I saw this item in the store, and it looked very good. Like the reviews on NewEgg suggested, when playing a WMP video on the PC it was connected to, the video stuttered slightly. At the time, I thought it was a PC/WMP problem. So I am still not convinced the stuttering is not a Windows issue.
It certainly looks as good as my 20 iMac at work or 20 Apple monitor at home. So I bought it in Sunday. Side by side, the Apple is brighter, barely. I set the image to mirror, and both show decent but now awesome blacks. Mine has no obvious dead pixels, but I did not examine it for hours. Side by side, it sits higher than the Apple monitor due to the base. But it looks good with a G5 tower or G4 tower.
It does run a bit hot. After a few hours, touching the unit it does feel fairly warm. But it has been on 24/7 since I have had it. I played a DVD using video mirror at home and did not see any ghosting or stuttering, except for the menu animation in the Incredibles DVD and that was on BOTH screens. I also played some HiDef QT trailers. You can see a difference here. The Apple monitor is smoother. I could not have noticed the difference if they were not side by side. As for the HDTV aspects, the unit only has 1680x1050 so I am not sure it truly counts as real HDTV resolution.
Since Costco has such a good return policy, I am confident in the purchase. I paid 699 for the Apple screen 6 months ago and love it. I had a dual set up with my old 15 studio display that is 4 years old. It was very dim and small compared to the 20, so I am happy to have another 20 instead.
If you belong to Costco you should pick it up with confidence.