The Short Form

$7,999 MSRP / 60 x 44 x 21 IN / 122 LBS / www.syntaxbrillian.com / 800-706-0154

Plus

•Excellent picture quality •Includes professional calibration •Accepts 1080p/60 fps sources via DVI •Incredibly detailed picture controls

Minus

•Expensive •Only one digital input

Key Features

•65-inch 1920 x 1080 resolution LCoS display •Inputs: 1 DVI, 2 HD component-video, 1 SD component-video, 1 VGA •Soft-button universal remote •Price $7,999

Test Bench

In the Night mode with the Cinema gamma preset and Warm color temperature, the Brillian 6580iFB03's color temperature came commendably close to the 6500K standard. After calibration, results were excellent. Its contrast ratio and average black levels measured as good or better than those of any LCoS TV I've tested. Geometry, uniformity, and color decoding were also excellent, although the set did fail to resolve every line of a 1080i multiburst test pattern. I can report notable differences between two test samples of the 6580iFB03. The first exhibited a very faint starburst pattern detectable on uniform gray and color fields, which proved to be from a mirror installation issue and wasn't apparent in a second sample sped to our lab. (See the Web for more details.) The second sample, however, delivered less depth of black, less accurate color, and inferior uniformity compared to the first, which was said to be due to rushed calibration of the TV at the factory. My observations are based on the first sample, which Brillian assures me is typical (minus the mirror problem) of units in the field. Full Lab Results

Brillian does include three analog component-video inputs - two for HDTV and one for DVD players set to deliver standard-def signals at 480i (interlaced, as opposed to 480p progressive-scan). The manual recommends using this input for DVD since it takes advantage of the 6580iFB03's best video-processing chip.

While many other top-of-the-line HDTVs offer lots of control over the picture, the Brillian 6580iFB03 takes it to a whole new level. Each input enjoys three fully adjustable picture modes - Day, Night, and Custom. Adjustments include three preset gamma modes and 30(!) fully customizable ones; three preset and one custom color-temperature setting per picture mode; RGB brightness and contrast; adjustable color space per input resolution; horizontal and vertical position controls, and much more. Numerous setup-friendly options include a setting to display only red, green, or blue colors; a menu that returns directly to your last selection by default; adjustable menu time-out; and input skip. I had a great time playing with all the controls and was able to achieve near-perfect calibration.

PICTURE QUALITY For my DVD evaluations I chose the beautiful Memoirs of a Geisha disc. The Brillian 6580iFB03 handled the difficult dark portions, such as the nighttime scenes at the beginning when young Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo) is taken from her home and brought to Kyoto, very well. The shadows in her seaside shack appeared suitably deep, and I could make out the folds and patterns of Hatsumomo's (Li Gong) kimono as she stands in the shadowed doorway, the spotlight on her face. The shadows also appeared clean and relatively free of noise. Overall, the Brillian's performance with dark scenes was excellent - as good as any 1080p HDTV I've tested.

Taking Brillian's advice, I swapped outputs on our upconverting DVD player, changing from digital to the set's specialized 480i component-video input. While in most aspects the images looked very similar, I noticed false contouring via the 480i input - subtle concentric lines of indistinct color that appeared in areas of sky or fog, or, in one case, in the shadowed face of one of the geishas. So I stuck with the digital input.

Steady shots of the Kyoto sky were everywhere in the film, and while some LCoS sets have problems with uniformity in skies and other flat fields, the Brillian 6580iFB03 did not. As the camera pulls back from a temple and pans up into the overcast sky, for example, the clouds appeared evenly white. Darker areas again looked relatively uniform compared to their appearance on many rear-projection sets, with even brightness and no discoloration across the screen.