G man...
This what I do for a living (as a hobby when The Beatles crossed the water.....and professionally since 1977) and I cringe when someone asks, "What TV should I buy?"
My rule-of-thumb...If you have to ask if you should get a 16x9...you DON'T want it.
First....I don't believe that the 2006 deadline for digital TV will even come close to being met. Having said that, the TV manufacturers and Cable companies have, just last month, finally agreed upon a transmission standard which they will be building into sets by the end of the year. The sets out now DO NOT conform to this new standard.
The folks who have posted that they have HDTV Cable are in a very rare position. Perhaps maybe 10 systems in the US have Cable HDTV boxes that they will rent to you. A very few other systems have boxes that allow a pass-through of the HDTV signal to the decoder that you have already stated (and I agree) that you don't wish to purchase.
Now the big trouble with 16x9 sets (and keep in mind that I am anal about my TV watching so YMMV) is that though watching anamorphic widescreen DVDs is a dream, most folks are still going to be watching a 4x3 broadcasted picture that has to be distorted (stretched) to fit the width of the screen. As someone posted earlier, you CAN NOT watch a rear projection (or plasma) with the black or gray bars on the side of the picture. You most assuredly will get burn in so it is not an option.
The stretch modes make me nauseous, especially when they pan through a screen and I watch cars start out the length of limos on the side....become Volkswagens in the middle...and exit as limos again. YUCK!
The Pioneer sets do the best job making a more natural stretch mode....Mitsubishi the worst.
My niece asked just two weeks ago what Big Screen TV she should get.
We went to Best Buy and bought the cheapest 50" standard analog Philips/Magnavox ($850 after rebate).
If you ask what I would buy for MYSELF...today....click here:
Sony 53" Rear-Projection HDTV Monitor with 2-Tuner Picture-In-Picture Model: KP-53HS30
It's $1999. The 43" version is $1699.
Both 4x3 upgradeable. (Meaning full glorious screen for the vast majority of what most people really watch, and a true 1080i resized (Black bars at the and bottom) when watching HDTV or DVDs.
And everybody in their correct and proper proportions!
To echo what others have said...skip the Extend Warranty but buy a Panamax Surge Suppressor (NOT Monster Power, but Panamax...the Cadillac of Surge Suppressors...expect to pay $80 - $100)
I wonder how this TV handles a noisy cable signal with all it's digital processing. The ones I've seen in stores get royally screwed up by the noise when they deinterlace standard TV.
I like your idea of getting a 4:3 TV with v-compression for 16:9 signals. Of course, there's a trade off. In order to get a properly sized 4:3 image for a given viewing distance, you have to screw up the 16:9 size.