It took only a couple days for me to notice horizontal bands about a quarter of the way down from the top of the screen. They were most pronounced on solid-color backgrounds, but most severe on gray/black backgrounds. At first I thought I could deal with it, but when I watched HD channels my eyes were constantly drawn to it and it got really annoying. So I took it back to the store (luckily the appliance store has a generous return policy) and exchanged it for another one, hoping that this one wouldn't be afflicted. Unfortunately, same story, distracting horizontal bands, except this time they were closer to the middle of the screen and even worse. I think I'm going to take this one back as well and get a different TV altogether. The HD picture is great if you can ignore the bands, but it's just too much for me.