Digital Trends

RCA HD61LPW175 May 2nd, 2006 | by Rebecca Day

Performance

I positioned the HD61LPW175 next to my four-year-old rear-projection CRT, and wow, what a difference in clarity! The CRT has served me well but this experiment has whetted my appetite for the crisp detail of Texas Instruments' Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology. The HD61LPW175 proved to be a worthy display for what Phil Mickelson put on at Augusta during the 2006 Masters golf tournament.

The TVs shared a feed from my rooftop antenna, which a splitter divvied up between the two sets. Despite having the same source, the TVs looked so different on graphics and text that it looked like they were displaying different fonts altogether. The text on the HD61LPW175 was much easier on the eyes, from the names printed on the backs of the caddies' shirts to the names and scores listed on the leader board. As consumers add Internet surfing to their TV experience over the next few years, accurate and very readable text rendering like that of the HD61LPW175 will become more and more important.

I was a bit underwhelmed by the color saturation of the RCA set on both broadcast TV and DVDs. The Incredibles didn't pop off the screen as I had hoped they would. And I was expecting an explosion of color coming from the lush azaleas on the 13^th hole at Augusta but found them somewhat subdued, although I could discern each flower. To the right, my CRT delivered more vibrant color but less detail. The perfect TV of my imagination does both. And where my CRT seems to lean toward the reds, the HD61LPW175 leans toward green. The set has a “green stretch” setting if you want to boost the greens, but even in the Off setting, I found a green cast that was particularly evident on cement and stone and in the white portions of black-and-white program material.

Black level was very respectable. Most TVs I've seen could improve on the detail within the blacks, and the HD61LPW175 was no exception. But I found the black level of the HD61LPW175 beat that of my CRT and most LCD TVs I've seen.

The HD61LPW175 offers six picture quality settings: vibrant, natural, cinematic, videogame, professional and the customizable personal setting. I tried using the cinematic setting when watching CSI but the images were too dark in the low-light scenes. In my sunny great room, only the bright setting of the display was truly bright enough for enjoyable viewing, even at night. Watching that cranked-up level full time would adversely affect the life of the lamp inside, though. To help conserve light life, the lamp power menu gives you a choice between longer life and brighter picture.

A step-down sequence at shut off gradually powers down the high-intensity lamp to preserve lamp life, which is no small consideration since I located a replacement bulb for this TV from a web-based service center for about $240. The sequence also serves a child- or pet-protection function as well. If the power button is hit unintentionally, the TV can be powered back up immediately without warm-up.