The Short Form

Price $3,600 (AS TESTED; $4,000 LIST) / samsung.com / 800-726-7864

Snapshot

A forward-looking but pricey TV that offers very good picture quality - with a few caveats.

Plus

•Rich, natural color •No DLP "rainbow" effect or need to replace a lamp •Wide range of connection options •Innovative onscreen menu system

Minus

•Poor screen uniformity •Limited shadow detail •Expensive compared to competition

Key Features

•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

Test Bench

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

Samsung's slim remote is a refreshing change from the typical bulky wand, although the non-backlit keypad made it hard to use in a dark room. Pressing the Source button toggles through the inputs, which can be relabeled with names like DVD and Cable STB. A P.Size button selects display modes (aspect ratios) including 16:9, 4:3, Wide Fit, and two picture-zoom options. All except Zoom work with both standard- and high-def signals.

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.