Hmmm, only 42" Chris? hehe

C'mon, why not this: http://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/WS73711.html ?

I agree, there definitely is a shortage of HDTV content. Most of the HDTV cable programming seems to be Sports-related. Maybe some people will shoot with the XL2 in 16:9 mode, create something entertaining which motivates the viewer, uprez that edit to 1080i and sell their work to HDTV networks who hanker for new HDTV material.

http://www.snellwilcox.com/applications/hd_apps.html

- don

Be glad you're a bit behind the times, Chris. Unfortunately here in Kansas City, as far away from salt water as one can be in most of the civilized world (if you want to consider this vast wasteland civilized), we seem to always be ready to jump on new stuff, which means you're always in debt. When Betacam first arrived in the U.S. we had one of the first Betacam edit suites here, and Avid made giant inroads before people could even spell Avid. A couple of production houses were shooting HD almost the day it came out. I switched from 3/4 to Betacam SP back in the '80's, and we went with DVCAM a year after the DSR500 came out. We feel we're in the backwater of the universe, so we have this zealous urge to always get the newest thing...which means we're always in debt for new stuff. I'd guess there are filmmakers who have already ordered the XL2, and probably some people who placed orders at NAB for the Sony prototype HDV camera that nobody knows anything about yet because it's not even real yet. I'm the only person in our office who doesn't have a 54" HD wide screen TV at home. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration--there are two of us who don't have them. I don't have an iPod either.
As far as wide screen video...I spent Saturday morning at a local theater where we have our Kansas International Film Festival providing some 16:9 footage so the techie could set up some files on the big Barco theatrical video projector. Unfortunately, it appears they're going to have to buy an anamorphic lens. It works OK and the 16:9 looks good, but with the anamorphic lens, it will look a lot better and sharper. Interesting, the new cheapo video projectors allow you to show 16:9 at the flick of a menu switch, but the big huge theatrical ones don't do that. Of course, the big ones can project an image onto the surface of the moon from Kansas City.

Bill, that must be an old Barco. We projected anamorphic 16:9 DV on a 44' wide screen last fall as part of Il Trovatore using a Barco SLM R10 which is a 10,000 lumen DLP projector with a native resolution of 1280x1024. That's more than enough to get impressive results with anamorphic DV or even 720p HD... These new projectors are getting much better, and have very high contrast ratios. 6 months earlier we "auditioned" a 12,000 lumen DLP unit from Digital Projection, but the Barco SLM looked brighter even with 2,000 less lumens.

Now regarding a shortage of widescreen programming in your state or country... um, they do sell DVD's around your parts, right? ;-) If they're anamorphic then you'll get the best quality images from them on a 16:9 monitor as well. I don't have a big widescreen TV either though, just my little 17" 16:9 Sony LCD. I watch anamorphic DVD's on my 27" 4:3 WEGA which has a 16:9 mode that gives a nicer picture than watching the standard letterboxed version.

But I was in WalMart just a couple days ago, and noticed they are now selling two different models of tube-type 30" 16:9 HDTV monitor/receivers. I think one was a Sharp and the other a Toshiba. Both were selling for a bit over $700. That's still a lot more than the big 4:3 sets, but I'll bet we start seeing these prices drop pretty rapidly on CRT sets as well as plasma and LCD. Resist though I might, one of these days I'm gonna probably just get something on an impulse...