Big Beautiful Behemoth

The same was true for a 3:2-pulldown test clip in 1080i from HD DVD. However, once it did lock on, the clip looked exceptionally smooth, leading me to suspect that it must be performing inverse telecine instead of motion-adaptive deinterlacing. Rather than trying to compensate for the extra unpaired fields in a 1080i/60 signal, inverse telecine simply discards those extra fields and reconstructs the original film frames using only matched pairs of fields.

Looking at a pixel-phase test pattern (which indicates the relationship between the imager’s actual pixel structure and the pixels in the processed image), Dave and I determined that the Natural aspect-ratio setting looks like a 1:1 mode—that is, we were able to easily discern each pixel in the imager. However, the optical system expands the picture beyond the edges of the screen, resulting in an overscan of about 2.5 percent. This  crops more than 30 pixels from each side of the image, which is a bit too much in my book.

Turning to DVDs, Master and Commander looked great, with excellent shadow detail in the below-deck walk at the beginning and no false contouring in the transition to morning fog. The Mask of Zorro looked equally good, with no contouring in the blue backlight at the beginning. These observations were no doubt due to the set’s 12-bit processing. The color rendition was beautiful with the exception of greens, which were somewhat exaggerated.

I love watching HD DVDs on a good 1080p display, and the 72HM196 did not disappoint. Blazing Saddles exhibited all the detail and clarity endemic to that title, with great color. (There isn’t a lot of green in that movie.) The grass in The Last Samurai was a bit overhyped, but not as much as I would expect from the measured primary (see “Color Accuracy”). Otherwise, that movie also looked spectacular—smooth and natural.

Conclusion

The importance of a 1:1 mode cannot be overstated when it comes to 1920x1080 content—without it, whatever scaling the processor does definitely degrades the image. This is one reason the 72HM196 looked so good displaying HD DVDs (as long as its Natural aspect ratio was selected). Another factor is its apparent use of inverse telecine to deinterlace 1080i content, resulting in smooth, artifact-free motion.

The best grayscale it could achieve by adjusting only the user controls was distinctly blue, but a full service-level calibration brought it close to perfection. The green primary is  very oversaturated, but it didn’t seem to cause serious problems with normal program material. Overall, the 72HM196 is an exceptional set worthy of any room big enough to hold it. TPV

Conclusion

The importance of a 1:1 mode cannot be overstated when it comes to 1920x1080 content—without it, whatever scaling the processor does definitely degrades the image. This is one reason the 72HM196 looked so good displaying HD DVDs (as long as its Natural aspect ratio was selected). Another factor is its apparent use of inverse telecine to deinterlace 1080i content, resulting in
smooth, artifact-free motion.

The best grayscale it could achieve by adjusting only the user controls was distinctly blue, but a full service-level calibration brought it close to perfection. The green primary is  very oversaturated, but it didn’t seem to cause serious problems with normal program material. Overall, the 72HM196 is an exceptional set worthy of any room big enough to hold it. TPV