Samsung HLN5065W 50-Inch Widescreen Projection HDTV with DLP Technology
Wow!
I finally took the plunge and purchased the Samsung 50&quot; DLP. And &quot;wow&quot; is pretty much all I can say. The picture quality is unbelievable. I finally understand why everyone is oogling over HDTV. I hooked up the DVD player (an old Sony, non-progressive scan) and I sat there dumbfounded. I started the &quot;testing phase&quot; with Apollo 13. Wow. I could tell very little difference between S-Video and Component Video, and while Component gets the slight edge, you have to be picky to care because the picture quality is outstanding either way. Hooked up the digital cable box... and again, two wows! The first wow is for how bad a standard television signal looks! It was embarrassing... I can't believe we've been watching this junk for decades! The second wow is for how much better the digital signal looks.<br />I then ran out and upgraded my cable box to a HD box.... ok, this is a big wow! It's so good it's almost stupid. I sat there mesmerized by this almost surreal picture. Travels through Italy, Hogan's Heroes (who knew this stuff was in HD?), Three Days of the Condor, and the College World Series... it was almost like being there... actually it was better. I may never leave the house!<br />Hookups are great. Plenty of component, s-video, and even a DVI (which I haven't used yet, although my cable box does have DVI, hard to believe the picture could be better). As integrated speakers go, the Samsung sounds great. It has a simulated surround sound mode which I tested with Apollo 13 and, while not high end surround sound, I was quite impressed. This ain't your daddy's tv speaker. Out-of-box experience was as good as it gets. It was well packed, easy to unpack, and everything worked perfectly. The remote will not win awards for revolutionary design, but it was intuitive enough for me to get to everything I needed.<br />My only real world experience with big screen tv is my dad's Sony rear projection. What impressed me with the Samsung compared to that experienece is... you can't get too close (no tunneling), it looks great from the side, from the floor, and standing up.... you do lose a little brightness, but it's still very watchable. It's not as good as plasma, but it's not far off. One of my pet peeves with big screens is the finish on the glass... I much prefer the &quot;matte&quot; non-reflective finish of the Samsung. And when combined with the superb brightness, you can watch (and enjoy) the picture even in a brightly lit room.<br />It wasn't easy for me to pull the trigger... I've spent the past several years of lusting over big screen televisions... never passing up the opportunity to peruse the aisles at BestBuy and Circuit City... watching the evolution from rear projection to plasma to LCD... and nothing really impressed me (ok, the plasma did impress me, but the pricetag was beyond comprehension). But there was always something that turned me off... my dad's Sony projection is cool, but when I watch a movie on it, I can see &quot;CNN&quot; and &quot;Live&quot; burned into the corners of the screen... and then I learned that you can get burn-in on plasma as well. Yikes. Then I saw the DLP... and I came close to falling in love.<br />If you're thinking about going HD and you can afford it, you will not be dissappointed with the Samsung.