The Short Form

$1,800 ($2,299 LIST) / 30 x 40 x 11 IN (W/STAND) / 73 LBS / viewsonic.com / 800-688-6688

Plus

•Crisp high-def picture •Affordable price for a bigscreen LCD •Good performance from built-in HDTV tuner

Minus

•Below-average out-of-box performance •Standard-def programs look soft and noisy •Only one digital input

Key Features

•1,360 x 768 resolution plasma display •Built-in HDTV tuner •PIP •Price: $1,800/$2,299 (list) •Inputs HDMI, 2 component-video, and 2 composite-/S-video, all with analog stereo audio; VGA with minijack analog stereo audio; 2 RF antenna/cable; analog stereo audio (for HDMI input from DVI source) •Outputs Analog stereo audio

Test Bench

Out of the box, the ViewSonic's color temperature tracked around 1,000 to 1,500 K above the 6,500-K NTSC grayscale standard for much of its range after adjustments were made to the User preset with its Warm Color Temp mode selected. Both this and a green deficiency at both ends of its grayscale caused colors to look unnatural - something that could be seen in skin tones. Tracking improved somewhat after service-level calibration, with a +/- 500 K variance measured between 30 and 100 IRE. Color decoder error was minimal on the ViewSonic, with a +2.5% red push measured on HDMI, and +5% on the component-video connections. Overscan - the amount of picture area "hidden" behind the edges of the TV's screen - measured 5% for both the HDMI and component-video inputs - a higher than normal amount. 720p-format test patterns showed excellent picture resolution for all high-def inputs. Full Lab Results

PICTURE QUALITY Once the set was calibrated, I set out to watch the creepy French film Caché. A shot of kids swimming in an indoor pool showed punchy contrast and subtly rendered highlights, and the blue and red hues of the pool water and lane dividers looked vivid. Meanwhile, the skin tones of the swimmers came across as completely natural. But dark shots didn't fare as well on the ViewSonic. For example, in a scene where the protagonist talks to his wife in their dimly lit apartment, the picture looked flat and exhibited very little shadow detail.

Not surprisingly, given my experiences with LCD panels, the set's strong point turned out to be its handling of HDTV. When I watched Spain battle Ukraine in an early round of World Cup soccer on ESPNHD, the set delivered a realistic play of light and shadow as the strong, late-afternoon sun beamed down upon the stadium. Shadows looked solid, and the picture virtually popped with the bright reds, yellows, and blues of the players' uniforms. The set also proved capable of showing more subtle hues, allowing me to detect differences in skin tone between the pale Ukrainian players and their swarthier Spanish opponents. Both 1080i and 720p-format HDTV programs like this one looked equally crisp, with details such as the texture of the turf and the fine yellow pinstripes of the Spanish players' uniforms coming through clearly. A fair amount of "motion blur" could be seen in fast action shots, but that type of artifact is typical of most LCD displays.

If high-def shined on the ViewSonic, regular old standard-def looked pretty bad. The set has no variable noise reduction or other settings to enhance the appearance of standard-def programs, which can look pretty gnarly when displayed on a big-screen LCD.

Flipping between NASCAR racing on Speed Channel and a cooking show on Food Network - two channels that normally look acceptable on my reference plasma TV - both shows displayed sub-VHS picture quality, with significant softness, color bleeding, and noise. If viewing experiences like this one don't help hasten the transition to high-def, nothing will.

BOTTOM LINE With a street price that slides in comfortably under two grand, the ViewSonic N4060w 40-inch LCD HDTV is an affordable alternative to the many high-priced flat-screen LCDs on the market. While its out-of-the-box picture performance left me cold, a bit of calibration TLC ultimately went a long way toward coaxing good performance out of this set. Just bypass those cable TV cooking channels and stick to the high-def sports.

Full Lab Results Back to Homepage What's New on S&V