I got my Tv today. Looks beautiful on HDTV. However i have that horrible lip sync issue. Ugh i'm gonna have to buy another receiver.

I need someone to answer this question. I used the TV to scan my cable connection and it picked up almost all the channels my cable box receives. On Time Warner TNT HD and Discovery HD are 1607 and 1693. How can I add these channels on the TV tuner. I pick up the other HD channels. When I enter those channels on my remote, it won't switch to those channels. It doens't seem to switch to other channels not in memory. Does anyone know how to add these???

Hey all, just want to comment on the lip sync issue. I found the solution to my set. If I turn off the volume on the tv and use the receiver and it's speakers only its fine. But if I use the tv's speakers and the receivers's speakers it has terrible lip sync. Use one or the other and see if that works, works for me. Steve

People seem to still be asking for sm tweaks and settings, so i figure i'll post mine. (Most have been posted before but i'll just post it all again). The first thing i did was turn down the index in the service menu to 42 to help with dark scenes. I turned my gamma down to 0 and my actuator gain to 72 (might be default at 72.....i can't remember). The next monster i tackled was the dnie . Samsungs edge enhancer seems to be more of a "make your clear picture ugly and squigly enhancer". Since you can't turn it off on most new models its a real pain. If you go to the dnie menu in the service menu and turn all the gains down to zero (theres 5 or six of them) you will instantly notice that all the edge enhancing disapears. I also turn the two settings at the bottom off (ndon and something else) the less processing the better right? :) Some people seem to be too scared to enter the sm...don't be. You can change anythign back that you mess with (excpet the auto color feature..i've heard horror stories so don't touch it). Just be sure to write everythign you mess with down. For those of you who have problems with the horizontal picture being off center you can change that in the sm too.

as for my picture settings
dnr: off
standard
73
54
45
47
warm 1

hope this helps someone. any questions feel free to message me, i'll be happy to help

oh yeah and the lipsync.....as sxx says kill the tv's speakers and just use your receiver and all should be fine

I was looking on samsungparts.com for replacement lamp for a 5667 and there are two listed: BP96-00826A and BP96-01073A. How does one find out which is the right one? Also, after changing the lamp are the lamp hours reset automatically in the service menu or does this have to be done manually?

On the left side of your set there is a sticker that has the lamp code on it. I have not seen a 67 series with an 826A yet. All the ones I've seen have the 01073A.

Further to my previous post. These lamp part numbers that I see on the samsungparts.com website are for assemblies. Is is not possible to just change the bulb? Would it be cheaper and where would I find the bulb? Thanks.

Lamps are a very proprietary item. Set makers contract with lamp makers to produce exclusive designs for their models. Patent rights come into play. That doesn't mean you can't find a deal on a different assembly that uses the same bulb and swap it into the housing for your set. After all it's just some Phillips screws and some wire nuts. You must wear gloves because the body oil from a single fingerprint can cause the lamp to generate a hot spot and explode. You may run across one that requires some soldering too.

Has anyone found a way to use the D-Net (aka IEEE-1394, firewire, etc) with a PC? Specifically I would like to use a PC to control the tuner and capture video and audio on the PC from my HL-R5067W.

I found a message on someone who created SW to control set top boxes
(at the greenbutton, message ID 104152, avs forum won't let me post the link until I have five posts). but I haven't been able to find anything to control this set.

I have a HTPC hooked up to the set, but I don't have a tuner in the PC. I'm hoping to somehow use the tuner in the television. I'm running XP media center.

Am I barking up the wrong tree? Is there a better method of controlling the tv with a PC?

I'm completely new to this set (it arrived this morning!), its replacing a very old 19" set with knobs to change the channel!

Jay
Have you ever gotten this to work? I have recorded and played back using a demo version of this SW: http://www.vividlogic.com/products/default.html
However, the big drawback is scheduling a recording. I am not sure if the greenbutton SW would allow you to control the TV from the PC. I am curious. I would hope that you could schedule a recording through TVGOS, but it looks as if you can not. I think you can on a Mitsubishi.

Thanks to this forum, I am starting to know enough to be dangerous. You can really learn a lot!

