While three-HDMI flat-panel TVs appeared as early as mid-2006, most of these have ended up in mature markets such as the US and Europe. It wasn't until the entry of the Sharp G7 and Pioneer PDP-5000EX that we had a chance to ease the digital interface crunch. Having said that, both sport a single DVI and dual HDMI, a less than elegant configuration that requires an adapter compared to the real deal. If you have a truckload of HDMI boxes, perhaps the Samsung Q9 is exactly what you have been waiting for.

Upside: The Q9 beats the competition by being the first local plasma TV to offer an unbelievable high 15,000:1 dynamic contrast. This works in tandem with the 1,500cd/m2 lumens to deliver promising visuals even in relatively bright environments. Speaking of which, Samsung is hawking a new anti-reflection technology dubbed Ultra FilterBright. This utilizes a combination of its Super Black Panel and Optimal Light Filter, enabling the company to claim a six-fold contrast boost over its comparable peers--a bold statement we have yet to verify personally in electronics stores.

Sports and action flick fanatics may also like to check out its Real Motion Studio video-enhancement suite, in particular the Smart Frame Plus technology. Similar in concept as the 100Hz video scanning of the Toshiba 68-series and Panasonic Viera LX700, it introduces an additional 25 frames within a second to smoothen out fast-moving actions while eliminating motion blur. Rounding up the software ensemble are the Silhouette Editor noise-reduction function and Movie Plus film-to-video frame rate conversation.

Moving onto something more tangible (and less techie), this Samsung is one of the first plasma TVs to ship with three HDMI jacks in Asia. That's two on the rear and one by the side. The latter will come in handy for videographers shooting with high-end HD videocams. For convenient one-remote operation, there is also Anynet+, its proprietary implementation of Consumer Electronics Control or HDMI-CEC.

Dowside: Short of crying foul, it's obviously an understatement to brand any 42-inch plasma TV as HD-ready. The Q9 is no exception. With a modest 1,024 x 768 XGA resolution and a rectangular dot pitch, the panel is 20 percent short in horizontal pixel count. In layman perspective, this translates to a slight drop in image details, though we must add that this is somewhat negligible under most scenarios. This shortfall will probably show up as jaggies in PC text and game console graphics, rather than an eyesore in your typical Hollywood blockbusters and TV serials.

Outlook: With the Samsung PS42Q91H, the Korean chaebol has gone full circle, from offering value-added features such as onboard multimedia player back to a performance-centric design. Factor in a stylish black piano finish and a reasonable S$3,699 price tag, and this new entry is definitely in a much better position to challenge the Japanese big three (Pioneer, Panasonic and Hitachi). That is, for now, of course, especially with the generation-eight plasma TVs from Pioneer looming on the horizon.