| |
 |
 |
|
Samsung HLM617W DLP TV Review
By Mike Wood, April, 2003Samsung's HLM617W HD monitor combines rear-projection and DLP technologies in one fine display.
There's something ironic about a rear-projection DLP display. A front or rear DLP projector utilizes millions of microscopic mirrors that reflect light toward or away from the screen for each of the image's pixels. A rear-projection display reflects this projected image off of a large mirror, which bends the image so that it will fit within a shallow, confined space. Samsung's HLM617W makes good use of all of these mirrors in their first 61-inch rear-projection DLP monitor.
As if the advanced imaging technology weren't enough, Samsung has included Texas Instruments' HD2 dark chip, their newest digital micromirror device (DMD), which is the heart of the DLP engine. The DMD uses a 1,280:720 array, or 1,280 mirrors horizontally and 720 mirrors vertically. This resolution is high enough to be officially considered high-definition-television compatible. Of course, since most programs are broadcast in 1080i, the display must convert the image to match the chip's native resolution, but such is life. DLP's biggest drawback has always been its inability to create deep blacks, in part because so much light bounces around inside the engine. Some of that light eventually reaches the screen, which is why early DLP displays produced a gray, washed-out image that lacked depth and contrast.
The HD2 chip incorporates a number of advancements that help absorb some of those internal reflections and thus improve DLP's black level. While I didn't have a non-dark chip nearby to compare, I can say that DLP has made great strides in this regard. The Samsung's image had good contrast, in part because it's incredibly bright but also because the blacks are reasonably dark. It might have helped if Samsung had painted the cabinet's interior matte black instead of light gray. A serious enthusiast might be inclined to paint it himself, but beware: Taking off the front screen is a chore. As it was, I could comfortably watch the picture in a darkened room without the image looking too washed out. Ultimately, though, I felt that the image looked a bit better with some of the room lights on.
The HLM617W also includes a built-in Faroudja deinterlacer with 3:2 pulldown for film-based sources and DCDi for video-based material. The deinterlacer and scaler do an excellent job of converting low-resolution NTSC sources to fit the display's 1,280:720 native resolution. Test results show that the processor eliminates any potential scaling artifacts without introducing new ones. This is no easy feat. My favorite torture-test images from chapter 12 of Gladiator and chapter 10 of The Phantom Menace looked beautiful.
Of course, the set has all of the basic features one would expect, including enough inputs to accommodate an extensive home theater. Connections on the left and rear panels offer basic audio, composite video, and S-video for your gaming console, VCR, and other standard components. Of the three component inputs, one is dedicated to interlaced or progressive DVD (480-line) signals. This input offers complete aspect-ratio control for both 480i and 480p signals so that images properly fit the screen. The other two component inputs accept 480p, 720p, or 1080i DTV signals; so, if your DTV tuner outputs a native-rate signal, make sure it upconverts 480i to 480p. These inputs also offer aspect-ratio control that's more suitably tailored for DTV content. To win additional friends (or just to be cool), Samsung offers both a DVI input with HDCP and a 15-pin RGB connector. Both connections should handle either a PC or HDTV signal. It makes a great deal of sense to connect a computer to this display, given its fixed 1,280:720p resolution and its invulnerability to image burn-in.
The HLM617W also has an RS-232 input, which is unfortunately only for service functions. The set's menu and remote are attractive and easy to manage, although there's room for improvement. In particular, the remote doesn't have discrete IR commands. You can toggle through the various aspect ratios and sources, but you can't select one directly. Fortunately, the set automatically senses which input you're using and disables the remaining ones.
The set's user interface makes it easy to adjust the levels for the various inputs. The display has several preset picture modes, but it can also remember custom settings for each source. As I mentioned, the picture is really bright (see the measurements chart). The set has a built-in limiter, though. If you push the contrast level past a certain point, you can see the peak-white level drop. In fact, the luminance range's entire upper end drops somewhat, making the image look artificial. With the contrast set below the limiter's threshold, the picture was as bright as anyone could want.
