Toshiba REGZA 52HL167 LCD 1080p Television Review

A couple of years ago Toshiba's line was dominated by rear projection DLP designs. Today, flat panel LCDs are pushing those sets aside.

The 1920x1080p 52HL167 ($3,499) is the top model in Toshiba's REGZA series of flat panels, which sits just below the top of the line Cinema Series. The equivalent Cinema Series model features a refresh rate of 120Hz, which is said to minimize motion blur, and a $500 higher price tag.

Outside The set's sound comes out of a narrow slot at the bottom of its high gloss frame in a configuration Toshiba calls SoundStrip2. Inputs include three HDMI connections (version not specified) and two HD component connections. There's also an RF antenna input for the set's onboard ATSC/NTSC tuner and a service port for firmware updates.

Inside
On the tech side, the big pull is, of course, 1080p. The Toshiba will accept both 1080p/60 and 1080p/24. Unfortunately, when the set receives a 1080p/24 input it adds 3/2 pulldown and then displays it at 1080p/60.

Toshiba's PixelPure 3G video processing uses 14-bit processing. Processing at a higher bit depth has benefits apart from making good ad copy, but the result is not equivalent to what we would see from higher bit depth from the original source. Deep Color can do this, but we see no sign if it being implemented in the consumer world. And just because a display has 14-bit internal processing does not mean that it could accept a 14-bit source—if one existed.

Toshiba's CineSpeed panel claims a response speed of 8ms and a viewing angle of 176 degrees. Until recently, both response speed and off-axis viewing are two areas of flat panel performance in which plasmas have held a distinct advantage over LCDs. As mentioned earlier, however, LCD manufacturers have recently begun to make significant improvements in both areas.

Toshiba's DynaLight Back Light control is said to provide dynamic adjustment of the backlight to produce superior contrast with deeper black levels. There's also a Back Light control to minimize the overall image brightness while improving the black level as well.

In the Advanced Picture Settings menu, Dynamic Contrast worked surprisingly well. Used at its Low setting it deepened blacks and minimized the slightly washed-out appearance that was common in LCD sets until recently.

My review sample measured and looked best in the Warm setting. For more information about this, see "Tests and Calibration" at the end of the report.

There are four fixed, preset picture modes of video settings, plus an adjustable mode called Preference. Preference mode can and should be set separately for each input. But be sure to write down those settings because it's still frightfully easy to have your Preference settings wiped out without warning whenever someone makes a single change to one of the preset picture modes. We've complained about the volatility of Toshiba's Preference mode for over 10 years now.

Overscan is engaged in every aspect ratio except Native. As with many sets, overscan here reduces image resolution to a degree that's obvious with HD material especially. To preserve the full resolution of this set, for HD sources turn Auto mode Off and select the Native the aspect ratio menu.

The set is also compatible with Toshiba's THINC and CE-LINK. The THINC menu provides access to CE-LINK Player control, the Channel Browser, and the Favorites Browser. CE-LINK provides flexible control features when the set is used with other CE-LINK Toshiba components connected via HDMI. It was not tested for this review.

The Toshiba does not offer direct input selection, either from the controls on the set or the remote. You select from a list of nine options after calling up the Input Selection menu.

You do have the option to re-label the source inputs, but only from a preset list of options. "DVD" is one of them. "HD DVD" is another. Is it a surprise that there isn't a choice labeled "Blu-ray?" Apart from not being backlit, I like the Toshiba remote. The buttons are mostly large and well spaced for stubby American fingers. But I did find that the remote—or at least my sample—was balky in some of its operations. Sometimes it simply refused to work. Persistence usually resulted in success, but with more than a little frustration along the way.

Performance
Classic LCD issues like motion lag, poor black level, limited contrast, and color uniformity are becoming far less significant. There's room for further improvement, but readers who have avoided these displays in the past now have good reasons to have another look.

The Toshiba impressed me out of the box. The image was bright (but not too bright) and very detailed, particularly in the Native aspect ratio. And the blacks, while less impressive than the best plasmas, were more than acceptable. Its full-screen color uniformity was good.

Neither of the two noise reduction adjustments was very effective, even set to High. I rarely felt the need for them anyway, but set the CableClear on Auto and left the MPEG Noise Reduction off.

While I was happy with the Toshiba before calibration, I enjoyed it even more afterwards. Apart from color, the performance was equivalent before and after calibration once the user controls were properly set.

Standard definition digital broadcasts were solid, though you'd never confuse them with HD. But if you move over to analog cable channels like CNN, ESPN, Sci-Fi, the History Channel, etc., you'll see a lot more noise. It was tolerable, but a definite step down from even standard definition digital cable. This was not helped perceptibly by the set's noise reduction controls.

I did see some false contouring. Watching In Enemy Hands (a submarine movie that makes U-571 look like a classic) on HBO HD, the underwater shots had that posterized, "paint-by-numbers" look. But neither false contouring nor noise was common.

In fact, the Toshiba really showed what it could do with the new high-definition formats. The Chronicles of Riddick on HD DVD features are plenty of very dark scenes. While the Toshiba's blacks weren't the best I've seen, they were excellent for an LCD. Only rarely did either the black level or lack of shadow details distract me from the movie.

The Mummy is a similarly pristine HD DVD. The opening scenes in ancient Egypt—both bright and dark—were strikingly crisp and detailed. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, on Blu-ray, showed no shortage of detail. The color was outstanding, and the blacks were very good even in difficult, darker scenes.

Problem areas? The viewing angle was fairly critical with this set. Twenty degrees off-axis is about the maximum you should sit unless you want to watch a consistently washed-out image. That's still big enough to encompass all the seats on a large sofa, and then some, from a comfortable viewing distance.

There was occasional motion lag, though it was rarely troubling. Still, if you're into sports and video games you might want to look into some of the new LCD developments, offered by Toshiba and others in some models, designed to minimize this problem [or look at plasma- Ed.].

The Toshiba's video processing was fair at best, though it rarely produced visible artifacts on real program material. It passed the difficult Coliseum "flyover" at the end of chapter 12 of Gladiator on DVD. And with a 1080i input it handled the details in the Vatican wall in Chapter 7 of the MI3 Blu-ray release perfectly, but stumbled on the steps at the start of chapter 8 of the same disc. A perceptible shimmer intruded on the latter, which cleared up when I switched the player to 1080p.

Finally, the audio from Toshiba's SoundStrip2 system surprised me. It was reasonably well balanced and not actively irritating. Most of you will be using your own external sound systems most of the time, but I can guarantee you will find a need for at least occasional use of the set's internal amps and speakers.

Conclusions
In the past year I've changed my previously lukewarm position on LCD flat panel displays, and Toshiba's REGZA 52HL167 has contributed to that change. Yes, like all modern displays you can actually afford to buy, it has flaws. But in the areas where it matters on real program material—clarity, detail, lack of distracting artifacts, and, yes, even black levels- it's a very impressive performer.

Highlights
Outstanding color
Crisp, natural detail
Good blacks

Review System

Sources
Pioneer Elite DV-79AVi DVD player
Toshiba HD-A20 HD DVD player
Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray player
Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player
Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD cable converter/DVR
RePlay standard definition tuner/DVR
Cables
Monster and UltraLink HDMI
Tributaries and Monster component

Specifications

Television System: NTSC standard, ATSC standard (8VSB), Digital cable (64 QAM, 256 QAM; in the clear, unencrypted)
Power consumption: 219W (average); 0.4W in standby mode
Audio power: 10W + 10W
Speaker type: Two 4" round
Video/Audio terminals:
S-Video/composite video with L/R analog in
Composite video with L/R analog in (side)
three HDMI (video and two-channel audio), Audio Lip Sync supported
two ColorStream (component video)
PC (15-pin D-sub Analog RGB)
Fixed analog L/R audio out
Digital audio out
Other: IR out, service port
Dimensions (WHD, with stand): 50.5" x 33.375" x 15.375"
Weight: 101.6 lbs. (with stand)
Price: $3,499

Manufacturer
Toshiba
www.tacp.toshiba.com
(973) 682-8000

Tests and Calibration

With the Aspect ratio set to Native, the Toshiba's luminance response, in both HDMI and component at 1080i, extended cleanly up to the maximum 37.5MHz multiburst frequency from my AccuPel test generator, though it was clearly rolling off by that frequency in component. Oddly, however, the maximum frequencies of the 1080i chroma burst were more visible over component than HDMI.

