After half a decade of struggling to attract eyeballs, high-definition TV (HDTV) has turned the corner at last. A lot of people have moved beyond wondering if they should spring for an HDTV to asking themselves, “Which one should I buy?” If you’ve been pondering the same question, it’s time to get a grip on the different types of big-screen HDTVs. So here’s a hands-on review of the major rear-projection display technologies: cathode-ray tube (CRT), liquid-crystal display (LCD), and Texas Instruments’ Digital Light Processing (DLP).
To showcase these technologies, we called in three widescreen sets, all HDTV monitors (the name for sets without built-in digital tuners): Mitsubishi’s WS-48315 ($1,699), Panasonic’s PT-50LC14 ($3,000), and LG’s RU-52SZ61D ($3,300). Mitsubishi’s leading role in the big-screen incursion into American living rooms over the past decade gives it an edge when it comes to traditional CRT-based rear-projection TVs. Panasonic was one of the first companies to offer LCD rear-projection HDTVs. And Zenith’s parent-company LG is out to make a name for itself and aggressively trying to steal some thunder from other big names in the DLP rear-projector arena. While all three sets have their unique characteristics, which one you ultimately decide to go with will depend on your viewing preferences, taste, and, in some cases, budget.
Mitsubishi WS-48315
You might think that tube-type HDTVs like Mitsubishi’s WS-48315 are old workhorses ready to be put out to pasture, but tubes have two strong advantages: low price and great image quality. Plasma, LCD, and DLP sets can’t yet match the solid blacks and rich shadow detail of CRT models, which deliver those benefits at about half the price of competing types.
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The WS-48315 sports a flat gray cabinet with a wedge-like indentation that provides a neat visual counterpoint to the expansive screen above it. Along with a front A/V input, there are a smattering of controls visible on the front panel, including buttons to cruise menus, switch inputs, and change picture-display modes. And the spacious top surface can easily accommodate a center-channel speaker.
Connections include three component-video inputs and a DVI (Digital Visual Interface) jack with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) copy protection. The remote control fits snugly in your hand and sports a few backlit buttons. It includes controls to toggle up and down through the set’s inputs, tweak picture adjustments without wading through an onscreen menu, and switch display format (aspect ratio). Along with standard 4:3 and widescreen 16:9, the format choices include four zoom and stretch modes. All work with regular TV and progressive-scan DVD, but only the Expand mode works with HDTV programs.
A 64-point user convergence control helped me achieve an extremely crisp alignment of the Mitsubishi’s red, green, and blue tubes. Also useful were Color Balance and Input Assignment, which let me delete unused connections from the input-selection list. Unique to Mitsubishi TVs, Color Balance lets you individually fine-tune red, green, blue, and other colors. Using these controls, I was able to surgically remove a reddish tint in the picture without disturbing its overall color balance. Although the TV lacks the sort of factory picture presets you find on other TVs — like Movie and Sports — you can create and save a custom preset for each of its video inputs. This lets you optimize the picture settings for specific video sources — for example, a DVD player and a high-def cable box.
PICTURE QUALITY After selecting the Low 6500K color-temperature setting and making some additional tweaks via the set’s hidden service menu (see “in the lab,” page 48), I cued up the Seabiscuit DVD on my progressive-scan player. The color was extremely well balanced, with the more garish hues — like Red Pollard’s crimson jockey uniform — looking vivid alongside the subdued shades of the landscape and the other actors’ Depression-era clothing. Skin tones were natural, and plenty of background detail was visible in dark shots. For example, in a scene where the owner of the horse War Admiral holds a press conference, the wide range of shades in the reporters’ black and gray clothing was plainly visible.
The Mitsubishi also put on a good show with high-def programs. In a Timberwolves vs. Lakers game on the new high-def TNT channel, the bright blues and yellows of the players’ uniforms dramatically popped out against the natural wood tone of the court. Basketball is particularly well served by HDTV. There was a lifelike sense of depth to the image, and when the Lakers’ Gary Payton spun around mid-court and dropped a long shot into the basket, the entire field of action came across on the expansive screen. Picture detail seemed a notch below the other two sets, but it was good enough that I could spot Jack Nicholson in the crowd without benefit of a closeup.