So, my extremely hard to acquire 360 will be here Monday. I have read most of the thread about this, but can someone tell me whether it is better to set the resolution to 720p or 1080i on a 5067? I plan on hooking it up to my component connections.

Look forward to the responses!

Thanks to this forum, I am starting to know enough to be dangerous. You can really learn a lot!

So, my extremely hard to acquire 360 will be here Monday. I have read most of the thread about this, but can someone tell me whether it is better to set the resolution to 720p or 1080i on a 5067? I plan on hooking it up to my component connections.

Look forward to the responses!Since it is a fixed pixel display at 1280*720, 720p would be the better resolution to use. But then, it's up for you to decide.

On the left side of your set there is a sticker that has the lamp code on it. I have not seen a 67 series with an 826A yet. All the ones I've seen have the 01073A.

My HLR-5667W set takes the 826A bulb.

Just joined the family! Ordered HLR6167W from Amazon.com and found Tech Craft DLP58X stand for $150 shipped. TV scheduled to be delivered today.

Replacing 1.5 year old Toshiba 57H83 RPTV.

Can't wait to get home. Woohoo!

Have you ever gotten this to work? I have recorded and played back using a demo version of this SW: [link missing]
However, the big drawback is scheduling a recording. I am not sure if the greenbutton SW would allow you to control the TV from the PC. I am curious. I would hope that you could schedule a recording through TVGOS, but it looks as if you can not. I think you can on a Mitsubishi.

What OS where you using? was it Windows XP MCE? I'm working on doing the same thing.

What OS where you using? was it Windows XP MCE? I'm working on doing the same thing.
WinXP Home Edition.
Let me know if you work out how to schedule a recording with TVGOS and/or can implement a channel change with the PC over IEEE-1394.

I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post this (it should probably be in one of the cable threads, but I'm posting here in addition). I just received my HDMI cable from monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com). I hooked it up to my HL-R5067W and to the DVI output on my Motorola HD STB (Comcast DCT-6200/2005) via an DVI-HDMI adapter, also from monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com). On some channels (200-557 range), the right edge of the picture has a "dashed line" effect from the top to the bottom of the screen when watching in 4:3 mode. It's only on channels in this limited range, but it's not always there. Is it safe to presume that it is something in the broadcast signal? Has anyone experienced this at all?

I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post this (it should probably be in one of the cable threads, but I'm posting here in addition). I just received my HDMI cable from monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com). I hooked it up to my HL-R5067W and to the DVI output on my Motorola HD STB (Comcast DCT-6200/2005) via an DVI-HDMI adapter, also from monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com). On some channels (200-557 range), the right edge of the picture has a "dashed line" effect from the top to the bottom of the screen when watching in 4:3 mode. It's only on channels in this limited range, but it's not always there. Is it safe to presume that it is something in the broadcast signal? Has anyone experienced this at all?

Just a guess here - but I'm assuming the range of channels you specified are digital cable channels on your box. If so, you may want to check and see what resolution your cable box is sending these channels out as. They should be 480p, but its possible that your cable box may be sending them out as 720p (or even 1080i)

I've found with my cable box (SA-8300HD) and with my tv (HL-R6167) that I get a better picture when I have the cable box send out 480p and I have the TV convert it to 720p. Otherwise, I'd have a lot of digital artifacts (which I think were caused by the cable box.)

- Al

Lee, I also have the DLP58X kit sitting right here, and I'll get around to it in a day or two. I have to say the instructions are some of the most complicated I've ever seen on a kit like this. We can help each other through if we have problems.

I'm not even going to bother with HDMI-DVI. When my TV arrives I'm just going to go down to my Comcast office and swap the 6412 for a newer one with HDMI.

i've had a samsung hlr5067 for about 11 months, had the screen replaced twice due to moisture between the two layers, and the digital board replaced because HDMI stopped working.

Now my HDMI is not working again. I have a Time Warner SA-8300. It was working fine but a few days ago i cut everything on, and now i get a message with something like:

" Your TV does not support HDCP..."

I called Timewarner, they sent a guy out but he didnt do anything, said i need a firmware upgrade for the set. Anyone ever heard of this? Wanted to see if anyone else had this problem before i try to get samsung to do anything else.