At 720p the set responded to the max burst frequency in both HDMI and component, but was rolled off somewhat from either input. As with 1080i, the chroma burst was less visible in HDMI than component at the maximum frequency.

As noted in the main text of the review, the 1080i resolution, in particular, was measurably reduced in any aspect ratio except Native.

Both the color and luminance held up well at 480i and 480p with both HDMI and component inputs (and the aspect ratio set to Natural—the Native option is not available at these resolutions).

In its Warm color temperature setting, the pre-calibration gray scale (measured with our Photo Research PR-650 spectroradiometer), was, as noted in the review, very close to the ideal 6500K.(Fig.1). Calibration brought this further into line (Fig.2).

Fig.1

Fig.2

Fig.3 shows how the set performed out-of-box, pre-calibration, with respect to this D6500 standard. If the red, green, and blue all overlap precisely on the 100% line across the horizontal center of this chart, the result is D6500 across the entire brightness range. The results in Fig.3 are actually not bad (falling within the lines at 90% and 110% is reasonable) but we can usually do a lot better. No set is likely to be perfect in this regard, but the post calibration results on the Toshiba (Fig.4) are excellent and come very close to the ideal.

Fig.3

Fig.4

The primary red and blue color points on the Toshiba were reasonably close to the correct values, but the CIE chart in Fig.5 shows the excessive saturation of green. (The white triangle outlines the color space of the set, as delivered.) While it may look like the extra colors would be a plus, this is not true. All colors in a video display are created from the three primaries, red, green, and blue. These are the only colors included in all consumer video source materials. When a set produces intermediate colors requiring a mix of the primaries (in other words, all colors other than the primaries themselves), it uses red, green, and blue, as defined by the set's color points, right or wrong, to create them.

Fig.5

If the set's primaries differ from the standard, all the colors produced from a combination of them will be wrong. The results will usually be watchable and sometimes even pleasant. Most of us have been living with sets having poorly defined primaries for years; in fact, many (if not most) manufacturers take liberty with these primaries based on some combination of technical, aesthetic, or commercial grounds. But they are still not accurate.

As noted in the review, however, with the right tools the set's ColorMaster feature can be used to improve this situation. Fig.6 shows the final result. The visible change was much more subtle than you might expect from comparing Figs. 5 and 6, but with the right program material you can see it.

Fig.6

I measured a peak contrast ratio of 1,525:1 using the output from a peak white window pattern (47.5 foot-Lamberts) and a full black field (0.031fL). The result was nearly identical when I used a full field white pattern (unlike plasmas, an LCD's output does not decrease as the average picture level increases). Thus, this measurement is directly comparable to the Full-On/Full-Off contrast ratio measurements provide in HT's print issues. For this set we did not perform an ANSI contrast measurement.

With the aspect ratio set to Native, there was zero overscan over either HDMI or component at 1080i or 720p.

In other aspect ratio settings the overscan averaged 2.5% at 1080i and 720p, but increased to an average of just under 4% (slightly excessive) at 480i and 480p.

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Pioneer Elite PRO-940HD Plasma HDTV & HP MediaSmart SLC3760N LCD HDTV Review

Who says you can't stream HDTV?

As more consumers embrace high-speed home networking and video downloads, one question is gaining prominence: Can't we view this content on something a little more substantial than our computer monitors? Yes, you can, thanks to the digital media receiver, which is a device that lets you stream video, photo, and music files from your computer to your television.
The digital media receiver comes in many forms. Companies like D-Link, Hauppauge, and Acoustic Research sell standalone boxes that connect directly to your TV. Other manufacturers incorporate the functionality into an A/V source component, like the TiVo Series 2 DVR, the GoVideo networked DVD player, and the Xbox 360 gaming console. No matter its shape, the media receiver talks to your PC over a wired or wireless home network, allowing access to some combination of media files.

These devices accomplish the desired goal, but, like adding a full HTPC, they force you to add yet another box and remote control to your entertainment system—or at least mandate the use of specific source components in order to enjoy the technology. A couple of display manufacturers have realized that they can eliminate the middleman and build the function right into the TV. Admittedly, this solution is only viable for someone who's in the market for a new TV, but it's a compelling option nonetheless. I tried out two "media-friendly" HDTVs: Hewlett-Packard's MediaSmart SLC3760N 37-inch LCD ($1,700) and Pioneer's Elite PRO-940HD 42-inch plasma ($3,300).

Learning to Share
In terms of their media-sharing functions, these two TVs are more similar than different. Both are designed to work with PCs and media servers that support DLNA, UPnP, or Windows Media Connect. For this review, I mated the TVs with Niveus Media's new Rainier Media Center PC, so I focused on how to link the devices using Windows Media Connect, a PC software platform that works in conjunction with Windows Media Player to organize and stream files to remote devices. If you have Windows Media Player 10 or 11, chances are you already have Windows Media Connect on your PC. I did. However, if you don't, HP is kind enough to include a software disc with the TV, while Pioneer expects you to find and download it from the Microsoft Website.

Setting up each set's media function involves two steps. First, you must add the TV to your home network. Pioneer's media receiver is completely integrated into the plasma's chassis; its only visible features are an Ethernet port for connecting to your home network and a USB port, which lets you access media files directly from a USB drive if you don't have a home network. In contrast, HP has essentially affixed a media-player box to the TV's backside, which adds about 2 inches of depth and requires three extra cables to link the two: HDMI for A/V signals, a control cable, and a power cable. While the Pioneer only connects to your network via Ethernet, HP lets you choose between wired and wireless (802.11a/b/g) setup. If you want to go wireless, you also need to screw on two antennas that look like gloriously nostalgic rabbit ears peaking up from behind the TV. It took several attempts before I successfully added the HP to my wireless network, even when I turned off the security, but this could have just been an issue with my network.

The second step is to enable file sharing on your PC. Once you have added the TV to your network, its name should appear on the Windows Media Connect Device page. Simply click on it, allow sharing, and set the folders you want to share. My Pictures, My Videos, and My Music are the default options, but you can add other folders—like, say, your iTunes music folder. Obviously, protected music and video files downloaded from the iTunes Store aren't compatible with this Windows-based system, but, hey, we're used to that by now. Microsoft DRM files should play. Since I used a Media Center PC, I also added its Recorded TV folder in order to stream standard- and high-definition content to the TVs.

Yes, I did say "high definition." Probably the coolest application of this technology is the ability to stream high-definition content for viewing on your new HDTV. Over a wired connection, both TVs cleanly rendered recorded over-the-air HDTV programs and a couple of WMV HD trailers. If you want to view a lot of HD video, I don't recommend you go wireless with the HP; HD playback was very choppy over my 802.11g network, but SD video played back fine. For some reason, the HP wouldn't play any of the music files that came preloaded on my Niveus Media but worked fine with music I loaded myself, while the Pioneer played every file without issue.

I preferred the layout and appearance of Pioneer's media menu, but I found the HP system more intuitive to navigate and use, due primarily to the remote. The media function seems more like an afterthought for Pioneer. Their remote lacks a dedicated button to access the media menu and hides transport controls under a flip-down panel at the bottom; plus, the track-up/-down buttons don't work within this menu. HP treats the media function as the marquee feature, grouping all of the needed access and control buttons in a logical way. They also up the ante by adding a Services menu through which you can access certain online media portals—like CinemaNow, Snapfish, and Live365.com—directly.

Lest We Forget. . .
The media functions are certainly intriguing, but they mean little if the TVs fall short in the video department. Luckily, that isn't the case. Both displays receive solid marks in the major performance categories, although there are some drawbacks inherent in their respective technologies. The HP's 1,366-by-768 resolution gives it an edge in the detail department; it's capable of rendering razor-sharp images, but it also suffers from some motion blurring, which lessens the impact of that detail in fast-moving scenes. The Pioneer's 1,024-by-768 resolution creates a slightly softer image. But I never felt I was missing anything with DVD or HD sources, and details remained intact during faster-moving scenes.

Like many plasmas, the Pioneer's green color point is way off, which gives the image a bluish-green tint. The HP's color points are quite good; its green is also off the mark, but less so than the Pioneer's. As for color temperature, both TVs exhibit a large spike at the lowest IRE levels, causing dark scenes to take on a blue tint, but this evens out with brighter images. Skintones looked natural, with no red push. You can calibrate the Pioneer to measure very close to 6,500 Kelvin across the range; we could not calibrate the HP, but I doubt we would have been able to fix the spike and subsequent dip at the darker IRE points.