The Mitsubishi was prone to “hotspotting,” an ailment that’s common to CRT-type rear-projection TVs. When I moved more than a couple of feet off center, the picture became noticeably dimmer. Also, this TV performs best when paired with a progressive-scan DVD player. The picture looked somewhat noisy and soft with my player switched to its interlaced output. When I switched back to progressive-scan mode, it looked fine.
At $1,700, Mitsubishi’s WS-48315 is a great value. It offers very good video performance and can look even better with a bit of tweaking. I strongly recommend this TV to movie fans who watch lots of DVDs and seek a truly cinemalike experience. And when high-def basketball looks that good . . . well, that’s just icing on the cake.
PDF: Features ChecklistPDF: In the Lab
Panasonic PT-50LC14
Compared with other new display types like DLP and plasma, LCD has been around for a long time. But it’s only been in the past few years that the technology has started to show up in living rooms. Suddenly, LCD is everywhere. You’ll find it in direct-view models, front projectors, and even rear-projection TVs, most of which have cabinets that are much slimmer than those of CRT models with the same size screen.
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Measuring a mere 15 inches deep, Panasonic’s silver-toned PT-50LC14 embodies the slim aesthetic of the new tube-free rear-projection TVs. Viewing the 50-inch screen head-on, you might mistake it for a flat-panel set. The TV’s narrow base section lies beneath the screen and contains basic controls like channel selection. The only other visible features are a door that covers a set of PC Card and SD/MMC memory-card slots for viewing digital photos.
In the owner’s manual, Panasonic calls the PT-50LC14 a “multimedia” display, and the sheer number and variety of its video inputs provides a good indication why. Along with the memory-card slots, there are two VGA-style RGB inputs for connecting a computer (one is on the front panel), an HDMI port, and four sets of component-video jacks. The remote control has both a fully backlit keypad and a clean button layout — no problem using this one in a dark room. You cycle through inputs by pressing the TV/Video button and use the Aspect button to change display formats. The settings for regular TV and progressive-scan DVD (480i/480p) include Normal (for standard 4:3 programs), Full (for widescreen 16:9 programs), and Zoom. A Just setting that stretches the outer edges of the screen while preserving the center is also available for regular TV and DVD (480i) inputs. High-def programs are displayed only in Full mode.
Panasonic’s LCD TV provides plenty of setup flexibility. Each of its picture presets — Vivid, Cinema, and Normal — can be adjusted and stored in memory for instant recall. Not only that, but you can customize these settings independently for each of the TV’s inputs. The Input Label menu, meanwhile, allows you to skip inputs entirely — a handy feature in a set with this many jacks.
PICTURE QUALITY After selecting the TV’s Warm color temperature and Mid gamma settings from the Picture menu, I made a few more adjustments in the hidden service menu to optimize the picture (see “in the lab”). Colors looked vivid and lifelike in the Seabiscuit DVD. In a scene where horse owner Charles Howard and his wife root for Seabiscuit, her skin had a milky white tone while his looked more red and weatherbeaten. And the green turf inside the track didn’t look fake, the way grass comes across on some LCD TVs. But in most of the darker horse-stable scenes, detail was lacking, with many shadow elements fusing into a gray mass. And when I sat close to the screen, I could see the texture of the set’s LCD display chips — something we geeks call “the screen-door effect.” This problem was easily avoided, though, by sitting 11 or more feet from the screen. But with a TV that provides so much detail, you tend to want to get up close.
Watching DVDs with my player set for interlaced output, I noticed jagged diagonal lines in some scenes and occasional wavelike distortion at the sides of the image. This was mostly visible in shots from widescreen movies where there was horizontal motion, like the track scenes in Seabiscuit. The way around these problems is to use this TV with a good progressive-scan player.
If movies like Seabiscuit posed a challenge to the Panasonic, it really shined with sports like a U.S. vs. Honduras soccer match I caught on HDNet. The high-def image looked wonderfully crisp and bright from most angles, even in seating positions well off to one side of the couch. The picture was packed with detail like grass stains on the players’ uniforms. I was also impressed with how good it looked when the room lights were turned on. Unlike CRT sets, LCD models have no problem with screen reflectivity, and the image held its eye-popping brightness and contrast. Multitasking sports junkies will also appreciate the Panasonic’s PIP/POP feature, which lets you watch either two high-def channels or a high- and a standard-def channel at the same time.
