN

Overall Evaluation: I GOT A STEAL ON THIS 42INCH. I ONLY PAID $649 AT BJS FOR IT. I WAS SKEPTICAL AT FIRST BECAUSE OF THE PRICE, BUT WHEN I GOT IT HOME AND HOOKED IT UP, I HAVE NO REGRETS!!!

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    "I have owned a 27 inch Westinghouse LCD TV for a couple years now, with absolutely no trouble and offer nothing but glowing reports about it. However, my older Westinghouse LCD set doesn't have a built-in HDTV (ATSC) tuner. As you are probably aware by now, as of February 18, 2009, analog TV transmissions will cease to be on the air. For those of you with cable or satellite, no impact on you. For those of us using outdoor TV antennas, MAJOR impact!

Faced with the reality that I needed a set with a built-in HDTV tuner, I began shopping for a new set. Since I have had such great experience with my previous Westinghouse LCD set, I set out to find a model by Westinghouse that I liked. I purchased a 42 inch Westinghouse TX-42F430S when it went on sale at Best Buy. The first thing you notice about this set when it is still in the box is that it is not all that heavy, maybe 60 lbs. without the stand I could easily move it around by myself. After removing it from the box, I was taken back by the sheer size of this set! I have never owned a TV this big before. My 27 inch set has been hanging on the wall in the living room above the old tube type stereo system in a Fisher cabinet, and that is where I wanted the new set to go. I was able to re-use all my previous wiring and electrical with the new set (good thing, all my wiring is inside the wall and well hidden!). My connections are-

Power
Antenna
3-wire video
2-wire audio

The power connector is nice to have, as many sets have an attached cord instead of the removable power cord like this set, and being able to unplug at the set makes installation on a wall MUCH easier! Cords get in the way, a fact of life, but not a problem here. The Westinghouse TX-42F430S has what they call 'spine design' which means that all connections are made on either side of a central 'spine' that runs down the middle of the set from top to bottom, making everything easily accessible while it is hanging on a wall. You install the set first, then make your connections. My old set had to be installed AFTER connections were made, and it was difficult.

After installation, the wife and I fired up the set. A big, bright Westinghouse 'W' logo comes on the screen while it 'boots up'. When the set was running, the first thing we had to do was change the input to 'Antenna over the air'. Then, we had to allow the TV some 10 minutes to do a search so it could determine what stations were available. Once it was finished, we were amazed at all the new channels we receive right over the air. One of the PBS stations has 5 separate feeds! None of this is visible with a non-ATSC tuner. Also a noticeable improvement was the sound. The Westinghouse TX-42F430S has two full range speakers pointing downward on each side of the cabinet bottom, and a 10-watt powered subwoofer in the middle pointed backward and slightly down. It doesn't have the big bass boom of a theater, but it does have much better sound than our last TV.

What I really love about this set is its 'auto sense' for input sources. When I turn the TV on, it uses the antenna input source. If I turn on the DVD player, the TV automatically switches the input source to the DVD player. No buttons to press!

I know some of the techno-types all know what 1080p and 480i and all that stuff means. I do not. I can simply tell you that the picture quality is fantastic, even up close. One thing I noticed about the Westinghouse TX-42F430S while in the store looking at it on display over other sets is that quick moving pictures don't pixilate like some other sets do. Quick pans look fairly natural and not blurry or jumpy on the Westinghouse TX-42F430S. Occasionally on the local Fox station, when watching something in HD, I can see little white lines across the very tippy top of the screen. They blink and move around depending on the picture. Some commercials have them too. Then, sometimes they go away completely. It's not very annoying, but worth mentioning.

My only gripes about this set is the unusually unintuitive user interface. I admit I have not messed around with the GUI on many new TV sets, but compared to my old set, the Westinghouse TX-42F430S is a little more difficult to figure out. It took me a long time to get to the screen with the 5-band graphic equalizer so I could play with the sound, and I was also able to play with some of the picture settings as well.

Interesting for those of you who are power conscious, when power is removed from the set, it does not lose any stored info. I run my set on a UPS that runs my entire entertainment center. When I am not using any of the equipment, I turn the master switch off to save power (vampire electronics, you know). Some electronics lose settings if power is not kept on them, but the Westinghouse TX-42F430S does not forget anything. It comes right back to previous mode when power is restored. Worth noting- There is a setting in the menu that comes from the factory set so that when power is applied to the set, it comes on by itself. I disabled that real quick! For those of you that keep your set plugged in all the time, if the power drops, even for a moment while you are away or asleep, you will return to find your TV set on! In addition, there is another setting in the menu that allows you to set an energy save mode. With energy save on, the set draws about 1 watt when off. With the energy save off (as it comes from the factory) the set draws about 36 watts when the set is off. Unacceptable! The only difference between power save on or off is a quicker startup when you turn the set on. In other words, with power save off, the set's computer is running all the time.

Since my set is wall mounted, I cannot make great comment on every installation, but in my case, the set runs very cool and does not heat up the house much at all. Definitely nowhere near the heat of a plasma set! Also, LCD sets have a reputation for using much less power than a plasma, and the Westinghouse TX-42F430S only draws about 300 watts when on. You can reduce the power drain further by lowering the brightness control. I found it has a direct impact on current draw.

I would definitely buy this set again, despite the learning curve. Once I learned it, I simply can't go back.
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