Brightness isn't everything, though, so I ran the HLM617W through the gamut of picture-quality tests. Composite images look fairly good. There's some dot crawl, but no cross-color artifacts. As always, you're better off using S-video or Y/Pb/Pr connections, when available. The set has excellent black-level retention, which means that dark images don't get lighter or darker as the rest of the picture changes. The set doesn't offer scan-velocity modulation, of course, because there aren't any scan lines to modulate. All of the inputs utilize an excellent color decoder. With test signals, the decoder appears to be extremely accurate, rendering various colors at comparable levels. With actual picture material, however, the image is definitely red. I had to back down the color control significantly to keep the image looking natural. This might be due to the display's color temperature, which is disappointing. No matter what setting you choose, darker and brighter images are either bluish or neutral compared with middle-gray images, which are redder. Professional calibration corrected this problem. A better factory-adjusted gray scale, combined with the color decoder and accurate primary colors (again, see the measurements), would give the set awesome color fidelity.
DLP does offer some inherent improvements over CRT-based displays, and this Samsung is no exception. For one, the image is extremely sharp. Both DVD and HDTV signals are highly detailed. Samsung definitely utilizes the HD2 chip's full resolution. It helps that the display's convergence, geometry, and corner-to-corner focus are nearly perfect. The image is so bright, there's no need for the set's high-gain screen. In fact, the screen has both a noticeable hot spot and a slight sheen. I've seen this sheen on other rear-projection DLP models, and it's likely an interaction between the DMD pixel structure and the screen's fresnel or lenticular elements. Then again, these two elements help the screen reject ambient light and improve the image's black level. I got used to the screen sheen after a while; however, to see what would happen, I swapped the screen with a sample of Da-Lite's Video Vision screen, a unity-gain-diffusion material. The new screen definitely eliminated the sheen, but it introduced some other problems that I didn't have time to sort out.
The only other anomaly that I noticed was a contouring artifact that was apparent with NTSC material. As the image stepped from lighter to darker areas, the HLM617W created some video noise or snow at each step's transition. Our test signal that ramps from black on one side of the screen to white on the other wasn't smooth or gradual but instead stepped from one level to the next. While this effect definitely bothered me with test images, it was less noticeable when I watched program material. Fortunately, the effect wasn't prevalent with HD images, which ramped smoothly into shadows and had excellent detail. HBO movies like Shallow Hal and Terminal Velocity and an NHL hockey game and a James Taylor concert on HDNet looked outstanding.
Samsung hasn't been making high-end rear-projection displays for very long, but they've certainly come a long way in a short time. The HLM617W has great features and some outstanding performance characteristics. All that keeps me from giving it an unqualified endorsement are a couple of quirks that may not satisfy serious enthusiasts. Most people may not even notice these quirks, though. At the very least, anyone who's looking to buy a new rear-projection display should add this set to their audition list.
Highlights
- Excellent scaler for both film and video
- Blindingly bright, with a reasonably dark black level
DLP TV RESOURCES, REVIEWS AND BUYING TIPS
DLP technology is the only display solution that enables an entirely digital connection between a graphic or video source and the screen in front of you. The result is a picture whose clarity, brilliance and color must be seen to be believed.
- View the current selection of DLP Televisions available at DTVCity
- Background into DLP Technology
- Compare DLP TVs to Direct View, Projection and Plasma Screen TVs.
- Selecting the correct DLP TV screen size.
- Read the latest DLP television reviews
- DLP TV Links
- Read customer testimonials on DTVCity's excellent service
|
Providing Exceptional Service Since 1997
|
| Products: Plasma TV · DLP TV · Home Theater Furniture · LCD TVs · DVD Players |
|
|
| Help Pages: View Cart/Check Out · Shipping Rates · Site Map · Product List · Contact Us · Help Index | ||
| About Us · Customer Comments · Corporate Sales · Web Resources | ||
| Resources: Plasma · LCD · Projector · DLP TV · DVD Players · Region Free DVD · | ||
 English  |
Français |
Español |
 |
Japanese |
Deutsch
|
