Excellent TV, especially given the price

I've been using the 26HF84 for a few months now, and I've been very pleased with it. The picture and sound is great. Beyond that, there isn't a whole lot more that you can ask for.
If you're searching for reviews of HDTVs, you're probably pretty serious about getting a good HD picture. If so, you should absolutely choose a widescreen TV, even if it's not this one. Nothing ruins a beautiful HD picture like those terrible black bars on the bottom and top of the screen. With a widescreen set such as this, you can watch Discovery HD Theater in all its glory. It's also much better for DVD's. And if you're trying to impress guests (admit it) widescreen sets have a much more sophisticated, attractive look. When watching 4:3 shows, the TheaterWide modes on the TV are great, though I would like to see the ability to shift image position up or down on all the zooming modes. The stretch on standard shows is negligible, plus more and more shows are being broadcast in widescreen, even if you don't get it in high-def.
One of my biggest problems is that there's only one customizable video setting. So what? Well, SD shows look great after you fiddle with the settings, and HD shows look great after you tune the settings for that, but since you can only customize one setting, you'll have to choose which source you want to sacrifice quality on.
Sound quality is excellent. Speakers perform well at a moderately high volume, but don't expect the walls to shake from these 5-watt speakers. The SRS WOW feature isn't very noticeable when watching TV, but sounds great with DVDs. The speakers simulate certain surround effects amazingly well.
The TV itself looks great. It has a very clean, modern look and doesn't take up a lot of space. When it comes to A/V components, silver is the new black, and this set will fit in perfectly with newer home theater systems, DVD players, etc. I do wish that Toshiba would ditch HDMI for DVI-input. Composite, ColorStream, S-video, DVI, coax, i-link, optical, VPORT...do we really need another worthless proprietary connection to confuse everyone?
I bought the TV on sale a few months ago for about $540. At that price, the 26HF84 was the best value I found, and I did a lot of digging. Before I recommend the TV whole-heartedly, I should mention that Wal-Mart just recently dropped the price of the other set I was looking at. At the time of writing this, Wal-Mart lists the price of the Sanyo HT30744 as $562. The Sanyo has a leg up on the Toshiba with its 30" screen (4 inches bigger) and its built in HD-tuner. Then again, you're investing a small fortune into this TV set and the Sanyo name isn't as respected as Toshiba's. Personally, I had no use for a tuner and the 26" screen is perfect for my apartment.
You might want to check out other options (mainly the Sanyo), but for five or six hundred bucks, you can't go wrong with this Toshiba HDTV.