HP MD5880n 58" DLP Projection TV (16:9, HDTV)

HP MD5880n

MD5880n 58" DLP Projection TV (16:9, HDTV) Review, by Alan Stafford February 22, 2006

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• Reviewed by: rdrowley

  Strengths: Great picture. Deep blacks. Innovative connection panel. 1080p inputs through component and HDMI.

  Weaknesses: Slow changing of channels (though I have heard this is fixed with a firmware upgrade, and will know for myself soon).

  Overall: This TV has the best picture I have ever seen on a HDTV. I bought this TV after reading many opinions and reviews, and have not been disappointed. I am currently using a CableCard to view my HD channels and the HD channels are terrific. Crystal clear picture that has detail I have never seen before. I am also using a Sony upscaling DVD player connected through HDMI and the picture is so good I want to re-watch my entire movie collection. In the dark scenes I can see detail that I have never seen before, while at the same time I get very accurate and bright colors. The TV itself is black and does a great job of framing the picture. The black case absorbs all light that shines on it which means reflections off the case are non-existant. The front connection panel is very nice. You still have to feed the cables through a slot in the back of the TV to the front panel, but in a tight place that is a lot easier than trying to see which connector is which and trying to screw in a coax cable while wrapping yourself around the TV between the wall, your speakers, and your subwoofer. the front panel is also color coded and very well laid out. My only complaints about this TV are the time it takes to change a channel (which is supposed to be fixed with the firmware upgrade), and the lack of an internal splitter. Because there is no internal splitter it is impossible to watch conventional PIP. You can do PIP but it is of the cable source and another source (actually any two sources you like except cable and antenna). Typically I don't like to watch a DVD and TV at the same time, unless of course the kid wants to watch Chicken Little and I want to watch the NCAA finals, so the lack of conventional PIP is disappointing. I suppose you can however run an external tuner like a VCR (what is that again?) or a DVD recorder and get PIP that way, but I prefer it all in the TV. The sound coming out of this TV is awesome. I have a decent surround system and typically like to watch interesting TV shows through it, but this TV has such good sound that unless the TV show is in HD and I want the true surround I listen through the TV. It has a built in sub and has truly good sound for an off the shelf TV. Also with regards to sound this TV has a Digital Coax out for outputting a digital signal to a receiver, you only get true surround through it with a HD channel, but it works great for regular cable as well. I would have liked to see a SPDIF output also as more receivers support optical inputs than Digital Coax, but as my receiver has a Digital Coax it wasn't a big deal. All in all it is a great TV. We liked ours so much we bought one for my parents. They get it tomorrow and are extremely excited.