Both TVs offer film modes that enable them to pick up the 3:2 sequence in 480i sources pretty quickly, resulting in only minor shimmer in my demo scene from Gladiator. The Pioneer has an adjustable scan rate; you can set it for 72 hertz, instead of 60 Hz, for slightly more natural motion. It also picks up 3:2 with 1080i sources, while the HP does not. Both deinterlace 1080i/30 correctly.

By numbers alone, the HP has a much higher contrast than the Pioneer, but this doesn't tell the whole story. Our measurements use a full-field white for light output, which can put plasmas at a disadvantage. When we measured the Pioneer with a white window, its contrast ratio was closer to 1,400:1. With real-world content, I never felt the Pioneer lacked image depth or dimension, although its light output is somewhat low, even compared with a few plasmas we've reviewed. Combine this with the glass' tendency to reflect light, and the PRO-940HD isn't the best choice for a bright room environment.

The HP, meanwhile, is capable of over 150 foot-lamberts, which is more than enough light output to watch it in a sunlit room. Thankfully, it also has an adjustable backlight so you can turn down the lamps' output when necessary. While the HP is capable of a better black level than the plasma at its minimum backlight setting, black detail was not very good in my test scenes from Ladder 49 and The Bourne Supremacy. Plus, the viewing angle is a concern; move just 45 degrees off axis, and the black level rises while image saturation drops off noticeably. These two factors hurt the HP's performance in a dark room with darker film sources. The Pioneer has good black detail and a solid black level that remains consistent at any angle, making it a better fit for a theater environment. You might notice that I've essentially just summed up the differences between plasma and LCD.

If you're trying to decide which of these media TVs to buy, it really comes down to usage, taste, and budget. The $1,700 HP renders a videolike picture, with razor-sharp images that are clean and vibrant but lack depth. Its connections and features are modest at best: one HDMI input, no VGA connection, no program guide, and no automatic aspect-ratio detection. The Pioneer's image is more filmlike, with a richer, more textured, and generally more natural quality that I really enjoyed, especially since I watch TV mostly at night. Part of the Elite line, the $3,300 PRO-940HD has a healthy list of connections and features, including two HDMI and three component video inputs, two RF inputs for the internal tuners, a CableCARD slot, the TV Guide On Screen program guide, and a fair number of picture controls. Compared with last year's PRO-930HD, this model exhibits less phosphor lag and short-term image retention, which is important if you plan to leave the media menu on the screen for long periods of time. Both TVs are priced at the high end respective to their screen sizes.

With all that in mind, I primarily view the Pioneer PRO-940HD as a theater-based media TV, one that sits in the center in your home theater system and receives streaming media from the various PCs around your home. HP's SLC3760N, on the other hand, is a great fit for a secondary room as a device that taps into your main Media Center PC and lets you stream all that great content as seamlessly and invisibly as possible.

Highlights
Pioneer Elite PRO-940HD Plasma HDTV:
• Stream media from your computer
• Media receiver built into chassis

Highlights
HP MediaSmart SLC3760N LCD HDTV:
• Stream media from your computer
• Media function is HP's priority
Article Continues: At A Glance: Pioneer »

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Pioneer Elite PRO-940HD Plasma HDTV & HP MediaSmart SLC3760N LCD HDTV:At A Glance: Pioneer

Connections
Inputs:
Video: HDMI (2), component video (3), VGA (1), S-video (2), composite video (3), RF (2)
Audio: Stereo analog (6), miniplug (1)
Outputs:
Video: Composite video (1)
Audio: Optical digital (1), stereo analog (1), subwoofer (1)
Additional: Ethernet (1), USB (1), G-Link (1), CableCARD (1), RS-232 (1)

Features
Type: Plasma
Screen Size (diagonal) 42 inches
Native Resolution / Aspect Ratio: 1,024 by 768 / 16:9
Half Life: 60,000 hours
Wall Mount or Stand Included?: Stand
Dimensions (H x W x D, inches): 26.75 x 40.94 x 10.75 (with stand)
26.75 x 40.94 x 4.5 (w/o stand)
Weight (pounds): 69.9 (with stand)
Price: $3,300

Ratings: Pioneer Elite PRO-940HD Plasma HDTV

Build Quality: 93
• Attractive gloss-black bezel and sturdy stand
• Incorporates media box into chassis

Value: 87
• Pioneer has lowered the price $1,000 from last year's model, but you still pay a premium for the Elite name and features

Features: 96
• Ample input options for HD content
• Optical digital and subwoofer outputs for the media feature
• 3:3 pulldown for smoother motion

Performance: 91
• Modest black level and light output
• Good color, detail, and processing
• Played all media files without incident

Ergonomics: 88
• Remote has dedicated source buttons, but not well designed for the media function
• Connections no longer housed in separate box

Overall Rating: 91
The Pioneer Elite PRO-940HD is a great TV for a light-controlled environment, rendering a natural image with solid color and detail. The Home Media Gallery is just one part of an excellent features package.

General Information
Elite PRO-940HD Plasma HDTV, $3,300
Pioneer Electronics
(800) PIONEER
www.pioneerelectronics.com
Article Continues: HT Labs Measures: Pioneer »

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Pioneer Elite PRO-940HD Plasma HDTV & HP MediaSmart SLC3760N LCD HDTV review:HT Labs Measures: Pioneer

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio—476:1; ANSI Contrast Ratio—851:1

Measured Resolution with the Leader LT-446:
480: 480 (per picture height)
720p: 720 (pph)
1080i: Out to the limits of the 1,024-by-768 panel

DC Restoration (poor, average, good, excellent): Excellent

Color Decoder (poor, average, good, excellent): Excellent

Measured Color Points:
Red Color Point: x=0.664, y=0.328
Green Color Point: x=0.249, y=0.676
Blue Color Point: x=0.147, y=0.060

The top chart shows the PRO-940HD's gray scale relative to its color temperature at various levels of intensity, or brightness (20 IRE is dark gray; 100 IRE is bright white). The gray scale as set by the factory, in the Low color-temperature mode and the Movie picture mode, measures very cool with the darkest images and closer to accurate with brighter images. After making adjustments using the Photo Research PR-650, the gray scale measures much closer to D6500, the accurate color temperature, across the entire range.

The bottom chart shows the gray scale (or color temperature) relative to the color points of the display's red, green, and blue color phosphors. These are off those specified by SMPTE. Red is somewhat oversaturated, while blue is very, very slightly oversaturated. Green is very oversaturated and slightly bluish-green.

After calibration, and using a full-field 100-IRE white (18.55 foot-lamberts) and a full-field 0-IRE black (0.039 ft-L), the contrast ratio was 476:1. Using a 16-box checkerboard pattern (ANSI contrast), the contrast ratio was 851:1. With a 100-IRE window, the PRO-940HD produced 53.41 ft-L. (It is normal for a plasma to have lower light output on a full-white field versus a white window.)—GM

Article Continues: At A Glance: HP »

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Pioneer Elite PRO-940HD Plasma HDTV & HP MediaSmart SLC3760N LCD HDTV: At A Glance: HP

Connections
Inputs:
Video: HDMI (1), component video (2), S-video (1), composite video (3), RF (1)
Audio: Stereo analog (4)
Outputs:
Video: None
Audio: Digital optical (1), stereo analog (1)
Additional: MediaSmart A/V and control inputs (2), Ethernet (1), antenna connections for Wi-Fi (2, 802.11a/b/g)

Features
Type: LCD
Screen Size (diagonal) 37 inches
Native Resolution / Aspect Ratio: 1,366 by 768 / 16:9
Lamp Life: Up to 60,000 hours
Wall Mount or Stand Included?: Stand
Dimensions (H x W x D, inches): 29.3 x 37.3 x 12 (with stand)
29.3 x 37.3 x 6.8 (w/o stand)
Weight (pounds): 59.1 (with stand)
Price: $1,700

HP MediaSmart SLC3760N LCD HDTV

Build Quality: 91
• Attractive gloss-black bezel and sturdy stand
• Media box is attached to the outside

Value: 88
• As we went to press, HP dropped the price from $2,000 to $1,700, which is more competitive but still slightly high for a 37-inch model

Features: 90
• Adjustable backlight and auto light sensor
• Only one HDMI input and no VGA
• The digital audio output is important for MediaSmart

Performance: 89
• Excellent detail and good color
• Viewing angle and motion blurring are a concern

Ergonomics: 92
• Remote lacks backlighting and dedicated source buttons
• The media menu and remote design make for intuitive navigation

Overall Rating: 90
The SLC3760N is a solid performer, offering good color, detail, and contrast, but its LCD nature makes it a better fit for a bright room. The MediaSmart function is a great perk in an otherwise modest features list.

