Review: RCA Scenium HD50LPW175 50-inch DLP HDTV
Using wobulation technology to produce a resolution of 1280 x 720 (that’s right), this HDTV from RCA goes for a street price of about $2300. And Sound & Vision has a review.
The remote looks great and is backlit, the set has a diagonal size of 50″, and includes and HDMI input. The picture quality could use some improvements, with dark areas turning pretty noisy. Plus the picture could be a bit sharper.
Conclusion?
After some tweaking in the service menu, the RCA HD50LPW175 did a fine job of displaying everything from standard-def TV all the way up to full HDTV. It’s hard to say from looking at just one set if Smooth Picture 720p DLP is generally less sharp than discrete 720p DLP. It was this time, but the difference was minor when watching from the typical viewing distance of about 6 feet. The RCA’s less-than-stellar reproduction of blacks may be a bigger issue for critical viewers.
Sound & Vision - RCA Scenium HD50LPW175 50-inch DLP HDTV
RCA - Scenium HD50LPW175
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October 27th, 2005 at 4:43 pm
Can somebody explain why it’s so rare to see an HD set with the standard 1280×720 resolution that this is given special mention?
For instance, why the preponderance of 1366×768 in LCDs rather than 1280×720?
October 27th, 2005 at 4:46 pm
I only gave it special mention because usually wobulation is used for 1080p displays. 1280 x 720 is otherwise a very common resolution.
October 28th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
Interesting…thanks for the info. I guess I’m not looking at the right sets if I’m not seeing 1280×720 more frequently.
November 18th, 2005 at 3:04 pm
What type of tweaking in the service menu? I bought one of these a few weeks ago and haven’t found much online about it in the way of tweaking.
November 18th, 2005 at 3:30 pm
The service menu of a television is a special menu that you can only get into by pressing a special button combination. It is meant for service technicians and calibrators to use, and not end users. Therefore you will not see it mentioned in your manual, and you cannot see it from your normal menu.
Sometimes people find out how to get into the service menu and change values in an attempt to improve the picture quality. This may or may not invalidate your warranty.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Yeah can you tell me why this TV sucks so bad?????????? I had it for like two years and it stopped comming on, so i called rca service and they said it could be the lamp. Yep bought the lamb $300 later did’nt work. So took it to a repair shop and my main board is fried anyone want to BUY IT? Selling cheap?