BIOS: Technology Means Business

Dell’s W3706MC 37-inch LCD TV delivers fantastic high-definition picture quality with bright vivid images and superb contrast. It also doubles as a regular computer monitor, should you have the deskspace to accommodate it. Digital TV is also easy with Dell’s built-in digital tuner (DVB-T) and with advanced video processing from DNX by Pixelworks, the television experience is top-notch.

With the included stand removed, the black-and-silver screen measures 910x554x115mm (32.5kg) and delivers a luxurious 32.27x18.14-inch viewing area, giving you more than 1 million pixels of bright, vivid images. The W3706MC is therefore perfect for a living room or games room, where a high level of video and audio quality is required. We put our regular 32-inch Philips CRT TV out in the cold to make room for the W3706MC and we’ll never look back - a flatscreen television looks fantastic and saves a heap of floorspace!

The W3706C, priced at £1614, incorporates a heap of technology designed to deliver sharper and more detailed images. The slim-profile TV is aimed at customers who are ready to enjoy watching high-definition (HD) content like broadcast sports, movies, or DVDs, or playing video games.

The W3706 even allows you to multitask by viewing images from different sources simultaneously, with Picture-In-Picture (PIP), Picture-On-Picture (POP), and Picture-By-Picture (PbP) modes. The PIP feature actually works with HDTV and computer video, as well as with SD content, which is a nice bonus. An easy-to-use and awesome-looking back-lit remote control enables straightforward access to menus in low-light environments.

Technical details are up with the best and include a 16:9 widescreen WXGA resolution of 1366x768 pixels (enough to display every detail of 720p HDTV sources), 800:1 contrast ratio, 500cd/m² brightness, 16ms response time and support for 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i native HD resolutions.

The screen is also wall or stand mountable (mounting equipment sold separately) and offers an amazing range of connectivity options for almost any device that connects to a TV. Viewing angles are the only disappointment at just 89 degrees, although we encountered no problems viewing the TV comfortably from various angles in our modest-size (6x4m) living room.

Image-tweaking options allow you to configure colour temperatures of Blue, Red, Natural, and there’s a Normal setting to default to the closest broadcast standard. Picture modes include Movies, Sports, Weak Signal, Multimedia, and Personal, the latter of which remains different for each input and is the only one that allows you to customise the picture. The preset modes let you view picture levels and settings, but you can’t alter them. The W3706MC doesn’t let you adjust the intensity of the backlight, either.

Built-in ports are among the most comprehensive we’ve ever seen and include HDMI (the first we’ve ever seen in the UK), dual composite, dual S-Video, dual component, TV in/coaxial, VGA-in (analogue, 15-pin D-sub), PC audio-in, DVI, and RS232. Some of the video and audio connectors are even added to the side of the screen for easy connection of such devices as digital video recorders and videogame consoles. High-quality audio is provided courtesy of two 15-Watt speakers that are stand, wall or TV mountable with SRS TruSurround virtual surround sound.

The W3706MC is a solid display for both TV viewing and PC playback. The picture is big, bright and crisp, and skintones look exceptionally natural with no noticeable artifacts. But to get the best image and sound you need to use the HDMI connection (HDMI DVD players are now emerging) or view HDTV broadcasts (Sky is ready to rock next month).

The only disappointment is the screen’s black levels, which aren’t a rich as those found on good plasma displays - a shortcoming with most LCD monitors. The effect of this is that dark scenes lack the depth and richness of some LCD panels, which can make videogames and dark movie scenes a little uncomfortable due to a lack of shadow detail. [8]

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