General Information
MediaSmart SLC3760N LCD HDTV, $1,700
HP
(800) 752-0900
Article Continues: HT Labs Measures: HP »

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Pioneer Elite PRO-940HD Plasma HDTV & HP MediaSmart SLC3760N LCD HDTV review:HT Labs Measures: HP

HT Labs Measures: HP SLC3760N LCD HDTV

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio—1,068:1; ANSI Contrast Ratio—967:1

Measured Resolution with the Leader LT-446:
480: 480 (per picture height)
720p: 720 (pph)
1080i: Out to the limits of the 1,366-by-768 panel

DC Restoration (poor, average, good, excellent): Excellent

Color Decoder (poor, average, good, excellent): Excellent

Measured Color Points:
Red Color Point: x=0.634, y=0.334
Green Color Point: x=0.273, y=0.600
Blue Color Point: x=0.146, y=0.066

The top chart shows the SLC3760N's gray scale relative to its color temperature at various levels of intensity, or brightness (20 IRE is dark gray; 100 IRE is bright white). The gray scale as set by the factory, in the Mid-Low color-temperature mode and the User picture mode, measures very cool with the darkest images and very warm with just slightly brighter images. The rest of the gray scale is somewhat cool.

The bottom chart shows the gray scale (or color temperature) relative to the color points of the display's red, green, and blue color filters. These are somewhat off those specified by SMPTE. Red is very slightly undersaturated and very slightly reddish-orange. Blue is very slightly greenish-blue. Green is rather bluish-green.

Using a full-field 100-IRE white (89.7 foot-lamberts) and a full-field 0-IRE black (0.084 ft-L), the contrast ratio was 1,068:1. Using a 16-box checkerboard pattern (ANSI contrast), the contrast ratio was 967:1. The best contrast ratio was achieved with the backlight in the STD setting. The brightest image was achieved with the backlight in the +16 setting, which produced 151.2 ft-L with a 100-IRE field and 0.143 on a 0-IRE black (1,057:1). The best black level was achieved with the backlight in the –16 setting. In this mode, the SLC3760N had a light output of 29.41 ft-L and a black level of 0.028 ft-L, making for a contrast ratio of 1,050:1.—GM

Article Continues: Those Who Can't. . .Cheat »

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Pioneer Elite PRO-940HD Plasma HDTV & HP MediaSmart SLC3760N LCD HDTV review:Those Who Can't. . .Cheat

Streaming media to your TV from an Apple computer is a trickier task, as most digital media receivers are PC-centric. Apple plans to enter the ring with their own digital media receiver, tentatively named the iTV, sometime in the first quarter of 2007. If you can't wait—or your heart is set on one of these media-friendly TVs—you'll have to get creative.

Elgato Systems offers a software program called EyeConnect ($91.35) that lets you stream content in your iTunes, iPhoto, and Movies folders to any UPnP media receiver. It also lets you stream TV content you've recorded with Elgato's EyeTV tuner. You can download a free 30-day trial of the software at www.elgato.com.

HP also sent me their MV2020 Media Vault ($550), a 500-gigabyte external storage drive that connects directly to your home network via Ethernet. This device can automatically back up the content on your networked computers, but it also has a MediaShare function that lets you stream its content to any UPnP media receiver, which worked very well in conjunction with the HP MediaSmart LCD. Mac owners can't use the advanced PC software to manage the Vault, but they can still use its backup and media-sharing functions through their home network. It's not an ideal media-sharing solution for the Mac, but it works.

Neither of these methods lets you stream iTunes video downloads or AAC music files, protected or not. For that, you must wait for the iTV.

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Olevia 747i LCD 1080p Television Review

For a relatively new brand, Olevia has made a fast start. When I attended the launch of its new assembly plant in Ontario California recently, I was impressed by the efficiency of the operation, not to mention the gutsy move to open an assembly plant in the continental U.S. rather than, say, just across the border in Mexico. This says a lot about the confidence that Olevia, and its parent company Syntax-Brillian Corporation, has about its future.
When Michael Fremer reviewed the Syntax-Brillian 6580iFB03 65" LCoS rear projection television back in August, he described a picture "so good I looked forward to seeing it every time I turned on the set." Syntax-Brillian's bread and butter, however, is not in rear projection; but rather in Olevia's flat panel LCD designs.

The 1080p Olevia 747i ($3,999, 47" diagonal) is the top of the company's wide range of LCD displays (there's also a smaller, 42" 7 Series model, the 742i). Can it live up to the standards set by its bigger, more expensive RPTV siblings?

The World is Flat
With a net weight of 128 lbs. without its (included) stand, the Olevia 747i is astonishingly heavy for an LCD flat panel. LCDs tend to be lighter than plasmas of equivalent size (Pioneer's Elite PRO-FHD1 50" 1080p plasma weighs in at a svelte 88 lbs, though it does lack a built-in tuner and speakers), but that isn't the case here. If you plan on hanging the Olevia on the wall, you'd better choose a very strong mounting bracket and a very sturdy wall.

While the bottom-mounted speakers keep the width of the set narrow, they do give it a slightly chunky appearance. Not to worry: the speakers can be removed and mounted on the sides using an optional conversion kit, or even left off entirely. You could even use the onboard digital amps (rated at 26 Wpc, though no response or distortion is specified) to drive external speakers if you choose (the speaker leads are readily accessible). I don't know of any competitor that offers this much flexibility.

When it comes to features more significant than size, weight, or form factor, Olevia didn't pinch pennies with the 747i. The fun starts with their decision to use the Silicon Optix Realta HQV video processor. Based on Teranex technology, the Realta's pixel-based scaling and deinterlacing (including the all-important 1080i-to-1080p conversion) largely eliminates video processing as a limiting factor in picture quality—at least at the current state-of-the-art.

According to Olevia, each set leaves the factory with its 6500K setting correctly calibrated to 6500K, with measurements made across the full brightness range, not just at a single point. I saw the calibration "tent" on my factory visit. A dark environment is used for calibration so that non-contact measuring devices can be used. The Olevia tech with whom I spoke said that they do not use contact devices—those suction cups fitted with sensors that are the staple measuring device of most calibration techs. He argued that the pressure from the cups—which are often held securely in position by hand—subtly distorts the front surface of the screen and affects the readings. I'm sure this will be a controversial claim, but it does indicate Olevia's dedication to detail.
In addition to two antenna inputs and the usual video and S-Video connections, there are three component (Y-Pb-Pr) inputs (one of them on a VGA/computer style connector), and two HDMI connections. There is also an RS-232 jack. The firmware is upgradeable via a USB port. The set does not have a CableCARD slot. (The current CableCARD format has been falling out of favor because it does not offer two-way interoperability for such features as program guides and pay-per-view).

Most of these connections are located at the rear of the set but readily accessible from the side when the set is mounted on its stand. The two RF (antenna) inputs, digital audio outputs (both coaxial and TosLink optical) for use with the set's onboard ATSC tuners, L/R analog audio outs, a subwoofer output, and a headphone output are located further around back, facing down. (Placing the headphone jack around back, facing down, is an odd choice for a feature that needs to be readily available after installation.) As with all flat panel displays, none of these jacks are easily accessible in a wall mount. In that situation all connections should be made before positioning the set on its wall bracket.

While Olevia specifies only a single digital audio output, I found two (TosLink optical and coaxial) and changed the listing in the specs at the end of this review accordingly.

The 747i also includes two onboard, over-the-air, Clear QAM ATSC/NTSC tuners. You can display two HD stations simultaneously.

The only manual that came with my sample of the 747i was on a CD-ROM. While this might be useful in some circumstances, I find a printed manual far more useful. (You could, of course, print out all 79 pages of the CD-ROM manual, using your own paper and ink!)

The Usual, and Not So Usual, Suspects
I'll conserve bits here by not going into the usual list of features found in most sets—things like channel setup, Parental Control, aspect ratios, channel guides, PIP/Split Screen, etc. While there are no arcane features such as a slot for viewing the contents of a digital photo card or a printer for printing them, the set offers all the special features and any sane TV viewer might need.

The Olevia also provides an unusual way of presenting and controlling these features. The set's on-screen display starts with a figure of a rotating wheel in the upper left hand corner of the screen. It looks like one of the spinning drums in a slot machine. There are four surfaces on this indicator, for four different submenus: Picture, Audio, Screen, and Setup. The Up and Down buttons on the remote's navigation section rotate the wheel to the submenu you desire, while the Left and Right select the option you want within that submenu. Once there, the Enter button calls up the adjustment control for that option.