Thanks


After 3 30 minute+ calls to samsung i finally have a tech coming to check it out tomorrow. The only way i could convince them it was broken was borrowing my friends samsung upconverting DVD player. It would play burned dvds over the DVI port fine, but commercial dvds with the content protection flag set did not display an image. Samsung support still tried to tell me my settings were wrong, and becuase my cable box wasnt set to output only 480p and up it was causing this HDCP message. The support guy also wanted to transfer me to the DVD player support group.

I'll post what the tech finds out and does to fix it.

Halfshell:

Just to let you know... Samsungs "acceptable" pincushioning is 1/4" if yours is more than that... you have an issue that you CAN go to Samsung about....

on that note....a quick question for everyone... Has anyone had service on their xx67 to fix a pincushion problem.... what did they do to fix the problem..... did it work?

Thx

Don

A Samsung authorized field engineer came to my house after a service call. There was barely 1/2" total shrinkage of picture (left + right) in the middle on my HLR5067. He told me what he could do was to replace the whole optical system including light engine, lens, etc. He also warned me this may or may not work because the problem on my set was not severe. I read one post in this thread saying that bowing inward of the screen may be one reason causing the problem. I discussed this with the field engineer but he disagreed. Finally, he just corrected some minor issues like overscan in the service menu and left. The next day I attached a suction hook (used in bathroom hanging stuff on glass) near the edge of the picture in 4x3 mode, pulled a little bit, and the edge moved to the side. I know my TV screen bows inward in the center after careful observations. I have no idea how much pincushion distortion can be corrected if the screen is pure flat. Has anybody fixed or alleviated pincushion effect by adjusting the screen? Thanks!

Hi,

Thanks in advance for your response.
I was wondering what one does for a television set purchased from Amazon when it comes to an extended service warranty.
I do know that my credit card doubles the manufacturer's service warranty, but what about a 5 year extended Bulb replacement warranty .....or the like?
What does one do for a service like that?
Is it possible to just purchase a service warranty from any B&M store like BestBuy / Circuit City ?

Please respond.

Hi,

Thanks in advance for your response.
I was wondering what one does for a television set purchased from Amazon when it comes to an extended service warranty.
I do know that my credit card doubles the manufacturer's service warranty, but what about a 5 year extended Bulb replacement warranty .....or the like?
What does one do for a service like that?
Is it possible to just purchase a service warranty from any B&M store like BestBuy / Circuit City ?

Please respond.GE offers independant extended warranties on some of the major electronics brands.

Personally I find extended warranty as a scam. It's not worth the money.

Hi,

Thanks in advance for your response.
I was wondering what one does for a television set purchased from Amazon when it comes to an extended service warranty.
I do know that my credit card doubles the manufacturer's service warranty, but what about a 5 year extended Bulb replacement warranty .....or the like?
What does one do for a service like that?
Is it possible to just purchase a service warranty from any B&M store like BestBuy / Circuit City ?

Please respond.

Don't think you can get them the usual B&M stores. Sounds like you have the Visa Platinum card for the double warranty...Thats a good deal. The bulb replacement in most cases is a scam. TVauthority and some other places offer the Repairmaster - warranttech??, or something like that, warranty that is good on any AV purchase for a set price. The $2500 one was something like $180 at most places but doesn't cover the bulb. You can buy it as long as you have 3 months left on the original manufacturers warranty. I called visa and they said that you "might" be able to get it with 3 months left on theirs if you buy it from them. It was priced similarly so you might just go with the extended credit card one. If you find one that covers the bulb for less than the price of a bulb, even better.

OK, I had a busy day today. Had my 5667 delivered this morning, sold my old CRT HDTV and just finished building the TechCraft DLP58X stand.

Quick review of the stand- It's big. Probably too big for the 56" set, but I suppose it will be good in case I ever decide to go bigger somewhere down the line. It only has one glass shelf, but it's a long one with lots of vertical space. It can easily take my DVD jukebox under there. I will say the instructions weren't clear enough and at one point I put it together wrong, but it wasn't a major problem. Overall it took about 2 1/2hrs to assemble.

