Samsung HLN617W 61" DLP Television Review

PCstats recently had an opportunity to look at Samsung's enormous 61" HLN617W DLP flat screen TV, and we jumped at it. DLP (Digital Light Processing) displays may be less familiar to some of you than the more conventional methods such as plasma, CRT, LCD or rear projection, but it may well be the future of big screen HDTV's. Samsung was one of the first companies to jump into the DLP display market, which is based on Texas Instruments revolutionary HD-2 DLP micro device.

The HLN617W is Samsung's current HDTV flagship home theatre screen, so get ready to sell that extra kidney as we take a close look at this mother of all Home Theatre screens! As citizens of an industrialized nation, we've seen big screen HDTVs before. Our first experience with the Samsung HLN617W still gave us a double take however. This is a laaaarge screen.

Once we had this Samsung DLP screen it set up in the middle of the office, nearly everyone in the PCstats labs had to wander over once or twice for a closer look (especially when we were 'testing' Doom3 on it, but that's another story). Samsung's HLN617W retails for slightly under $3,000 USD ($3,800 CDN) making it extremely attractive compared to similarly sized plasma screens which generally go for more than double this price... Well, actually there aren't any equivalently sized LCD screens, which sort of gives DLP a nice unfair advantage in our opinion. ;-)

Samsung HLN-617W 61" DLP Television Includes: Users Manual, Warranty, Remote Control, 2 AAA batteries.

Off the cuff, the Samsung HLN617W boasts a laundry list of features as you might expect. For starters the display is a little over 19" deep, and a hundred pounds light. At the heart of the unit rests a second generation Texas Instruments 0.8" Digital Micro Device, which has a native resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. This resolution matches HDTV's 720p, pixel for pixel, and for television signals it features automatic conversion to 720p.

Other technologies present in the HLN617W are DNIe video enhancement technology (more on this later), Faroudja DCDi de-interlacing technology, Digital Noise Reduction, BBE sound and Virtual Dolby Surround Sound (DSS). The display comes with a universal remote control, twin HD component interfaces, a DVD 480i/p set of component inputs (Y, Pb, Pr) and it will display two separate signals under Picture-in-Picture (PIP) mode.

Samsung's HLN617W simple good looks add to its appeal. Obviously the screen takes up most of the real estate on the front, but the uniform black and silver bezel and single medallion-shaped LED information display under the screen result in a sleek and classy profile.

This circular display functions as both a power-indicator and a warning light for various possible trouble states; including lamp temperature and display assembly problems. A set of essential controls is located on the right hand side of the front bezel, at the bottom. These include a power switch, channel and volume controls, menu and enter buttons and a TV/video switch. This allows you to effectively control the entire DLP screen in the event you are left without a remote, but is in no way a replacement for it.

Next, we'll give you a quick run through about how DLP works, and why it is gaining so much interest in the Home Theatre display industry.

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