This arrangement is clever, but for me too clever by half. It does have the benefit of keeping the screen clear of clutter while you're navigating through the options. But it didn't feel intuitive. And with some of the options I was never quite sure if I had turned them on or off. As far as I could tell, a red border around an item indicated it was on, and a green border indicated off--not at all intuitive to my way of thinking.

For most parameters you may enter different settings for each input, but some settings operate globally or near-globally. For example, the color temperature setup you choose for HDMI will apply to both HDMI inputs.

One serious ergonomic shortcoming is that while your changes to the video settings are accompanied by an on-screen "slider" indicator with a marker above it showing the last saved setting; there are no number designations for the settings. If you dial in a reasonably satisfactory setup but want to experiment further, the lack of such numbers make it difficult to return to your original settings. And as soon as you exit the menu for a particular setting—brightness, for example—the marker moves to the new position.

Apart from the usual picture adjustments, the Picture menu includes a Lighting control that adjusts the image for a dark, medium, or bright room (I used Dark Room for virtually all of my watching). The color temperature control provides both factory and User settings for 6500K and 9300K. The User adjustments provide both high (Gain) and low (Offset) adjustments for red, green, and blue. (The lack of number designations for the settings described in the above paragraph also applies to the user menu's color temperature adjustments, which is certain to drive calibrators up the wall.)

An oddly named "Idea" submenu includes controls called Black Level Extender, White Peak Limiter, and Contrast Enhance. The On/Off status of these three controls, which had relatively subtle effects, were hard to determine from the on-screen indicators. I solved that problem by leaving the Idea menu Off. It didn't help that the function of these controls (and a few others, as well) weren't well described in the manual. The description of the White Peak Limiter, in particular, read like an outtake from Borat: "To limit the signal amplitude varying degree resulted in brightness over saturation."

The remote control's buttons are backlit, though with the common limitation that the labels for the actual functions of many of the controls are on the body of the remote and therefore not illuminated. Some controls are well located and comfortably sized, but others are too small and too close together for error-free operation. On the upside, many of the set's more frequently used functions may be accessed directly from the remote rather than going into the sometimes frustrating, main on-screen menu system. The remote may also be programmed to operate up to seven additional components by inputting the appropriate codes.

Syntax –Brillian devotes a page in the owner's manual to the subject of dead pixels. They allow up to 12 bad pixels, and will exchange a unit when a set is delivered with more than that, but they cannot guarantee that the replacement unit will be 100% free of the problem. At least they are up front about this. No manufacturer can guarantee a perfect complement of pixels, though some choose to ignore the issue altogether. (I have almost never experienced a bad pixel in a review sample, and saw none in this one.)

Performance
I usually prefer to get the negatives out of the way first in a review, and the Olevia does have a few shortcomings. The first was not surprising. The set's deep blacks simply aren't very deep. Uniformly dim scenes have too much medium gray and too little black. The under deck scenes that open Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World lack punch. If you're a fan of Dark City, or film noir, this may not be the set for you.

Fortunately, such scenes are relatively rare in most movies, though there are more of them in modern films than older ones. Blame today's faster film stocks, which encourage cinematographers to shoot in available light. Whenever such scenes turn up, most LCDs, including the Olevia 747i, look like they are overlaid with a gray fog that lightens the scene and obscures shadow detail. But if the scene has enough bright highlights to give the eye a reference, you don't notice this "gray fog" as much. But it's still there; those highlights simply mask it a bit. And shadow detail remains marginal at best. The Olevia is a little worse in this respect than the two most recent high-end LCD displays I have reviewed, the Sony BRAVIA KDL-46XBR2 and the JVC LT-46FN97, but it's in the same ballpark.
While Olevia specifies a 178-degree viewing angle, both horizontal and vertical, it's a tad optimistic. (According to Olevia, that spec comes from the panel manufacturer, LG Phillips.) While the image is still watchable at a fairly wide angle, the image starts to lighten, the contrast drops, and the colors fade when you're only slightly off-axis. From a comfortable viewing distance, three on a couch centered on the set should have no problem enjoying the picture. But the middle will still be the "money seat."

There are some minor uniformity issues. I saw no discolorations on the screen: The black and white HD DVD transfer of Casablanca looked beautiful, with a subtle but appropriate sepia shift and no odd, irregularly tinted blotches. But I did see some dark, vertical, ghostlike bands on some material at mid brightness levels, both on test patterns and on large areas of solid color, like deep blue sky. They weren't easy to spot on most programming, however, and even when I was looking for them I seldom saw them. And on a full black screen there were small, slightly brighter areas in the bottom corners. Again, I never noticed this with program material.

But for the most part this set produced stunning images. It was no surprise that with its Silicon Optix video processing the Olevia passed all of my usual scaling and deinterlacing tests with flying colors, scoring from very good to excellent on all of them. Every cadence test on my HQV Benchmark test disc was smoothly reproduced—again, not surprising since this test was produced by Silicon Optix to show off the capabilities of its processing solutions.

The Olevia's three optional noise reduction settings were also useful, minimizing noise while doing little damage to picture's resolution. Most of the time I recommend leaving this noise reduction feature Off, but it's effective if you ever need it.

If there's one word I could choose to describe the Olevia's picture, it would be silky. It never lacks for detail, but the image is so smooth that the resolution never seems forced. It has a natural degree of pop and vividness. Less, it's true, than you'll see from a good plasma display, but not everyone finds the vividness of plasma to his or her liking. Yes, you can make the image on the Olevia less natural with a poor setup, but it's to the company's credit that it doesn't give you the traditional picture "modes" offered by other manufacturers, modes with names like Vivid, Gamer, Dynamic, etc. What Olevia does give you is an excellent picture out of the box and the controls needed to make it even better.
High-definition from my cable system on the Olevia ranged from satisfactory to superb. Such a range of quality is not unusual with any program source, but if you see a great looking HD program on the Olevia, you'll know it. I have some of this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on my HD DVR, and it's beautifully reproduced on the Olevia, with gorgeous color, natural flesh tones, and a sharp but natural image. And the set will do justice to a good HD movie transfer, as well. About a Boy is an odd movie, but it has a surprising number of reference quality images. The 747i got it all, including scenes inside a supermarket with its well-stocked rows and stacks of small, brightly colored, crisply detailed merchandise.

The Olevia earns top marks for HD sports, too. LCDs have a reputation for slow response time, which causes motion smear. I watched more than my fair share of football on this set and was never bothered by motion smear. I'm sure it's there, and if viewed side-by-side-by-side with, say, a CRT, it probably wouldn't be hard to spot. But viewed and judged on its own, whatever motion smear the Olivia might have never bothered me.

Even standard definition DVD looks beautiful on this set. Jurassic Park III has always been a great video transfer, the best looking of the Jurassic Park series. It also has many scenes of bright green foliage that can be tough on digital displays. The Olevia did a great job keeping those greens realistic. It also handled the rest of the transfer with ease, edging very close to the look of a high-definition source in depth, detail, and color.

The recently released DVD of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest may not be high-definition either, but that doesn't mean it looks soft. Its bright scenes are given a first-rate treatment on this set. Even most of the dark scenes, and there are plenty of them here, fare reasonably well because they are lit in a way that adds highlights to important details. And while a few of the darkest scenes look too gray, you can always follow what's going on.

Mediocre program material, which includes much of today's standard definition, analog cable offerings, looked okay on the Olevia. The set didn't work miracles with such material, but most of it was at least tolerable. Nevertheless, as you get more accustomed to HDTV and even the best DVDs on this set, you'll definitely find yourself less drawn to TV Land reruns of Green Acres and Gilligan's Island.

I recently reviewed the 46" JVC LT-46FN97 LCD flat panel set, and it was still on hand in the early stages of this review. Compared to the Olevia, the color of the two sets was so close (after calibration) that I wouldn't want to have to choose between them. On bright and medium bright scenes the two sets look similar in contrast. The Olevia was a bit more vivid, three-dimensional, and lush, but it was a very close call. On darker scenes, however, the JVC pulled slightly ahead, with marginally darker blacks and better shadow detail.

Conclusions
The Olevia is not without flaw. It suffers from some of the weaknesses typical of most LCD sets: poor black levels and less than optimum off-axis performance. But it does have excellent color, great detail, an image that is both compelling and easy to watch for hours on end. It's a worthy flagship for a brand that I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more about in the future.

