You’d expect Samsung’s new 72-series of plasma displays to include a 72″ model, right? Wrong. The 72 series of displays just use the number 72 in them. So maybe they shouldn’t call it the 72-series. Maybe they should just call it their “new” series. Or “high-end” series. Or “elite perfomance”, “stunning design”, or “specialty A/V retail” series. Because all those adjectives would have been a little bit more descriptive.

This new series of plasma displays come in 42″, 50″, and 63″ flavours: the HP-R4272, HP-R5072, and HP-R6372, respectively. They feature a gloss-black cosmetic design, side a/v inputs, 10 speakers, and a 2 year warranty. Also included are a built-in tuner, an HDMI input, and CableCARD connectivity.

The part that got me about these displays is the support for 549 billion displayable colours. That’s 13bits each for the red, green, and blue components. As far as I know, DVD colour information is stored at 24bit, for a total of about 16 million colours. How do these sets get 549 billion colours? Does it do some fancy interpolation when upconverting DVD images to HD? What happens if you’re already starting with an HD signal? There’s nothing to interpolate. I’m not questioning the 13 bit technology, I’m just wondering how it’s applied.

Link: Widescreen Review - Samsung’s New Plasma TVs Target Specialty A/V Retailers With High-End Design
Link: Samsung - Plasma Displays