Rear-projection TVs that use DLP (Digital Light Processing) are among the best high-def deals out there, easily edging out flat-panel plasma and LCD TVs on the dollar-per-screen-inch scale. But a drawback for some buyers (aside from the cabinet depth, which averages around 16 inches) has been the “rainbows” associated with the spinning color wheel in DLP TVs: occasional flashes of colored light or trails on objects that most people probably don't notice but some are sensitive to. LCD and current LCoS-based rear projectors use separate display chips for the primary colors of red, green, and blue, so they don't need a color wheel and don't suffer from this artifact.
The HL-S5679W has a slim, compact look, with speakers tucked neatly into the bottom of the chassis and a narrow, gloss-black bezel. A large silver circle below the screen powers up the TV when pressed, and there are basic controls on the right side along with a convenience input that lets you plug in a camcorder or USB storage device for viewing digital pix. My sample also came with Samsung's matching stand — an attractive $250 option.
Inputs on the set's back panel include a pair of HDMI jacks and a VGA port that all accept 1080p-rez input signals. A CableCARD slot and built-in TV Guide On Screen program guide are provided (though our experience with TVGOS on other TVs has been spotty). There's also a set of FireWire (a.k.a., IEEE-1394 or i.Link) jacks, to plug in a digital VCR or hard-disk recorder and operate it via the TV's screen and remote.
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The Short Form
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| Price $3,600 (AS TESTED; $4,000 LIST) / samsung.com / 800-726-7864 |
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Snapshot
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| A forward-looking but pricey TV that offers very good picture quality — with a few caveats. |
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Plus
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•Rich, natural color •No DLP “rainbow” effect or need to replace a lamp •Wide range of connection options •Innovative onscreen menu system |
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Minus
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•Poor screen uniformity •Limited shadow detail •Expensive compared to competition |
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Key Features
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•1,920 x 1,080-resolution DLP •LED-driven light engine •Accepts native 1080p via HDMI •Built-in HDTV tuner with CableCARD slot •TV Guide On Screen program guide •Inputs: 2 HDMI, VGA, 2 component-video, 3 composite-video, 2 S-video; 2 RF antenna; 6 stereo audio; minijack stereo audio; CableCARD; USB; RS-232 •Outputs: 2 FireWire (i.Link); optical digital audio; composite video; stereo audio •52.25 x 38 x 15.25 in; 85 lb |
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Test Bench
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| With Movie Mode and Warm2 Color Tone selected, the Samsung's grayscale hit the 6,500K standard right on the nose with no calibration, measuring ±96K from 30 to 100 IRE. This is excellent performance, although color-decoder error was considerable at —20% red and —10% green on both HDMI and component-video inputs. Color points — which describe accuracy of the red, blue, and green primaries — were extremely good; the set measured better on this than any other HDTV I've tested. Overscan was 5% for both HDMI and component inputs, higher than average. The TV came up just shy of fully resolving 1080i test patterns via HDMI, and the same patterns via component video looked comparatively soft and noisy. Full Lab Results |
SETUP The Samsung HL-S5679W has a dynamic menu system that drops to a default position at the screen's bottom when you're scrolling through it and also provides a Menu Map overview for seeking out a particular item — an innovative feature I'd like to see on other TVs. The antenna-setup features made tuning in local over-the-air digital TV channels easy: I simply selected the Air option from the Channel menu, let the Auto Program function rip, and they popped up in the Channel Manager screen. Afterward, an onscreen Signal Strength meter let me fine-tune antenna position, while a naming feature gave me the option to add custom labels to stations.
For tweaking the picture, you can select from four picture modes and customize their individual settings for each of the TV's video inputs. The combination of Movie mode and Warm 2 Color Tone delivered the most accurate color balance (see Test Bench). A setting called My Color Control lets you separately adjust specific colors without affecting the balance of other hues, and one called DNIe (for Digital Natural Image engine) dramatically punches up sharpness and contrast. However, the color balance in Movie mode was good enough that additional color adjustments weren't needed. Movie mode also locked out the DNiE processing, which was just as well, since its edge-enhancing effects lent high-rez sources such as HDTV broadcasts and high-def discs an unnatural look.
PICTURE QUALITY As I watched the opening scenes of the thriller Firewall, the 1080i-format HD DVD picture looked impressively crisp and clean on the Samsung. A close-up of an LCD TV in Jack Stanfield's kitchen had an eerily present effect, with the texture of the TV's speakers so three-dimensional that I wanted to reach out and touch them. Colors looked vivid yet natural in this scene and others. Close-ups of faces showed a range of subtle skin tones, while a wide exterior shot of Jack (Harrison Ford) leaving for work revealed a rich range of colors in the idyllic landscape surrounding his house.
However, the next scene from Firewall — shot in a low-lit office where Jack and his team of security experts monitor computer hackers — proved more challenging to the Samsung. Deep shadows in the dim space looked solid and black, but details in the workers' suits and background equipment were somewhat swallowed up in the gloom. And when I watched a scene from the Blu-ray release of Tears of the Sun in which a Special Ops commander (Bruce Willis) surprises a peasant on the outskirts of an African missionary village, the dark, nighttime scene had a flat look, with only limited detail emerging from background shadows.
Moving to the other extreme — bright pictures — I tuned into Arctic Mission on Discovery HD. Once again, the Samsung's picture looked crisp, with details such as the texture of the polar bear-fur mittens worn by an Inuit hunter coming through clearly. And there was a good amount of subtle highlight detail visible in the surrounding snowbanks. But mostly white pictures like this also revealed some uniformity issues, with the picture looking brighter at the center than at the edges. The same effect appeared when I watched black-and-white movies, except that here the screen's center had a warmer tone than the edges, which had a bluish tint.
Standard-def cable programs on the Samsung looked fairly clean, even without assistance from the DNIe picture enhancement. The TV's mild-mannered digital noise reduction proved somewhat effective here, reducing picture noise without eliminating detail. Standard 480i-rez DVDs viewed through the set's component-video input also looked very solid and clear — a testament to the TV's high-def upconversion.
BOTTOM LINE Besides its exotic light engine, the Samsung HL-S5679W 56-inch LED DLP HDTV is a full-featured set that delivers crisp high-def pictures with rich, satisfying color — and no rainbows. You're bound to find other DLPs that offer similar picture quality at a lower price. But if you're itching to own a forward-looking TV — and LED is sure to play a big role in TV's future — Samsung has your ticket to tomorrow.
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