57HDX82 Protective Screen

[TheBigE]

is this sucker removable?

...at least in a semi-presentable fashion?

and if so - is the screen an integral part of the video quality/calibration scheme....or is it just SIMPLY a bump and scratch cover like it's name implies.

thanks

[T57HX81]

The protective screen is just exactly what the name implies...a protector. Protectors do not, themselves, detract in any way from the picture quality other than a slight reducton is brightness, nor are they (usually) a factor in calibration. The biggest "problem" with the screen protectors is that they have a rather nasty habit of reflecting room light. The Tosh 82 series like yours have an anti-reflective coating on the protector intended to reduce this problem.
In a nutshell, the protector is generally a good thing for several reasons: 1) it does the main job of protecting the fragile (and expensive) fresnel and lenticular lenses behind it. 2) keeps dust and grime off above mentioned lenses (they are just this side of imposible to clean without distroying them). 3) gives the lens stack (the "stack" is a reference to the lentecular and fresnel lenses plus the protector) the rigidity to resist sagging from gravity.
Because the mounting system for the stack is designed to work with the thickness of the entire stack and because of the rigidity situation mentioned above, about the only way to "remove" the protector is to re-arrange the stack so that the protector is in the back instead of the front. I would reference you to http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv --- use the search function to search for "stack" and "screen".
As a last word, playing with the lens stack is pretty tricky work and will end up exposing your fresnel lens to dirt/fingerprints...if you can possibly work the reflection problem by rearranging/reducing your room lighting, I would seriously consider going that way.
One final note, doing any invasive proceedure such as screen removal will likely void your warranty...something to think about.
Good luck.

[pcoffman]

That was the first thing I did when I got my Mits. 55859 is remove the glare proof screen. If it was glare proof then I don't know what glare is then. It reflected every light that was in sight. We removed it which of course on the Mits. does not void warrenty thank goodness and the picture I thought was a whole lot better, more film like. At least with DVD's.