Zenith D27D51 27 inch TV
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- Screen Size: 27 inch
- Screen Type: Flat Screen
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3 16:9 Enhanced
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Discontinued model, may be hard to find
Pros
Great picture, good sound; high class cabinet and remote
Cons
Lots of tough installation & set up issues requiring hobbyist level skills
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
A very fine product beautifully built, but recommended only if you are ready for a very involved and time consuming set up.
This is a discontinued 2001 model which a value shopper should consider provided he or she can handle a very difficult installation and set up. I purchased a refurb unit from an eBay seller in June of 2004 at a tremendous discount. This set has an outstanding HDTV picture and very good sound more than equal to current models. The drawback is three years worth of new worthwhile features not included which means much less flexibility and automation -- requiring lots of tweaking and work arounds. This monitor's component DVD inputs do not accomodate 480p... for a progressive scan DVD player to work it has to share the single set of HD plugs with your set top box, so you'll need a set of two RCA plugs into one plug connectors. That said, the progressive scan DVD picture is superb. Display of off air HDTV is equally detailed and crisp with either 1080i or 480p input. The NTSC tuner performance is excellent but still the conventional NTSC picture is only fair.
There were anamorphic problems using this monitor with a Samsung 151 STB and a discontinued Polaroid DVD player not automatically resolved. The user adjustment menus provide the ability to adjust the HD picture to suit the fussiest taste. Unfortunately the anamorphic issues with my Samsung and Polaroid sets required resetting the pincushion values and the vertical and horizontal sizes on the Zenith's service menus. If you open the service menus, make a list of all the settings. Yes all 250 settings! Actually you only have to fool with about 7 or 8 values, but better safe than sorry. My approach is to keep the monitor and STB always in 4:3 mode so as to switch into widescreen just by going into the letter-box mode. It took much tweaking to get the required match up, but a good result was achieved (with the help of the test patterns from the video tune-up DVD).
Once everything was set up and adjusted, this Zenith monitor has performed like a champ. Given the $325 clearance price plus $79 S&H to my door (on a like new set that originally MSRP'ed at $995), I'm very satisfied.
There were anamorphic problems using this monitor with a Samsung 151 STB and a discontinued Polaroid DVD player not automatically resolved. The user adjustment menus provide the ability to adjust the HD picture to suit the fussiest taste. Unfortunately the anamorphic issues with my Samsung and Polaroid sets required resetting the pincushion values and the vertical and horizontal sizes on the Zenith's service menus. If you open the service menus, make a list of all the settings. Yes all 250 settings! Actually you only have to fool with about 7 or 8 values, but better safe than sorry. My approach is to keep the monitor and STB always in 4:3 mode so as to switch into widescreen just by going into the letter-box mode. It took much tweaking to get the required match up, but a good result was achieved (with the help of the test patterns from the video tune-up DVD).
Once everything was set up and adjusted, this Zenith monitor has performed like a champ. Given the $325 clearance price plus $79 S&H to my door (on a like new set that originally MSRP'ed at $995), I'm very satisfied.
