I spent HOURS picking out a tv today, came home read the reviews and now I'm sooooo lost !!!!?

STOP.

Aquos is actually a respected model line.

Are the reviews professional - or customer comments?

Lifespan: Make sure the TV is well ventilated and connected to a surge suppressor. Many of the short life-span complaints can be tied to power outages, lightening or someone enclosing the HDTV in a cabinet because the spouse likes the look, but then the television cooks itself.

Picture Quality: Televisions are set at the factory to ultra-bright and high contrast in case the unit become a floor display in a bright store. Joe public perceives 'brighter is better'.

The number 1 reason people would return a HDTV for many years was they would come home and plug in the old standard def cable - and be disappointed how the picture looked compared to what they saw in the store.

Basically - take care when reading customer reviews for picture quality. Some of them ... can be fooled.

Get a Pixar movie on disk. Go to the setup menu and find the test patterns. Use these with the instructions to set the basic Brightness, contrast and color.

Then hook the TV up to a source of HD video and watch it for a week. World Cup soccer for example is outstanding. See how the TV does with decent HD video.

I have a Sharp Aquous LCD that is about 10 years old now. Watch it everyday and it still works great. I spent a lot more than $899 on a 37" TV back then, but Sharp was one of the best to buy.

Before I say anything let me get this out of the way.

- Do you have any HD sources? Like Blu-ray movies, HD TV channels or HD video games .ect?

- Then you need to hook up your HD devices to your TV using a HDMI cable. You can find good cheap HDMI cables at monoprice, amazon, newegg, tigerdirect.

- Then put TV on HDMI input channel. Adjust any additional settings for output devices and settings on TV (input device).

= EDIT: SD video will look bad on a HD-TV.

- I recommend Panasonic Plasma or Samsung LCD-LED (not LCD-CCFL).

- I don't recommend any other Plasma off brand, but Samsung and LG do make Plasmas.

- For off brands for LCD-LED, then there is LG, Sony, Sharp, Vizio, Panasonic .ect

I'd be happy with what you bought. Connect that with an HDMI cable to an HD cable receiver or DVR, or connect it to a very good antenna, and you should have superb HD. A very good brand, and any new model Aquos is most likely a very good TV.

David Katzmaier (CNET) likes the Vizio E600I-B3 in that price range,

http://www.cnet.com/products/vizio-e600i-b3/