Delicate details are well within the reach of the LTN325W's high-res processing.

I set up the Samsung using the AVIA test DVD and made three significant changes to picture parameters. Like most TVs in general, this one is shipped with sharpness cranked too high, resulting in an unnatural edge. It looked far smoother, without sacrificing any resolution, at the 25th increment out of 100. Color saturation dropped to 36, and brightness to 47. When I was done the picture had gone from very good to drop-dead fabulous.

The first thing to hit the screen was The Italian Job on rented DVD. During the opening action scene, set in Venice, the brightness of outdoor shots was stunning, like staring into a real-life blue sky on a sunny day. Samsung claims a 600:1 contrast ratio and I believe it. Shadow detail on indoor scenes was somewhat murky, though. LCDs reproduce black as dark grey — that's the only area in which tubes still excel. But as far as I'm concerned, let tubes excel in someone else's livingroom.

One thing a DVD can't show you is the full resolution of a high-definition display like this one. The DVD format simply can't support HDTV, at least not yet. But my trusty cable box did provide HDTV through its component video outputs and I spent hours watching the HD eye-candy reels that my PBS affiliate shows during the day. The headdress of a Native American dancer was delicately feathery. Discrete strands of grass surrounded a sun-dappled tombstone — and the grass was vividly green, despite my having knocked back the color-saturation control. A butterfly's wing almost made me gasp at its subtly furred texture. The Samsung was actually converting a 1920 x 1080 (1080i) HDTV signal to its native 1280 x 760 format — but the conversion was extremely clean.

Another aspect of video performance is reproduction of motion. The set might benefit from a separate video processor but it performed fairly well by itself. Fast-moving diagonal objects like hockey sticks and the stripes on a wind-blown American flag were just smooth enough to avoid becoming visually jarring.

After a certain point, which came early on, I must confess that professional considerations took a backseat to selfish pleasure. I stopped being a reviewer and became merely a viewer as more DVDs and various HDTV (and other) programs whizzed by. The LTN325W's suggested manufacturer's retail price of $3999 prompted dark ruminations about the low economic status of freelance writers in our consumerist society — how come doctors and lawyers can afford a gorgeous 32-inch LCD and I can't? Oh, well. I'll just have to wait for the next review sample.