Samsung HL-S5679W Rear-Screen Projection HDTV

56" 1080p DLP set uses LEDs instead of a conventional lamp

By Charlie White

Looking for an HDTV with a big screen size at the lowest possible cost? A rear-screen projector is probably the best way to go, giving you the most bang for your HDTV buck. The Samsung HL-S5679W ($3300) is a 56" rear-screen projection TV with a unique approach -- it uses three LEDs instead of a conventional mercury arc bulb, bringing benefits that up until now weren't associated with DLP projection. We put the Samsung HDTV through our battery of tests, and here's our review.

When this 56-inch Samsung rear screen projection TV was first delivered to our Midwest Test Facility theater, we were surprised at its relatively light 90-pound weight, given its large size (52.4"W x 37.9"H x 15.3"D). One of the first things we noticed with this set, as is the case with all rear screen projectors, is that placement is very important. If it's situated in a location that's much higher or lower than your eye level, its picture looks dimmer. But if you get yourself right into that sweet spot, not too high and not too low, its screen is dazzlingly bright. That also means you won't need a darkened room to watch this TV as you would with a front projector -- this HDTV was bright enough for even the most well-lit room.

Illuminating that screen is the most innovative component of this product, a new kind of  solid-state LED light source that uses what's called photonic lattice technology, or Phlatlight. It's a light source that has the benefits of both LEDs and laser light. Using this technology instead of a conventional mercury arc lamp gives you 20,000 hours of lamp life, meaning that you'll probably never need to change any bulbs throughout the life of the set.

 

These three LEDs are also incapable of giving you what's known as the rainbow effect, an artifact that many people can't see at all, but those who do report strange-looking rainbow-like lights moving across the screen. Plus, the LEDs are more energy-efficient than a conventional bulb, and at the same time allow this TV to show a wider range of colors than is even possible for program sources to deliver.

When we first turned on the set, we were delighted with its little sound effect it made after we pushed the on/off button located on the front of the TV just below the screen (see graphic above). Unlike most rear screen projectors that take up to a minute to warm up, this one was ready to go in less than 10 seconds. That quick startup is also thanks to that Phlatlight technology. Next, the TV was scanning its inputs for sources, so we went around to the back of the set and began plugging things in.

There was certainly no shortage of inputs, with two component inputs, a couple of S-Video and composite inputs, two HDMI ports, two places to plug in 1394 devices, a couple of cable inputs along with a CableCard port that could let you do away with the need for a set-top box. Plus, there were two optical audio inputs, and also a VGA input for a PC. There was no DVI input, but that can be easily accomplished with an HDMI to DVI adapter.

We plugged our PC into the VGA inputs so we could run our battery of DisplayMate tests, noticing that the TV was able to faithfully display our notebook's 1920x1200 output.  We also plugged our Oppo reference DVD player into one of the HDMI ports, because that player is able to upscale video to 1080p. We connected our TiVo Series 3 HD personal video recorder into the other HDMI port.