Thanks for the good info guys. I finally ended up purchasing this Sony Wega Tube. It's slightly smaller than I originally planned on, but I got a pretty good closout deal from Best Buy (I think). It was $800.

I'm mildly bothered by the presence of artifacting in a regular NTSC signal, but am told this is a reasonbly normal result of the up-converting process.

Do I need to take any special care to avoid burn-in while watching in non-widescreen mode?