I came across a bit of an issue de-interlacing a 480i signal. The Olevia 542i sample I received pulled the top of the image over to the right so that it looked as if the image is scrolling down the screen. Changing the DVD player's output to Progressive eliminated the problem. Determined to verify that the problem is with the display and not the source, I used two different DVD players and around 15 different movies. In the pictures below, the distortion is most noticeable in the upper left of the screen. I've informed Syntax-Brillian of the problem and they have looked into it. They are unable to replicate the problem with any of the other units they have tested. I, personally, have done an extensive web search to see if anyone else has experienced this problem to no avail. As a result, I feel confident that this is probably not a systematic issue with the Olevia 542i and it appears I may have a defective unit.

Conclusions and Overall Perceptions

The Olevia 542i is a very impressive display. While the picture is exceptional, what is more so is the foresight the designers used when designing the speakers. Bottom mounted normally, they can be switched to side mounted or (my preference) discarded for that clean look. There is nothing like this display with a very thin frame around a very large screen. Aside from the long turn-on time I would have very little problems recommending this set to anyone that was on the market.

Editor's Note - 2/23/07
Since the publication of this review we have received many reports from consumers that have experienced the same deinterlacing problem that our review unit displayed. We have contact Olevia about the problem but have recieved no response. While we suspect that Olevia’s unresponsiveness to this issue is due to the fact that it is sporadic in nature and only affects a small subset of owners. We have subsequently pulled our recommendation of this display and hope that future models will have this problem addressed.