Panasonic’s PT-50LC14 combines a slim, cool-looking cabinet with a high-resolution image that retains its brightness at off-center seating positions and in rooms with a lot of ambient light. That kind of flexibility will give it an edge for those who want a set that doesn’t require a cavelike environment to perform its best. Although I’d especially recommend the Panasonic to sports enthusiasts, I’m sure many people will be wowed by its crisp picture and natural color rendition.
PDF: Features Checklist
PDF: In the Lab
LG RU-52SZ61D
The new kid on the block compared with CRT and LCD, Digital Light Processing has quickly made headway into both front-projection home theater installations and actual movie theaters, where it’s known as Digital Cinema. But DLP might be picking up the most momentum with rear-projection TVs. A lot of people crave big screens that don’t take up too much living-room real estate — something DLP-based rear-projection TVs deliver.
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You might not know much about the Korean electronics giant LG, but a perfect example of LG’s new offerings is the RU-52-SZ61D ($3,300). With a 52-inch screen and solid black cabinet, this tabletop rear-projection DLP set is impressively monolithic and stark, having only a few control buttons on the front. At the same time, its cabinet is a surprisingly slim 15 1/4 inches, making it an easy fit for tight spaces.
HDTV-compatible inputs on the rear panel include component-video, VGA-style RGB, and DVI/HDCP, all of which accept both 720p- and 1080i-format high-def signals. The remote control is bulky, but it has a clean, well-spaced button layout and a fully backlit keypad. Amazingly, there are direct-access buttons for each of the TV’s main inputs — a rare thing in a remote. You cycle through the screen format choices by pressing the (aspect) Ratio button. Along with standard 4:3 and widescreen 16:9, selections include Horizon (stretches the sides of a 4:3 image while leaving the center mostly intact), Zoom1 (linear zoom), and Zoom2 (combination zoom/horizontal stretch). All modes except Horizon can be used with high-def programs.
I was disappointed when I started to set things up. There were six video presets, but only one custom picture memory that applies to all of the set’s inputs. Switching between standard- and high-def video sources is one thing, but when you add digital connections like DVI into the mix, you have to fine-tune picture settings for each input so all of your video sources will look their best. Unfortunately, you can’t do that with this TV.
PICTURE QUALITY Setup gripes aside, the LG displayed a good picture right out of the box (see “in the lab” for details). In the opening shots of Seabiscuit, where the camera moves slowly over old photographs, the black-and-white images had a rich, silvery tone. In dark scenes, like the one where Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges) gives a toast at a dinner party, background details like furniture and curtains were clearly visible, and the black tones of the guests’ tuxedos stood out amidst the gloom. And in a scene at a Tijuana racing park, the festive colors of the jockeys’ uniforms looked vivid against the more earthy tones of the park’s desert surroundings.
The LG’s subtle handling of movies on DVD gave me high expectations for its HDTV performance. In Before We Ruled the Earth, a Discovery HD Theater Channel program on Cro-Magnon man, the widescreen shots of the western landscape looked fantastic. There was a startling degree of detail in the grass and buffalo hides worn by the actors, and the graphics in descriptive interludes looked crisp and clean. I was also impressed by the range of colors visible in the hills. It was as if I was there, gazing out across the vast, empty landscape.
Although the LG impressed me as having some of the better performance characteristics of its tube-based competitors, one issue that I’ve seen on other DLP TVs reared its head. Single-chip DLP sets like this one are prone to what techies call the “rainbow effect” — a quick flash of color that shows up on dark/light transitions in images, which is caused by a color wheel the TV uses to filter white light into its red, green, and blue components. I saw many rainbows during my time with the LG set, although they usually passed so quickly that they weren’t distracting.
LG’s RU-52SZ61D is the kind of big-screen TV that I could easily take home to replace my tube set — its video performance is that good. Still, I’m bugged by the lack of custom picture-memory settings, something I’ve come to expect in high-performance TVs. But overall, LG has a winner here, and at $3,300 it’s likely to tempt potential buyers away from tubes.
PDF: Features Checklist
PDF: In the Lab
The Bottom Line
By now you know that CRT, LCD, and DLP televisions each have their own distinct visual signatures, and hopefully you have a better idea of which one best suits your own needs and taste. But no matter what the differences are, each of these sets delivers high-def images that look way better than what you’re used to seeing on your old analog TV. So if you’ve decided to upgrade to a big-screen HDTV, prepare to see things in a completely new light.