Highs
Outstanding color
Fine three-dimensionality with crisp detail
Video processing second to none
Two HD tuners

Lows
Mediocre blacks and shadow detail
Image deteriorates noticeably when viewed much off-axis
On-screen menus can be frustrating
Article Continues: Specifications

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Olevia 747i LCD 1080p Television:Specifications

LCD panel type: 47", 1920x1080 resolution
Signal Compatibility: NTSC and ATSC video (480i/p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p); PC up to 1920x1080@60Hz
Contrast ratio: 1600:1 (Dynamic Contrast Ratio)
Viewing angle: 178-degrees, horizontal and vertical
Response time: 8ms
Video inputs: Two HDMI (HDCP), two component on RCAs, one component on 15-pin D-sub, two S-Video, two composite video, dual RF
Audio inputs: HDMI audio, analog L/R for each analog video input
Audio outputs: headphone, R/L analog (RCA), SPDIF coaxial and TosLink digital audio, subwoofer
Other: RS-232, USB
Dimensions (WxHxD): 46.4" x 38.1" x 13.8" (with stand), 46.4" x 36.1" x 6.3" (without stand)
Weight: 143.3 lbs. with stand, 127.9 lbs. without stand
Price: $3,999

Manufacturer
Syntax-Brillian Corporation
www.olevia.com
www.syntaxbrillian.com
(866) 9-OLEVIA

Article Continues: Associated Equipment

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Olevia 747i LCD 1080p Television:Associated Equipment

Sources
Pioneer Elite DV-79AVi DVD player
Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player
Scientific Atlanta Explorer 800HD HD cable converter/PVR
RePlay standard definition tuner/DVR
Cables
Monster and UltraLink HDMI
Tributaries and Monster component
Article Continues: Tests and Calibration

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Olevia 747i LCD 1080p Television:Tests and Calibration

The Olevia 747i's black and white (luminance) and color response, in both HDMI and component, extended up to the maximum burst frequencies from my AccuPel HDG-3000 test pattern generator at all resolutions (6.75MHz for 480i, 13.5MHz for 480p, and 37.1MHz for 720p and 1080i). The result with the 1080i burst, in particular, was as good any we have seen from a display of any description, including front projectors.

With HDMI at 480i, the set did not respond properly to the generator- the patterns were visible, but enlarged and off-center. This was odd as the Olevia did respond properly to a 480i HDMI output from my Pioneer Elite DV-79AVi DVD player.

The set looked excellent on sharpness patterns at all resolutions, with single pixel lines crisply resolved where present, particularly at the high-definition resolutions. The minimum setting of the Sharpness control was optimum, though its action was mild, and an increase to a setting as high as 50% did not result in serious artifacts on normal program material.

But there was one odd result, which is shown in Figs. 1 and 2. With 1080i HDMI (Fig.1), all the horizontal lines in the sharpness pattern were accompanied by additional, one pixel-width horizontal lines. As you can see, these "phantom lines" were as crisp as the lines in the pattern itself, and not the sort of shadowy lines you would see with ringing. They were also visible from other AccuPel 1080i HDMI test patterns having sharp horizontal edges.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

The same 1080i pattern is shown in Fig.2 as reproduced through an HDMI connection to the Sony VPL-VW50 ("Pearl") 1080p projector. This is what it should look like. It's possible that there is some incompatibility between the AccuPel generator at 1080i and the Olevia. I saw no sign of this artifact in any other situation, including normal 1080i program material via HDMI, test patterns in 1080i component, or any type if source at other resolutions.

The primary RGB color points on the Olevia were very close to ideal. Green was off the most, but far less oversaturated than most modern digital displays we measure. The secondary color points for cyan and magenta were off a bit more (though yellow was excellent), but not enough to make an issue over.

In its 6500K color temperature setting, the pre-calibration gray scale (measured with our Photo Research PR-650 colorimeter), was very close to the ideal temperature (see the chart). But there was a bit too much green in the readings, something that the color temperature numbers alone do not show. A slight recalibration in the 6500K User menu brought the x/y coordinates closer to the D6500 standard (x=0.313, y=0.329 on the CIE color chart across the full brightness range).

I measured a peak contrast ratio of 915:1 (72.32 foot-Lamberts peak white, 0.079fL video black). This is lower than the specified Dynamic Contrast of 1600:1, but it isn't clear what Olevia means by Dynamic Contrast. My measured 915:1 peak contrast ratio is better than other flat panel displays I have tested recently (including the Sony and JVC, mentioned earlier), but the Olevia's black level was worse (higher) than on those other displays.

Overscan averaged about 1% or less at all resolutions, in both HDMI and component. A cropping control is provided to increase this to about 3.5% in case noise or other artifacts intrude at the edges of the picture. But engaging the cropping control does affect resolution. The difference is most evident at 1080i. Fig.3 shows multibursts at 18.5MHz (left) and 37.1MHz (right) without cropping. Fig.4 shows the same two bursts with cropping engaged.

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

It is not uncommon for such overscan/cropping controls to affect resolution So this is less a criticism of the Olevia than a caution against using its Cropping control unless it is needed to eliminate the noise that occasionally turns up at one or more edges of an image.

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JVC LT-46FN97 LCD

• $3,500
• 46" LCD
• 1920x1080
• Key Connections: Dual HDMI and component inputs, two i.LINK IEEE1394 in/outs, one PC input

Features We Like: 1080p resolution, OTA and CableCARD HD tuners

Features We Miss: Doesn't accept 1080p signals

The editors at our sister publication UAV loved this JVC for its relaxed, natural looking imagery. But that's not to say it's not sharp- this set consistently bordered on that fabled "looking out the window" territory. While black weren't as good as the best plasmas, and we're bummed when a display can't accept 1080p signals, the colors rivaled the best digital front proejctors we've seen, natural and respectably accurate. This set is a potent cocktail of price, size, features and performance making it a terrific value in a 1080p flat panel.

*** Read the complete review. ***

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JVC LT-46FN97 LCD review

It isn't immediately obvious that the JVC LT-46FN97 ($3,499.95) stands out in a sea of new flat panel displays. Its styling is attractive but generic. Its feature set is good though hardly revolutionary. But when I first saw it in action at a JVC line show I knew I wanted to review it. Two other trade shows intervened before I had a chance to spend time with this 46" 1080p LCD set in my own studio, but demos at both shows made me even more anxious to check it out.

East Side, West Side
The jack pack on the rear of the JVC is covered by two removable panels. One panel hides the digital connections, the other the analog. The analog panel is located on the right rear as you face the set and faces the side so that the jacks are easy to access and the leads will not interfere with a wall-mount. Nevertheless, I always recommend that you hook up all of the leads you need, plus any you anticipate needing, before wall mounting any flat panel display.

Something else to keep in mind before wall mounting: There are no camcorder-convenient jacks on either the front or the side; you must use the connections on the rear panel. The only things you'll find on the side of the set are operating controls and a headphone jack.

There is a CableCARD slot near the digital connections. CableCARD facilities are rapidly disappearing from current sets as consumers realize how resistant cable companies are to the concept (they have to offer it, but they don't have to make it easy) and its current lack of interactive features like Pay-Per-View.

There are two RF cable/antenna inputs. The hookup instructions show both of these connected simultaneously from an antenna or cable feed using an external RF splitter. This is fine if you want to receive both NTSC (standard definition) and ATSC (DTV, including high-definition) channels over the air via the set's built-in NTSC/ATSC tuners. But keep in mind that if you use an outboard cable box rather than the set's CableCARD tuner you can't receive cable HD channels using an RF connection from the cable box to the set. Every cable box I know of requires an analog component or HDMI/DVI digital connection to deliver high-definition.

That's not the only aspect of the JVC's input/output complement that isn't entirely clear from the specs. There are two HDMI (HDCP compliant) digital video inputs (Digital-IN1 and Digital-IN2) that can carry both video and audio to the set. In addition, Digital IN-1 also has separate L/R analog audio jacks, which is a bonus if you wish to use a DVI-based source (via a DVI-HDMI breakout cable) with the set's audio system. A menu option allows you to choose between the digital audio carried on the HDMI cable or the analog two-channel audio entering these L/R inputs.

There are three sets of analog video inputs. Each of them also has L/R audio inputs. Video-3 has jacks for component and composite video, only one of which may be used at a time. Video-2 has S-Video and composite video connections and, ditto, you can't use both of them simultaneously.

