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Before we set about explaining how the LE46F86BD sidesteps our concerns, though, we've got quite a bit more background to cover first. Starting with the TV's design, which is a chip off the old Samsung block in its startlingly pretty gloss black livery, minimal finish and complementary curves and angles.

The TV is also prodigiously well connected, with three v1.3a HDMIs leading the way. Their 1.3 specification makes them compatible with the new HDMI automatic lip synchronisation and picture-boosting Deep Colour features - so it's a pity there are currently no Deep Colour-encoded HD discs out there for us to try. Oh well, maybe they'll appear some time in the future…

The set also carries a D-Sub port for PC use, component video inputs for progressive scan DVD players or analogue HD sources like the original Xbox 360, a digital tuner input and associated slot for adding Top Up TV to the Freeview Package, and last but not least a USB 2.0 jack through which you can play MP3 audio or JPEG image files direct into the TV.

As you'd expect of a premium big-screen LCD these days, the 46F86BD is a full HD model, but without doubt its most intriguing on-paper spec aside from the 100Hz processing is a claimed contrast ratio of 25,000:1. Which is a whole 9000:1 more than even the figure quoted for Pioneer's remarkable KURO plasma TVs.

To be honest this kind of suggests that Samsung has been pretty ‘generous' with its measuring criteria when deriving a contrast ratio, rather than leading us to expect better black level response than you get with the KUROs. But at the same time it at least raises expectations of some of the best black levels yet seen on an LCD TV.

Other bits and bobs of interest include compatibility with the 1080p/24fps format now output by a growing number of HD disc players, Samsung's Digital Natural Image engine processing for boosting colour, contrast, motion handling, and fine detail, and an unusually wide-ranging set of picture tweaks including gamma adjustments, an edge enhancement option, and a black level booster.

We said earlier that the 46F86BD's performance managed to shatter our initial cynicism, and here's how it did it.

First of all, its 100Hz processing falls squarely in the ‘success' camp, in that while its benefits are slightly more subtle than those of some rivals, it also suffers with pleasingly few negative side effects. So as yet another American player leaps in front of me with a rocket launcher or gravity hammer on Halo 3, they do so smoothly and in considerably greater clarity than on non-100Hz TVs. And I don't know about you, but I sure love being able to see the person who's about to kill me as clearly as possible… 

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