The slim-line remote control buttons are too small, too tightly packed, and not intuitive. The important buttons for changing the picture format or to display the channel list, for example, are hard to find and are not very accessible.

At more than two seconds to change channels, this Samsung is pretty slow for channel surfing. While the on-screen menus look pretty, they are awkwardly arranged and slow to respond.

The best analog interface on the LE-52 M 86 BD is the YUV input. In terms of horizontal color resolution, it beats not only the composite input but also the Samsung's bafflingly poor Scart-RGB input. Since the vast majority of common DVD players and set-top boxes in Europe give their best pictures using precisely this input, and generally do not even have YUV outputs, this is one major disadvantage of the Samsung.

The de-interlacer is considerably more convincing. With practical "Film" mode recognition, it gives flicker-free results with both TV content and movie material. Only tiny trailing effects slightly impair the picture. The best picture comes from the HDMI connection - totally free from trailing or compulsory overscan.

Televisions.com recommends a set-top box and/or DVD player of the latest specification. With the Denon DVD-3930, for example, the Samsung shows the best results if the player converts PAL-disc imagery into 1080i format (YCbCr 4:2:2). The same resolution in the RGB color space (4:4:4) is less satisfactory in terms of color, but this has nothing to do with the Denon player. Pictures in 720p and 576p also show some slight loss of quality: Clearly, the Samsung cannot scale images as well as the Denon DVD-3930's electronics.

As with the analog inputs, the Samsung shows various slight deviations in the filtering, resolution, and color representation - depending on the input signal's color space and resolution. In particular, shades of green and blue are sometimes slightly miscalculated. The sky in the "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers", for example, shows a slight green cast. This can be adjusted via countless menus and submenus, which might just be too much for most users.

There are, on the other hand, no problems in terms of color temperature, grayscaling or gamma characteristics if the picture mode is set to "Movie" and all picture enhancement settings are deactivated. An annoying quirk in the "Movie Plus" setting: It occasionally switches itself on independently without warning or indication in the menu.

Investing in the best playback devices is absolutely worth it for the Samsung, whose picture is exceptional, during both the day and night. It has, unlike most liquid crystal displays, a reflective front surface that absorbs light very effectively. The brightening effect of incident light was minimal when we measured it at Televisions.com, surpassing good plasma TVs by a factor of 10! Even in a living room flooded with sunlight, dark picture areas remain a deep black on this LCD panel.

The maximum brightness of 419 cd/m2 ensures full brightness and fantastic fine detail resolution during the day. Additonally, the backlight's brightness is adjustable, an important prerequisite for a pure black picture in the evenings.

In "Energy Saving" mode, the Samsung gets down to a value of 0.04 cd/m2 when measured straight-on - at the time of testing, this is comparable to even the best plasma flat-panel TVs. The sensational contrast ratio of up to 1,700:1 is also, at the time of testing, normally reserved for owners of plasma TVs.

Televisions.com found the Samsung stubborn about its HDMI inputs. Full HD (i.e. video at 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution) is accepted at 60 Hz with no complaints, which the Samsung accordingly informs the HDMI source device. With pictures at the European frame rate of 50 Hz, however, the screen is simply black. The LE-52 M 86 BD also falsely signals to the BD-P 1200 Blu-ray player (also from Samsung) that it does not recognize the original movie format (24p), the result being that the BD-P 1200 will not even output the pictures at this frame rate. Both faults have, according to Samsung, already been rectified in a new firmware version.

On the other hand, with players that can be set rigidly to 24p (for example Sony's PlayStation 3), playback in movie format works fine. The title sequence of the Blu-ray version of "Casino Royale", for example, looks just like it does in a movie theater.

However, the 52-inch Samsung TV not only excels simply with 24p playback. Except for slight color deviations, like the slightly-too-scarlet Jeep in the animated comedy "Open Season", even bright scenes display in dynamic colors and fine detail. Digital artifacts are also almost completely absent - the superb LCD pixel raster makes movies look like celluloid even at short viewing distances.

Computer Operation:
This Samsung is very computer-friendly. If the graphics card supports full HD resolution, the TV will accept this via both HDMI and VGA and present photos or internet pages, for example, pixel-perfect and razor sharp.

Sound Quality:
The Samsung LE-52 M 86 BD's sound is as thin as its picture is classy. The speakers, which are placed below the screen, radiate sound backward. The best result comes only if the TV is wall-mounted. In order to get decent sound to go with the great picture, it makes sense to connect the set to an AV receiver or stereo system. For this purpose, the LCD giant offers both an analog output and digital (optical) output.

Mode: Movie

Contrast: 93

Brightness: 47

Sharpness: 40

Color: 40

Tint: G 50; R 50

Color Tone: Warm 1

Black Adjust: Off

Dynamic Contrast: Off

Gamma: 0

White Balance: R-Offset 15; G-Offset 13; B-Offset 13; R-Gain 15; G-Gain 21; B-Gain 23

My Color Control: All set to 15

Edge Enhancement: Off

Color Space: Auto

xvYCC: Off

Backlight: 8

Size: Just Scan

Digital NR: Off

Energy Saving: Medium

* applied to realistic playback from HDTV/Blu-ray material through the HDMI interface in a darkened environment. Manufacturing and HDMI playback device deviations may necessitate slight adjustment.

Black beauty: It's not only the Samsung LE-52 M 86 BD's casing that is black: Dark pictures also show off the panel's captivating pure-black.

Ups and downs: The three HDMI inputs are great as are the PC analog input and audio outputs. The Scart sockets, however, remain one of the Samsung's weak points.

Could be more practical: Too small, too confusing.