A new Blu-ray release of Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidate provided plenty of good material for scrutinizing the 747i's picture. In a scene where Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) snacks on Cup o' Noodles with a side of NoDoz in his messy apartment, the set's crisp resolution brought out the full range of detail in the cluttered surroundings. The Olevia's impressive rendering of shadow detail also helped to illuminate background objects in the dim environment and convey the dense, claustrophobic feel. On most scenes, the TV's black level was fairly deep and satisfying. However, in very dark shots, such as that of a grocery store exterior in the robbery scene that begins the movie Four Brothers, the picture tended to lighten and flatten out somewhat - a phenomenon I've witnessed on many other LCD sets.

Another scene from The Manchurian Candidate showed off the set's rich yet accurate color range. As congressman Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber), one of Marco's fellow Gulf War vets, sat in his roomy hotel suite, I easily detected the differences between his pinkish skin and the more yellow complexion of his mother (Meryl Streep), as well as the various beige tones of the room's surfaces. Flower bouquets in the background, meanwhile, displayed a range of intense hues. Well-illuminated scenes like this really popped on the Olevia, demonstrating very satisfying contrast.

BOTTOM LINE At $3,500, the Olevia 747i 47-inch LCD HDTV is priced competitively with other high-end LCDs in its size range. And although it has some ergonomic quirks, if you watch lots of standard-def TV (and there's still a lot of that out there), this set has the processing power to make those programs look better than they would on most other LCDs. It also does an excellent job of upconverting DVDs and 1080i HDTV to the panel's native 1080p resolution. Add in its good looks and flexible, wide-ranging picture adjustments, and the 747i gets my solid recommendation.

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