those darn GRAY BARS on SD.

Just got my Toshiba 52 inch DLP on 2-22-05 and I must say Im very impressed right out of the box with picture quality. With a cheap progressive scan Toshiba DVD player, Return of the King EE and The Bourne Supremacy were sharp as I've ever seen. Details were amazing.

When I switched to my regular cable, it wasnt as bad as I had expected, though most of the lower stations were grainy. (dish network HD arrives in a few days, depending on the weather).

I used the picture adjustments found on this site and they worked Ok, though I did have to turn color up to 45 or it seemed a little washed out on regular TV. I tried the stretch picture modes too and wasnt really happy with them. More importantly, my lovely spouse only liked the NORMAL mode for SD tv.

The gray bars are driving us both crazy. Why in the world arent they black? This needs to be addressed by Toshiba. I can't find any fault with this set so far. No artifacts, rainbows, lines, etc. Just those stupid gray bars on either side of the SD picture in Normal mode.

Would love to see Toshiba post directions as to how to make the gray bars black. Anyone else have any info. The unit I saw in a Best Buy had some SD content with black bars but it may have been prerecorded or looped (infomercial stuff). Thanks for any input.

For those on the fence about which TV to purchase, you cant go wrong with this set. Great right out of the box. Decent remote. No glare on set, even facing large french double door. No smearing or artifacts on DVD (watched about 6-7 diff ones).