Video-1 is a so-called Smart Input. If you're using an AV receiver or pre-pro with multiple video sources of various types attached to it, you can run composite, S-Video, and component video cables from the receiver or pre-pro to the set's Video-1 input. When the Smart Input setup mode is engaged, Video-1 will then recognize which input is carrying a signal at any given time and activate that particular connection. You need only select the appropriate input on the receiver or pre-pro; the set does the rest. (According to JVC, not all receivers or pre-pros will work with this feature.)

One limitation of the Smart Input is that it does not include either of the digital video (HDMI) connections in its input recognition set. Another hookup option, and the one I used for most of this review, is to use one of the new AV receivers or pre pros that converts all incoming source inputs to HDMI. I used a Denon AVR-4306 receiver (review in progress) connected to three different sources: an early standard definition ReplayTV tuner/DVR box via composite video, an HD cable box/DVR via component, and DVD/HD DVD players over HDMI. This setup required only a single HDMI run from the receiver to the JVC, with all the video format conversion and switching (but no scaling or deinterlacing) performed by the receiver. While much of my viewing was done this way, I also watched DVD and HD DVD connected directly to the set to insure the quality of the Denon's switching, which appeared to be pristine.

All of the inputs may be relabeled using a fixed set of 10 options, such as VCR, DVR, DVD, GAME, etc. But they cannot be renamed with more specific, unique designations, like JVC DVD, Panasonic Blu-ray, etc.

The JVC also has a Monitor/Recording output with a choice of composite or S-Video outputs, plus L/R analog audio. This output works only with the Video-1 input set, and there are restrictions on what you can record from it. Most significantly, if you are receiving an ATSC/digital cable signal, it may be accessed for recording only from the S-Video or composite output terminals. This means, of course, that you cannot record a high-definition program at full resolution from the set's HD tuner using this output.

But I'm not sure why you'd want to do this. Normally you will use the tuner in a VCR or DVR to record programming for posterity or time-shifting. The set does provide two IEEE 1394 i.LINK connections that may be used to record and play back non copy-protected, high-definition programs using a D-VHS recording deck—a feature offered by few other current sets. The fact that JVC is the only manufacturer with a consumer D-VHS deck in its product line just might have something to do with this. Hopefully, those connections will come in handy when (or if) we get Blu-ray or HD DVD recorders in this country that offer compatible i.LINK inputs and aren't crippled by copy protection thingamajigs.

One important point that may concern some potential buyers is that the LT-46FN97 will not accept a native 1080p signal. The only high definition sources it will accept are 720p and 1080i.

Command and Control
The JVC's on-screen menus offer the usual set of video controls: Tint, Color, Picture (contrast), Bright (brightness), and Detail (sharpness). In addition, a Color Temperature control offers two settings, High and Low.

There is also an Energy Saver Mode, which adjusts the overall brightness of the image over a range of -30 to +30. What this actually appears to be is a backlight adjustment. I found that it produced the most natural, comfortable image when turned down nearly all the way. I used a setting of -25 for most of my tests.

The Color Management feature is said to "Ensure dull colors are compensated to produce natural hues." I saw little or no change when I engaged this on good program material, so I left it Off.

Dynamic Gamma, to quote the manual again, "Makes it easier to see dark areas when a picture has many dark areas, and makes it easier to see the bright areas when the picture has many bright areas." Its effect was subtle, but I left this feature off as well.

Smart Picture "detects the APL (Average Picture Level) and adjusts the contrast suitable for what you are watching." Off again.

Smart Sensor adjusts the brightness depending on the light in the room. You can also turn on a Sensor Effect feature that triggers an indicator on the screen when Smart Sensor is adjusting the brightness. Smart Sensor may be helpful, perhaps, for casual viewing, but I didn't use it in my tests.

Natural Cinema engages 3:2 pulldown, with Auto, On, and Off settings.

There are also a number of those ubiquitous features that all sets offer in one form or other, such as multiple aspect ratios, parental lockout (V-Chip), freeze, and Twin (displays two sources side-by-side on screen).

I never felt the need for video noise reduction on any high-definition or good quality standard definition sources I watched on the JVC, but I did occasionally find the set's two video noise reduction controls useful on mediocre analog cable stations. The Digital VNR has four positions: Auto, Min, Max, and Off. Max produced the best result on those marginal signals, though it did soften image detail. MPEG NR, set simply to On/Off, is said to reduce block noise and mosquito noise together. The MPEG NR control produced no noticeable degradation in the image, but since neither of these MPEG artifacts was ever distracting to me as I watched the JVC, I also turned this feature off.

There are also four selectable video modes: Standard, Dynamic, Theater, and Game. JVC does not refer to these options as modes, however, but rather lists them (oddly) in a menu called Video Status. You can manually change the picture control settings for these "modes," and configure them separately for each input for both HD (720p/1080i) and SD (480i/p).

The Standard, Dynamic, and Game modes were too bright and cartoonish. They also add edge enhancement that can't be dialed out with the Detail control. I can understand why some users might want to select Standard for bright daytime viewing, and it's there if you need it. But Theater produced the most natural-looking image in subdued room lighting.

There's also a separate button called Theater Pro, which is claimed to provide the most accurate color temperature (D6500). That's the setting I used for all of my evaluations and measurements. The Theater setting of the Video Status control, with the Color Temperature control set on Low, appeared to be identical to Theater Pro.

The set's onboard audio system sounds OK for the nightly news, but you'll want to use your outboard home theater audio gear for any serious viewing. The audio controls include the sort of gee-whiz modes that appear on most TVs these days. These include MaxxBass, which sounds gimmicky but actually makes the rather tinny sound of the set's two 1.6" x 6.3" speakers far more tolerable at moderate volume, without adding boom. Smart Sound compresses the audio to limit annoyingly loud commercials, or to let you fall asleep more easily while watching Attack of the Killer Tomatoes on the Late, Late Show.

I wasn't impressed by the JVC's remote control. It's programmable for up to four devices (including the TV). It's illuminated, but the backlighting isn't as useful as it should be. The buttons light up, but most of their functions are designated on the body of the remote, which isn't backlit, rather than on the buttons themselves, which are. There are also too many buttons of identical shape and size. And while the main Menu button is easy to find, a number of important functions may be accessed only through dedicated buttons on the remote that are less prominently positioned. Still, as with most problematic remotes, it wasn't as annoying after I got used to it as it was on first touch.

But there was one major ergonomic nuisance that didn't go away with time: the inputs may not be accessed directly but only by going "around the horn" using the Input button. This is made worse by a one or two second delay when switching from one input to the next. And you can't jump ahead two or three input selections by rapidly pushing the Input button two or three times. The set must lock onto each subsequent input in the chain before it will accept a command to move on to the next.

Setting Up
I live in a difficult reception area, with the line of sight to the transmitter blocked by a mountain ridge (I use an outside antenna with a signal amplifier). The high-definition stations I picked up using the set's on-board ATSC tuner looked pristine, but while I was able to pick up a reasonable range of DTV stations, I could not pick up the local NBC affiliate, Channel 4. Some of the other ATSC tuners I have tested in this location (but not all) have also failed to grab this signal. The JVC's tuner also had a problem with frequent macroblocking breakup on channel 7 (ABC). It also picked up CBS and Fox. For PBS it locked onto channel 28 in Los Angeles and channel 58 in San Bernardino, but not PBS Channel 50 in Orange County, which some tuners I've tested have been able to pick up.

I did all of my critical viewing for this report with the set in its Theater Pro Video Status mode, with the color temperature control set to Low. I wanted to do a full calibration prior to critical viewing, as I normally do, but did not receive workable information from JVC for accessing the service menu in time to make our deadline. Fortunately, the Low color temperature setting was reasonably accurate. I've measured better, but it did not compromise the set's otherwise exceptional performance. If I receive usable service menu access instructions, the calibration results will be posted here in the near future.

Through the Looking Glass
On high-definition cablecasts I was immediately impressed by the JVC's relaxed, natural-looking images. It displayed few of the usual limitations of LCD displays. Its blacks weren't as deep as the best plasma flat panels or microdisplay rear projection sets, but it rarely reminded me that I was watching an LCD. I also watched more than a few football games during my time with the JVC without ever thinking about image blur. Yes, I'm sure it was there, because I did see it on very rapid scrolls across the screen, either horizontally or vertically. It was most obvious on white titles against a black background, but harder to spot on more complex images. In several weeks of viewing, with all types of program material, I rarely gave it a thought.

