Zenith R57W46 57 in. TV

We have thoroughly enjoyed this TV from the day we brought it home. The kids were amazed when they watched their first life-sized cartoons. We, as adults, enjoyed the benefit of watching movies, or our favorite programs on the large, wide screen. There's not much to say about our decision process when purchasing this product.

We stumbled on this Zenith Projection TV one night while shopping at Sam's Club. We were there to pick up a few household items when I saw it on display at the front entrance, on sale for $1400. I suddenly found myself falling victim to the marketing tactics. This was one of the very few $1000+ spontaneous purchases I have made. However, at the time, I remembered from frequently browsing the ads in the Sunday paper that other TVs of like size were about $2k. This particular TV came with a manufacturer's one-year full warranty, but I purchased an additional one-year in-store warranty for piece of mind.

The box was huge. I had to go get a pick-up truck from a friend to get it home. Though the box was big, it was surprisingly light for its size. Two people of average size can easily pick this thing up for loading, unloading, and getting it in the house. It was more trouble relocating/carrying our old 36-inch tube TV and entertainment center downstairs, than getting the big-screen in the house.
Once we got it out of the box and removed packing material, the well protected TV was fully assembled, ready to plug in the wall. We just had to plug the satellite cable in to begin watching it. We later bought two individual cabinets of the same height that matched the metallic silver color of the TV. They were placed on both sides of the TV to form the entertainment cabinets. The cabinets were $35/ea. at another department store, a fraction of the cost for one of those big-screen entertainment centers and, look just as good. The total width of the TV, with cabinets beside it is 8 ft.

The TV itself is 56" wide x 56" tall. Overall depth is only 24". Because of its slim design, the manufacturer has added a plastic footer that sticks out about 3 inches at the bottom for added support. Also, due to its slim design, we actually gained about 12 inches of floor space.

The screen is 49.5" x 28". It is covered with what appears to be a protective glass-like cover. This does present a problem with reflections from windows during the day. You may need to position it accordingly. However, if it weren't for this protection, our kids would have scratched the screen a long time ago. All that is required is to wash the finger prints off with a damp cloth ever so often. With my kids, there's not much that goes unscathed in our house. This TV is kid-tested.

While I'm on the subject of kids, the TV has features designed specifically for them. It's these little things I notice that impress me most. The front of the TV is completely flat with no edges for the kids to grasp, preventing them from pulling the unit over. One unique feature I like is the programmable power button on the front of the TV. Via remote control, there's a setting in the menu for the power button to "do nothing". This means no more turning the TV on/off without the remote. It also has a password-protected parental control.

Buttons on the TV's control panel include: Volume +/-, Channel +/-, Mute, Menu, Enter, TV/Video. The larger Power Button is located below the control panel, centered on the speaker cabinet. Also on the control panel is a light display that indicates which mode the TV is in. If you're watching a DVD, the DVD logo will be lit, etc. Other light indicators include a green Power-On light, a red Power-off light, Digital Video 1, VCR, and CATV logo light.

The menu is easy to navigate with access to a variety of features. There are really too many to cover without re-writing the manual. So I'll cover what appeals to us. Most everything commonly used has shortcut buttons on the remote. The remote is easy to use, with additional function modes for you VCR, cable, DVD and satellite.

This TV is equipped with picture-in-picture (PIP)and picture-out-picture (POP). PIP is more common in TVs, but the POP allows you to watch your primary channel in the middle, while 12 screens appear one-by-one around it to search other channels. You can also go into split screen to watch two different shows (games) at once with the ability to pause live TV. When live TV is paused, the paused image will appear in the split screen mode, while the show continues to play on the other side. In addition to the common color, contrast, brightness, etc. adjustments, the aspect ratio can be changed between 5 settings: 4:3, 16:9, Horizon, Zoom 1 and Zoom 2.

The picture quality is great. Our family room is 22 feet wide, with seating arrangements spanning across the room about 15 feet away from the TV. It's not like the old big-screens of days-ago when you had to be right in front of it to see it. The screen can be easily seen from what I would estimate to be about a 45 degree angle.

When we first got the TV, I was under the impression that it would play the wide-screen features with no black lines. Not so. Every channel, and everything you watch will be in wide screen, providing that you have the TV set to 16:9, or Horizon modes. But, do you know how the wide-screen effect is achieved? It's a simple, optical illusion. The last few inches on the left and right of a square image is stretched to elongate the image to fit the screen. The stretch is so slight and, since it's not in the middle of the screen, it goes virtually unnoticed, very hard to detect. I wanted to mention this for a reason. It's the TV stretching this image, not the incoming signal. When you have a DVD movie set to the wide-screen mode, you will still have the black lines on the top and bottom. There are adjustments in the TV's menu to minimize the black lines, but they will still be there. Here's a little tip: Whenever possible, it's best to set the DVD's option menu to play standard 4:3, then the TV will project it in wide screen without lines, just as it does other input signals. I hope this makes since.


The TV is loaded with external equipment connections for a VCR, S-VHS VCR, DVD player, stereo, additional speakers, a second monitor, and DTV. There is also a cluster of connections on the back, near the side to be easily accessed for your video camera. There's a total of three S-Video connections, one HDTV connection, and the antenna-in connection for your cable/satellite. We will soon be using the extra monitor connection for a TV on our back patio, or in our kitchen, depending mostly on who wins the fight. :)

The sound is not bad. It's no hi-fi stereo, but it does the job well and features a ghost surround mode that works pretty well. If you have your own surround system, the speakers can be turned off in the menu, or set to act as the center channel for your system. One touch of the mute button will reduce the sound considerably, the second touch turns the sound completely off.

Overall, we are very happy with this TV. It will handle most any equipment you want to plug in, and then some. Considering the many features, I feel like we got a pretty good deal on it.