DLP (which stands for Digital Light Processing) uses an optical semiconductor to recreate source material with a fidelity analog systems can't match. While other technologies lose a certain amount of light in transit, the microscopic mirrors in a DLP projection system bring more light from lamp to screen. It also features better color uniformity over time--no burn-in, screen aging or color-shifting possible. It's the leading display technology for products like small portable conference room projectors and professional venue entertainment systems.

The PT50DL24 features a 1280 x 720-pixel resolution, true 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, 1000 cd/m2 (candela per square meter) brightness rating, and amazing 2500:1 contrast ratio. (The higher the contrast ratio, the greater a TV's ability to display subtle color details and not get washed out by ambient room light.) A 3D Y/C comb filter separates brightness and color signals better in 3D domain to eliminate cross-color, cross-luminance and dot-crawl distortion. It performs field-by-field comparisons of the television image to accurately separate the color from the black-and-white information and remove both horizontally and vertically hanging dots, as well as dot crawl, resulting in a razor sharp image.

This set also performs automatic 3:3/2:2 pulldown detection--a handy feature for watching progressive-scan movie programs in their native 24-frame format. To adapt 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video, frames in the original movie must be duplicated; 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this duplication by removing the redundant information to display a frame-accurate picture. Other features include dynamic black level expansion, digital noise reduction, four picture modes, color temperature controls, and an anti-glare micro fine pitch screen.

This set includes two built-in stereo speakers that produce 10 watts per channel (for 20 total watts of power), and it offers a sound equalizer, Dolby Digital output (via the digital optical audio output), and five sound modes. It includes the following connection options:

• AV Input: Front x1, Rear x2 (RCA)
• S-Video Input: Front x1, Rear x2
• Component Input: Rear x2 (RCA)
• HDMI Input: Rear x2
• RF Input: Rear x2
• VGA Input: Rear x1 (D-Sub 15P)
• DVI Audio Input: Rear x1 (RCA)
• Digital Audio Output: Rear x1 (Optical)
• Monitor & Sound Out: Rear x1 (RCA)

Tech Talk
HDMI is a lossless, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface to link any audio/video source (such as a set-top box, DVD player, or AV receiver) with your TV--all over a single cable. HDMI supports standard, enhanced or high definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on a single cable. It supports all ATSC formats--standard (SDTV), enhanced (EDTV), and high (HDTV).

Component video (also called Y/Pb/Pr) features a three-jack video input, which provides separate connections for luminance (Y), blue color difference (PB) and red color difference (PR). This results in increased bandwidth for color information, resulting in a more accurate picture with clearer color reproduction and less bleeding than you would get with S-Video or composite (RCA yellow video plug) connections. You will need a separate RCA left/right audio cable for sound.