40IN WIDE LCD TV/MON/DVD review

First, we checked out the Westinghouse's ability to handle darker scenes with a variety of DVD material, and the results were less satisfactory than with either of the two (the Sharp LC-37D40U and the Samsung LN-S4051D) LCDs we had on hand to compare. During John Connor's first dream sequence from the Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines DVD, for example, the Westinghouse evinced a lighter shade of black in the letterbox bars, and black areas appeared too bluish. The biggest issue, however, was lack of detail in the shadows. As he awoke after the robot stare-down, for example, the wrinkles in his pants appeared indistinct, and the stripes in his blanket disappeared abruptly into the shadows instead of fading naturally as they did on the other two sets.

We also saw a bit more softness in the Westinghouse's image. When T-X emerges naked from her steel ball, for example, her blonde hair lacked some of the crispness and detail seen on the other two sets. In its favor, the LTV-40W1HDC introduced slighly fewer false-contouring artifacts than the Samsung, but more than the Sharp.

The Westinghouse turned in relatively good scores for color temperature and primary color accuracy overall (see the geek box), but its inaccurate color temperature in dimmer areas was a liability in many scenes. As Kate (Claire Danes) sits on the back of the ambulance in the afternoon sun, for instance, her pale face appeared a bit too reddish, as did the Terminator's under the shadow of the coffin on his shoulder. The LTV-40W1HDC also introduced more noise than the other LCDs in certain shots, such as in the sky above the good guys' Winnebago as it races across the desert.

The performance of the built-in DVD player was impressive. It passed all of the important tests from the HQV suite, smoothing jagged lines nicely, resolving every detail DVD discs, and quickly engaging 2:3 pull-down detection. Hooking up an external DVD player to this set wouldn't probably result in an appreciably better picture. The Westinghouse's player delivered good disc compatibility, handling all but the most difficult discs in our test suite.

Switching over to high-def, we immediately noticed that with wide-screen HD sources via HDMI, neither of the two aspect-ratio modes filled the screen correctly. Selecting Standard actually underscanned the picture slightly, preventing many programs from filling the screen completely. Conversely, selecting Fill overscanned too much, cutting off a lot of the picture around the edges. Standard mode via component video was a bit better, while Fill mode with wide-screen DVDs from the internal player also resulted in significant overscan.

The first Detroit vs. Miami NBA play-off game on ESPN HD, for example, didn't quite fill the screen on the left side, and there was a bright line along the bottom edge of the screen. We selected Fill mode, but the image appeared noticeably softer in areas such as the score graphic in the lower right and the cursive Palace logo on the floor. As we expected, the brightly lit game looked appreciably better than dimmer scenes. We also appreciated the Westinghouse's wide viewing angle; as with the other two sets, the brightness and image color didn't change too much when seen off-angle.