Good stand for $140 (pressboard top shelf with metal frame), probably better than Samsung's overpriced one, and more solid.

A Samsung authorized field engineer came to my house after a service call. There was barely 1/2" total shrinkage of picture (left + right) in the middle on my HLR5067. He told me what he could do was to replace the whole optical system including light engine, lens, etc. He also warned me this may or may not work because the problem on my set was not severe. I read one post in this thread saying that bowing inward of the screen may be one reason causing the problem. I discussed this with the field engineer but he disagreed. Finally, he just corrected some minor issues like overscan in the service menu and left. The next day I attached a suction hook (used in bathroom hanging stuff on glass) near the edge of the picture in 4x3 mode, pulled a little bit, and the edge moved to the side. I know my TV screen bows inward in the center after careful observations. I have no idea how much pincushion distortion can be corrected if the screen is pure flat. Has anybody fixed or alleviated pincushion effect by adjusting the screen? Thanks!

I have a HLP5063 which had this problem, except in my case the shrinkage was at the top and bottom - basically the picture looked like this: ) (. The distortion was 1/2" and the authorized Samsung repair shop replaced my screen. At least they said they did but I can't be sure because they took the TV to their shop. When they brought it back the problem was alleviated, but not completely gone. This is why I can't be sure that they did anything other than adjust the screen somehow (not sure if this is possible) and charge Samsung for a whole new screen.

Was wondering if anyone ever found the replacement lamp bulb for a BP96-00826A lamp module. I know the modules are available, but was looking for the actual light bulb, and where to purchase it. I have a module with no light bulb, and would like to find the bulb and then have a spare for the future.

Many thanks - Ed

Was wondering if anyone ever found the replacement lamp bulb for a BP96-00826A lamp module. I know the modules are available, but was looking for the actual light bulb, and where to purchase it. I have a module with no light bulb, and would like to find the bulb and then have a spare for the future.

Many thanks - Ed

I'm looking for one as well for my HLP5063. Since you've had a look at the assembly (I haven't taken mine out of the TV yet) can you tell me how difficult it would be to change the bulb? Thanks.

OK, I had a busy day today. Had my 5667 delivered this morning, sold my old CRT HDTV and just finished building the TechCraft DLP58X stand.

Quick review of the stand- It's big. Probably too big for the 56" set, but I suppose it will be good in case I ever decide to go bigger somewhere down the line. It only has one glass shelf, but it's a long one with lots of vertical space. It can easily take my DVD jukebox under there. I will say the instructions weren't clear enough and at one point I put it together wrong, but it wasn't a major problem. Overall it took about 2 1/2hrs to assemble.

Good stand for $140 (pressboard top shelf with metal frame), probably better than Samsung's overpriced one, and more solid.
My HLR6167W was finally delivered this afternoon and the DLP58X is not due until 3/30. For now the TV is sitting on a large ottoman. I love it.

I am hoping that the DLP58X is a good match for the size and look of the Samsung.

Hi,

Thanks in advance for your response.
I was wondering what one does for a television set purchased from Amazon when it comes to an extended service warranty.
I do know that my credit card doubles the manufacturer's service warranty, but what about a 5 year extended Bulb replacement warranty .....or the like?
What does one do for a service like that?
Is it possible to just purchase a service warranty from any B&M store like BestBuy / Circuit City ?

Please respond.

If you fill out the warranty card or go to their web site Samsung will add another 3 months on to the 12 month warranty. Not really an answer to your question, but I filled it in and mailed it.

I've been jumping around on this board and I have only found issues similar to what I am frustrated with but no really concrete answers. I would really appreciate your help and expertise. My problem concerns the picture quality for HD and DVD viewing.

My system:

TV - Samsung HL-R4667
STB - Scientific Atlanta SA-8300HD DVR
DVD - YamahaDV-C6761

HDMI cable connects STB to TV. Component cables connect DVD to TV.

My problem:

I have had my TV for about 1 month now and from the day I set it up I have had issues with certain shows (24 is a good example of TV and king kong for DVD). The problem mostly arises while watching HD or DVD programs that are dark in nature (ie low lighting and lots of shadows). I find that there is pixilation and color problems (sort of greenish, grayish color) in the shadows and background mostly. Sometimes this problem is in the foreground and faces of certain programs. There is a distinct edge between subtle shades and this is where the pixilation happens as well.

