Rivals plasma picture quality

I had been looking for a TV monitor as the centerpiece of my first home theater system for over a year, ever since finishing the new family room in my walk-out basement. One of the key criteria was the new monitor had to fit in a 47" wide by 32" high by 24" deep space over a low profile, zero clearance fireplace I had installed. So I was restricted to looking at plasma TVs or table top monitors like the 34" widescreen TVs from Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, etc. The table top widescreen TVs are very nice but 34" was smaller than I wanted and these sets weigh 175 lbs.! Plasmas are great, especially the Panasonic, but quite pricey and I am concerned about their longevity.

When I saw the new Samsung DLP projection sets, I was blown away by the picture quality. For brightness and picture quality, they are very comparable to the best of the plasma sets and much better than the low end ones.

The new 46" Tantus model has a very thin bezel and actually fits in the same space as their 43" model. I rejected the 43" Sony LCD-based tabletop projection as it has the speakers on the sides and would not fit on my shelf. (The picture quality did not match Samsung either.)

This quarter (Oct to Dec. 2003) in Canada, Samsung was throwing in their HD931 DVD player with all of their DLP TVs. The HD931 up-converts DVDs to 720p output which is the native resolution of their DLP TV. The combination results in a incredibly clear picture. If you have been watching DVDs on a standard TV as we have for the past 2 years, you will be amazed at the quality difference.

I have digital cable but there are not enough HDTV channels in our area to warrant an HD cable box yet. Even so the Samsung has a very crisp picture on standard TV though you will see graininess on the channels with a weaker signal.

Set up was painless enough. I can't comment on all the features as I still working through the menus and manual to what all it can do.