Back in the early 1990s, I helped a friend carry a new rear-projection television up three flights of stairs to a small one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. Although its screen was only 50 inches, that bulky box was about the size and weight of a classic Volkswagen Bug. My back was so tweaked that I walked around hunched over, stinking of Ben-Gay, for a week. Adding insult to injury (literally), when we finally got the TV upstairs, the picture was über soft. For someone used to the sharpness of a direct-view tube TV, this was hard to swallow, even during football season, when a bigger screen is always better.

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Fortunately, today's microdisplay rear projectors have saved many a back by delivering crisp, high-contrast images from a thinner, lighter package than any CRT-based rear projector ever could. And among microdisplays, none is more popular these days than those based on Texas Instrument's DLP technology, which uses a chip with as many as 2 million pivoting micromirrors to reflect light from a projection lamp onto the screen. Among the most recent entries to this crowded field is the Panasonic PT-61DLX76 61-inch 1080p DLP HDTV — the res doesn't get any higher than that.

The PT-61DLX76 won't win any design awards. It follows the lead of a lot of today's bigscreens with unassuming cosmetics that amount to a giant screen with a glossy black bezel surrounding it. If you're looking to make a visual statement with your HDTV, this isn't the one, though the custom-install crowd may appreciate the lip around the frame that allows the set to be nicely flush-mounted into drywall. The TV's silver cabinet extends below the screen to house the stereo speakers, which sounded surprisingly good — though the sonics were a bit hollow, the dialogue was relatively crisp and clear, and even explosions in movie and TV soundtracks were deep, booming, and visceral.

On the right side of the front is a door that swings down to reveal controls to operate the menu system and other essential functions, as well as composite-/S-video convenience inputs and a SD Card reader for displaying digital photos. Around back is an impressive jack pack with loads of connectivity options, including a pair of HDMI inputs that can handle 1080p sources, a pair of component-video ins, two A/V inputs with composite- and S-video, analog and optical digital audio output, and an RF input for antenna or cable. A VGA input allows connection of a PC. Very nice.

The remote control (like many I've seen lately) is a disappointment. Not only did it lack any backlighting or glow keys to ease operation in a darkened theater room, but I also found its buttons crowded and difficult to identify by feel. At least they were larger than the norm, which is good for pudgy digits like mine.

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