RCA Scenium HD61THW263 April 7th, 2005 | by Dennis Barker

Evaluation and Performance

RCA joined the DLP camp a couple of years ago.  Well, its 2^nd generation slim DLP offering is truly amazing!  It is greatly improved over its 1^st generation models, which I thought were quite good for an initial offering.  For RCA, they have seen the future and it's DLP.  And it is certainly the right choice for RCA.  DLP is an exciting technology, offering picture quality on-par with the best rear projection CRT sets out there, but at a quarter of the girth.  According to RCA, this set is the first in a new family of ‘Profile' DLP display products.  Currently, this set has two other siblings, the HD50THW263 (50-in.) and the HD70THW263 (70-in).

HDTV images from all of the networks were simply exceptional from over-the-air antenna, Cablevision, and DirecTV HD.  HD offers unparallel image quality to begin with, and RCA has taken it to the next level.  Network shows like C.S.I. Miami, Star Trek-Enterprise, Smallville, LOST, or ALIAS, for example, looked especially persuasive with newly found clarity.  PBS has started showing regular programming including Nova and Masterpiece Theater plus travelogues (like Smart Travels) in HD, which looked stunning as well from Cable.  On the satellite front, HD-Net or Discovery HD Theater are always my first choices for watching HD images, because there is such a variety of programming from sporting events to movies to travelogues.  Plus, I can say that they looked especially compelling on RCA's HD61THW263.  Of course, programs on HBO-HD like Carnivale or Deadwood also looked realistic and gritty.   

Another test for any new HDTV is how they display images from a high-end progressive scan DVD player.  For this evaluation, I used one of my current reference players, the Pioneer Elite DV47Ai with component video output.   Images produced were very natural and life-like in appearance.  Different types of programming were watched to get a good feel as to how different films looked on this television display, ranging from restored classics like Casablanca or Singin' in the Rain  to more recently released films such as The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Robots,  Hero,  Shrek2, and The Incredibles!  Whether the images were animated, black & white or 21^st century color, they were crisp and simply stunning to look at—as good as or better than 35mm film, and showing very little color noise.  Black levels, which are greatly improved over first generation RCA Scenium DLP sets, were not objectionable at all.  Black level is an inherent problem with all light-engine televisions.