Banding? Yes - Problematic? No.

There has been a LOT written about the severe banding issues with this set and its siblings, and some people have experienced SERIOUS banding visible during most viewing. The set I picked up with a 11/06 manufacture date has banding - if I'm looking at the service menu/gray screen (hard to miss) or there's no input signal (vaguely noticeable). It does not affect the viewing experience, so far as I have been able to tell. A properly calibrated display will also help to reduce the visibility of banding under any circumstances.

The picture is amazing with a quality source (HD broadcast, cable, upscaled DVD, and of course HD-DVD/BluRay), the black levels great for an LCD, good color with some tweaking, the controls are good, while the remote could use a redesign. If you're adding this TV to your setup, chances are you'll want a good universal (Logitech Harmony, for example) anyway.

Viewing is best from straight or nearly straight on, with a noticeably increasing lightness as the viewing angle increases, but not so much as to make the set unwatchable from a reasonable angle and certainly nowhere near the degree of a rear projection set. It's not plasma, so you won't get that all-around angle advantage of plasma.

SD signals are acceptable, but take a bit of getting used to. Distance is your friend in this instance.

Although I have yet to properly calibrate my set (waiting for the DVD to arrive), going off "base" settings and recommendations available online has gotten the display to a very good place already. Definitely the ambient light detection system leaves a lot to be desired, so it's important to turn this off, in my experience.

The price can be VERY good if you shop around and convince a retailer to price match a major source such as Amazon. With 07 models around the corner, price drops seem imminent and newer manufacture dates MAY reduce banding (no guarantee), so a 30-60 day price guarantee would be good to get if you can't wait (like me!).