The JVC's off-axis performance was good. Move much beyond 45-degrees or so and you'll begin to see some pink discoloration (more visible on black and white program material than color). But most viewers will not notice it, particularly if they use the included swivel stand. And neither white field uniformity (which introduces subtle tints to some parts of the screen but not others) nor banding (stair-step transitions from lighter to darker areas and the reverse, when smooth gradations are called for by the source) were obvious. I did see some banding on test patterns, but it was no worse than average for a digital set. False contouring was rare.

What wasn't rare was the overall quality of the image. Yes, really poor analog stations looked two-dimensional and sometimes noisy (though as noted earlier the set's noise reduction helps with this). But good analog stations looked fine, digital standard definition stations often looked very good, and the best high-definition came very close to that "looking out the window" ideal.

The best standard definition DVDs, as they often do on a relatively small screen, challenged high-definition sources in image quality. My favorite test DVD, Charlotte Gray, looked superb. The JVC ran neck and neck with some of the best video projectors I've had in-house with respect to color (slightly glowing greens but no worse than most digital displays), detail, and lack of artifacts and video noise.

Only in its blacks and shadow detail does the JVC come up a bit short. Although the best LCD displays—and this JVC certainly belongs in that category—continue to improve, LCD has more ground to make up than other current digital display technologies before it can challenge the venerable CRT in these characteristics. Nevertheless, I was only rarely distracted by the gray fog that often pops up in dark scenes on digital displays, and LCDs in particular. The opening scenes in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World showed more than a trace of this, but I could still follow the action. As LCDs go, I would rate the JVC's performance on dark scenes as above average, but this is still the set's most noteworthy limitation.

Beyond that, however, I had few complaints. And when I moved on to HD DVD, things turned even shinier. Those who argue that you can't see the superiority of high-definition on a relatively small screen are simply wrong. True, on a relatively small screen you can't see tiny details from a normal viewing distance. But when the entire image is in crisp focus (in contrast to DVD where details at medium and long range are fuzzy), you can sense you are watching that something out of the ordinary. Even at my 10' viewing distance, the best HD DVDs really took off on the JVC.

I've used Phantom of the Opera often in previous reviews. One of the first HD DVDs, it remains one of the most delicately detailed high-definition discs out there. Check out any of the scenes that take place in the grand lobby of the opera house, including chapters 13 or 20. Even the tiniest details you can make out from a typical viewing distance are crisp. True, if you sit too you can see that they look just a little soft, but that's likely a limitation of the source (in a complex chain running back from the pressing plant to the lenses used in the original photography), not the JVC.

The JVC's detail stands up to scrutiny on other HD DVDs as well. Robin Hood looks amazing for a film over 50 years old. The opening titles are so crisp they could have been shot this year. The vivid Technicolor hues pop out of every scene, especially Will Scarlet's bright red accoutrements, cleverly camouflaged against Sherwood Forrest's rich greenery. I doubt if the film looked anywhere near as good in its original theatrical release as it does on the HD DVD/JVC combo. There is some visible noise, but that's understandable given the film's age.

Stereophile editor John Atkinson once referred to images of fish as the videophile equivalent of audiophile recordings. True enough, I suppose, but when they look as good as True Blue, (an HD DVD released by Toshiba in Japan but not available in the U.S.) I'll suffer through it. Not that there is much suffering involved here; this video-sourced material looks stunning on the JVC.

Conclusions With the possible exception of the newest 1080p plasmas just starting to appear- and currently going for twice the price of comparably sized LCDs- the JVC LT-46FN97 is as impressive a flat panel display as I've seen. Two other contenders, the Sony BRAVIA KDL-46XBR2 and the Pioneer Elite PRO-1130HD, were not on hand for a direct comparison. But when both are set up for the best image, the JVC produced slightly deeper blacks than the Sony, with comparable brightness and marginally more accurate color points. But the JVC has a less sensitive HD tuner, less flexible setup controls, an inferior remote, and more mundane styling than the Sony. The Sony will also accept a 1080p source directly. The Pioneer PRO-1130HD plasma has the best blacks and punchiest image of the three sets, plus an outboard processor that may be more convenient in some systems. But it also has a weak HD tuner, bandwidth that's less than the optimum 37.1MHz in HD, lower resolution at 1280x768, and it costs $2,000 more.

Certainly there will be developments down the road that will bring LCD displays closer to the CRT ideal of super inky blacks and super high contrast ratios. But in the world of today's flat panel displays, the JVC LT-46FN97's combination of performance and value is hard to beat.

Highs and Lows

Highs
Bright, colorful, sharp image
Good blacks for an LCD
The Smart Input facilitates source hookup and switching

Lows
Slow input switching
So-so remote control
Slightly insensitive HD tuner
Will not accept a 1080p source

*** Specifications ***

Specifications

46" (Diagonal) LCD Flat Panel Television
Reception Format: NTSC, ATSC
Number of pixels: 1920 x 1080
Audio amplifier: 10Wpc x 2
Inputs: Two 75 ohms RF (antenna), three composite (with L/R audio), two S-Video (with L/R audio), two component (with L/R audio), two HDMI (one with L/R audio), PC (analog RGB D-Sub), RS-232, two i.LINK (in/out)
Outputs: TosLink digital audio, Monitor/Recording (S-Video or composite, L/R analog audio), headphones
Dimensions: 44.4" x 30.7" x 13.5" (WxHxD, with stand)
44.4" x 28.5" x 4.9" (WxHxD, without stand)
Weight: 82.5 lbs. with stand, 68.2 lbs. without stand
Power consumption: 286W
Price: $3,499.95

*** Review System ***

Sources
Pioneer Elite DV-79AVi DVD player
Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player
Scientific Atlanta Explorer 800HD HD cable converter/DVR
ReplayTV standard definition tuner/DVR
Cables
Monster and UltraLink HDMI
Tributaries and Monster component

*** Tests and Calibration ***

The JVC performed reasonably well on my usual menu of tests for deinterlacing and scaling. Its performance on the various jaggies tests was only fair. While it was marginally slower in locking onto 3/2 pulldown than some displays we have tested, it did lock on. It displayed some line twitter on a 2:2 pulldown test for video-based (not film-based) sources. But I was never bothered by artifacts with real program material on anything but the worst analog cable sources.

Viewing multiburst luminance response patterns from my AccuPel HDG-3000 test pattern generator revealed that the JVC was essentially perfect out to the maximum frequencies required for 480i (6.75MHz) and 480p (13.5MHz) standard definition in both HDMI and component. It was also good in component 1080i, though a little noise and unevenness was evident on the highest burst (37.1MHz), along with a response that was rolling off visibly at that frequency. The 1080i HDMI multibursts also held up to the 37.1MHz maximum with only a slight unevenness in the highest frequency burst. The 720p bursts, with both component and HDMI, were also excellent, though both showed some rolloff at 37.1MHz (the more so with component than HDMI).

The color resolution was also more than adequate to support the set's fine overall resolution. At a number of resolutions, with both HDMI and component, there was noticeable, non-defeatable edge sharpening visible on vertical lines in a sharpness test pattern (even with the Detail control at its -30 lower limit). This oversharpening was essentially insignificant in the Theater setting, but quite obvious in the Standard, Dynamic, and Game modes.

The RGB color points were comfortably close to the ATSC (high-definition) standard. Green was very accurate, and blue, in particular, closer to the blue-purple of the standard than most displays I've tested.

The JVC would not reproduce below black with an HDMI source, but did do below black in component. It did above white on both HDMI and component. Overscan averaged about 2.5% in all resolutions and in both HDMI and component.

As noted earlier, JVC did not provide workable service menu access information prior to the initial posting of this review. But we have subsequently received it, and have now performed a full calibration. The factory High Color Temperature setting measured close to 8000 Kelvins, the Low setting was comfortably close to the D6500 standard. A red shift dropped the color temperature to under 6500 Kelvins over much of the brightness range, but not enough to be visibly intrusive in normal viewing. But following a full calibration, the set measured even closer to the D6500 standard, apart from a blue shift below 30IRE. The before and after results are now shown in the chart.

I measured the JVC's contrast ratio with several different settings of the Energy Saver Mode (backlight). In all cases the peak contrast was approximately the same. My preferred backlight setting of -25 produced a peak contrast ratio of 636:1 (36.25foot-Lamberts peak white/0.057fL video black). At a backlight setting of zero, the peak contrast measured 677:1, with a peak white level 53fL, but the black level also increased in near lockstep, to 0.079fL. Increase the backlight to maximum, incidentally, and you'll get a contrast ratio of 620:1 and a peak white output of nearly 81fL.

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