The front of the HCL473W is very clean
and only has the most basic of controls (mute, TV/Video, Menu, Channel/Volume &
menu navigation, power). The bezel is nice and wide so that if you need
to move the display around (it sits on casters) you won't get fingerprints all over the
display.
The only other notable external feature is a small
set of input jacks on the right hand side of the unit, and a the console deck
which sits below everything.
The console deck has a door with a tinted window in
it so dust is kept out and whatever components that are in that space are semi
hidden. The space is very wide but not that tall so it is important to measure
the clearance first. There are screws on the underside of the door which will
scratch up your expensive components if the fit is too tight.
Even
with that shortcoming I really liked the little console deck. While there is
enough space on the top of the HCL473W to place a bunch of DVD's or books, or
even an X-Box it is not really wide enough for a DVD player, and nor is is
really intended to be. The console deck keeps the area clean and lessons the
chance of devices accidentally falling five feet to their destruction!
On the back side of the unit
are cut two nicely sized holes so that you can easily plug in wires to devices on
the console deck without having to go through much pain and suffering. The space
is not large enough to pull a DVD player out through, but the spacious access is
nice all the same.
Conclusions on the HCL473W
When it comes down to shopping for a big screen rear projection HDTV two things are of utmost importance. First and
foremost is to figure out what your budget is and stick to it. In
that regard the Samsung HDTV's are priced fairly well, the HCL473W sitting
at about $2150 USD. The second aspect is picture quality. You
should obviously take the time to test out several displays and find
one with the best possible picture you can afford.
From our perspective the
Samsung HCL473W produced a very good picture which was nice and bright, and which
had great colour. I would have liked the image to be a bit sharper than it was,
but since I don't personally own a rear projection television I am not really
used to their native limitations.
The auto focus on the fly is must have for rear projection HDTV's and with the long list of features,
inputs, and sound settings we've mentioned it seems as though Samsung has thought
of nearly everything with the HCL473W. Even though I think Samsung could have spent
more time on little things like improving the feel of the buttons on the remote, and
increasing the height of the console deck, there is nothing we really didn't like
about this 47" rear projection HDTV.
Image quality
was very good, the internal sound system was more than adequate for a display
of this size, and with three distinct audio channels and a total of seven inputs
including co-axial pass through, you will be hard pressed to run out of
jacks.
HDTV is here to stay and DVD players which support progressive scan make
watching movies at home a whole new experience. With Digital TV just around the
corner it is important to make sure that any new TV you are considering comes
with HDTV support built in. After all, the last thing you really want is a big
screen television without 1080i/480p.
The Samsung HCL473W brings all of this to the table and
at a fairly good price point. While screen sharpness is something that can forever be improved upon, this rear projection HDTV is something
that anyone looking to build a home theatre should consider. Heck, folks
around here were never so teary eyed as when we had to box
up the HCL473W and ship it back to Samsung - so that should
give you an indication of how much we liked it. :)
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