The WS-55859's 1394 capabilities are probably good enough on their own to sell this set. It helps, though, that the basic chassis is well-built. Going through my typical torture tests, I found that all of the inputs have their own picture-control settings, which allows you to fine-tune each source's signal. While previous Mitsubishi displays had a tendency to exaggerate red colors, this set uses a more-accurate color decoder. Colors are vibrant, and fleshtones don't look too exaggerated. There's room for improvement, but the current settings are not objectionable. With the sharpness control set to 0, there's still a little ringing, or ghosting, around object edges. This is likely due to the scan velocity modulation, which isn't defeatable from the user menu. Of course, SVM makes the picture appear sharper at the expense of fine detail. As it was, the set offered plenty of fine detail from my sample of DVD and HDTV images. Occasionally, the WS-55859 displays clamp streaking with bright objects on dark backgrounds. The set's black-level enhancement seems to have little effect on this phenomenon, or on anything else. Otherwise, DC restoration (or the set's ability to keep black levels consistent) is reasonably good.

This all makes for an excellent image. Add to that a line doubler with 3:2-pulldown recognition, and you'll be watching an artifact-free, 480-line, progressive picture. The 3:2 detection is seemingly as good as can be. The most common motion artifacts are eliminated. Small artifacts do show up on test patterns, but these are added to external 480p signals, as well, and don't appear with regular video images. This is one reason why adding Silicon Image's iScan video processor (our benchmark reference) or a progressive-scan DVD player may not be worth the effort. Another would be the WS-55859's lack of a zoom mode for nonana-

morphic progressive sources. At least the set offers a small 4:3 mode for these images. Nonprogressive sources have complete aspect-ratio control, however, and look good when viewed through the set's internal line doubler.

The built-in HDTV tuner provides an equally satisfying picture. Our review sample initially had trouble locking onto signals, but a quick tap on the front panel's reset button seemed to fix the problem. Of course, it's tough to evaluate HD-tuner performance. In terms of reception, most tuners just need an appropriate signal level, which you can accomplish with either an RF amplifier or attenuator. I compared the decoder's picture quality with that of an external reference, our Panasonic TU-DST50. Both tuners delivered excellent images that were detailed and colorful. Some of the signals were less than excellent, but this was due to the broadcasters' poor signal quality, not our tuners. The set correctly compensates for the color palette of various component inputs, be they HDTV, SDTV, or DVD, and the tuner offers appropriate aspect-ratio control (16:9 versus 4:3) for SDTV signals.

As a high-performance display, the WS-55859 should interest any serious home theaterphile. If you're hoping that NetCommand will keep your friends and family members from calling you every time they want to change from DVD to satellite, you'd better make sure that your equipment's manufacturers are listed in the software library. Regardless, given all of the other performance features, NetCommand makes for a nice bonus. If nothing else, the 1394/HAVi feature makes the WS-55859 worth considering.

Highlights
• IEEE 1394 compatibility
• Built-in HDTV tuner