BenQ DV3750 (37-inch LCD)

Features
The DV3750 is one of the rare gems in Asia to spot a 1,920 x 1,080-pixel LCD panel. With such a high resolution, the set is future-proofed and capable of handling any materials in the market inclusive of the upcoming Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Matching the 2 million-pixel count is a commendable 550 nits brightness, 800:1 contrast ratio and a blazing-fast 8ms response time.

Behind the scene driving the luscious 37-inch widescreen panel is BenQ's elusive SensEye TV engine. It features advanced picture enhancement technology which automatically optimizes color, clarity, motion and contrast for vivid and true-to-life images.

The Taiwanese is definitely not cutting corners when it comes to boosting the performance of its flagship LCD TV. Working hand-in-hand with its SensEye engine is the fame Faroudja Directional Correlation Deinterlacing (DCDi) chip. The strength of the DCDi lies in its industry-leading performance in eliminating jaggies and is a highly sought-after feature by home entertainment enthusiasts.

	You are spoilt for choice when it comes to inputs. (click for larger image)

Engaging pictures are incomplete without compelling audio reproduction. For this matter, BenQ has incorporated not one but two popular surround sound processing formats in the form of SRS TruSurround XT and Virtual Dolby Pro Logic 2 surround. If that is not enough, you also get a five-band equalizer for those audiophiles who prefer stereo audio playback over pseudo surround sound.

The DV3750 features a mouth-watering set of terminals enough to satisfy even the most demanding users. They include a pair of SCART inputs, a pair of composite A/V inputs with S-Video, two sets of component-video inputs, a PC inputs and an DVI terminal. Given a choice, we would prefer an HDMI instead of the DVI terminal as it's the standard digital A/V interface found in the latest video playback devices. Nonetheless, this minor issue can be overcomed with an HDMI-to-DVI adapter.

Performance
We kicked off our evaluation with the standard calibration exercise followed by a barrage of Avia test patterns. The outcome of the latter left us in awe as the DV3750 broke the record for achieving perfect scores in all segments from geometry to convergence to color decoding accuracy. Grayscale tracking which had many TVs at its knee is also a walk in the park for this unit as the deepest shades of black are clearly distinguishable even at a far distance.

	Amazing picture quality from high-resolution HVD. (click for larger image)

To demonstrate the prowess of the panel, BenQ had sent us a high-definition video (HVD) demo disc and player for a glimpse of what is installed for the future. We configured the player to output video at the TV's native resolution and were rewarded with breathtaking, 3D-like pictures which made DVDs look like child's play. Our eyes were glued onscreen trying to come to terms with the razor-sharp images and rich details presented by the set.

Running our usual suite of DVD clips revealed less flattering results though the image quality was still a notch above most other TVs in terms of clarity and details. The white- and black-level performance was excellent as with the rich and vibrant colors. Unfortunately, sharpness took a slight toll as the image was heavily upscaled from 480p to 1080i. The problem does not lie with the panel but more is of a bottleneck with the low-resolution DVDs. That, however, was not a showstopper as the DV3750 put up a riot of colors matched by rich details in Ghost in the Shell: Innocent, festival scene.

We were slightly disappointed with the PC video performance as text displayed in the maximum 1,024 x 768 resolutions turned out softer than expected. This was partially rectified by disabling the built-in video scaler, displaying the PC output in its actual resolution at the expense of a smaller image flanked by black borders.

Audio reproduction from the ported side speakers was one of the best we had heard so far. The onboard 15W stereo amplifier coupled with its five-band equalizers was able to belt out consistently clear and clean sound with sufficient amount of mid-bass. For bass freaks, there is an option to hook up a dedicated powered subwoofer to beef up the low-end extension.