I have seen a few suggestions that I will try next including changing the STB to send a 480p image to the TV for upconversion, messing with the service menu settings (i am very hesitant to do this), or having a professional calibrate the TV.

I am assuming my problem lies with the TV settings and not the STB or DVD at this point.

Please let me know if there is an easy/cheap solution to this.

If you know who I should call to get the TV calibrated let me know.

If you know what settings in the service menu work best for this issue please let me know.

Since this is the samsung 720p dlp owner thread, I have to ask:

How comparable is the samsung 720p dlp televisions to the jvc d-ila 720p televisions?

If I could get the jvc for considerably less than the samsung, would it be worth it?

I'm looking at an open box item from best buy for like 500 bucks cheaper than the comparable dlp samsung.

My problem:
I have had my TV for about 1 month now and from the day I set it up I have had issues with certain shows (24 is a good example of TV and king kong for DVD). The problem mostly arises while watching HD or DVD programs that are dark in nature (ie low lighting and lots of shadows). I find that there is pixilation and color problems (sort of greenish, grayish color) in the shadows and background mostly. Sometimes this problem is in the foreground and faces of certain programs. There is a distinct edge between subtle shades and this is where the pixilation happens as well.
Andrew,

Read my post #1953 on page 66 of this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7095743&&#post7095743) regarding the Index Delay adjustment in the SM. I think that tweak should improve your PQ. You can search this thread for "Index" to find more info on that tweak, as well as at what setting other owners have their Index Delay. I have mine set at 42.

Pleased with my HLR5678W but BLACK CRUSH on HDMI is a pain. I get it to go away by toggle from standard to movie, but this gets old fast. I don't want to go into service menu and make changes, should not have to do that anyway!

My question: will Samsung send support for this problem? I just got it from Sound Advice, should I bug them instead and see if they will calibrate it or do something to fix the black? Still have 3 weeks left and may return this HLR5678W and wait for the new models. Anyone got some suggestions?

I have a HLP5063 which had this problem, except in my case the shrinkage was at the top and bottom - basically the picture looked like this: ) (. The distortion was 1/2" and the authorized Samsung repair shop replaced my screen. At least they said they did but I can't be sure because they took the TV to their shop. When they brought it back the problem was alleviated, but not completely gone. This is why I can't be sure that they did anything other than adjust the screen somehow (not sure if this is possible) and charge Samsung for a whole new screen.

As long as the picture quality is improved, just enjoy it. :) You happy, the shop happy, Samsung will happy.

Accually the compact design of rear projection TVs demands tighter quality control in manufacturing/assembling the optical system and the screen. The TV projects pictures from its lenses onto a big screen within a short distance (which I estimate less than the screen size). As such, minor defects in the lenses or screen flatness will be translated into magnified picture geometry distortions. There are always trade-offs.

...
I have had my TV for about 1 month now and from the day I set it up I have had issues with certain shows (24 is a good example of TV and king kong for DVD). The problem mostly arises while watching HD or DVD programs that are dark in nature (ie low lighting and lots of shadows). I find that there is pixilation and color problems (sort of greenish, grayish color) in the shadows and background mostly. Sometimes this problem is in the foreground and faces of certain programs. There is a distinct edge between subtle shades and this is where the pixilation happens as well.

I have seen a few suggestions that I will try next including changing the STB to send a 480p image to the TV for upconversion, messing with the service menu settings (i am very hesitant to do this), or having a professional calibrate the TV.

I am assuming my problem lies with the TV settings and not the STB or DVD at this point.

Please let me know if there is an easy/cheap solution to this.

If you know who I should call to get the TV calibrated let me know.

If you know what settings in the service menu work best for this issue please let me know.
I've got the same problem. The service menu is what everybody is recommending and seems to work for most. Calibration is a sure thing and runs $250 and up from what I've seen; you'd just have to call around. You can look up local techs from the ISF page. The service menu isn't too difficult but you do need to be careful and write all your changes down. My index and gamma settings don't seem to be doing the trick yet. I think it's set at 4. when I increase it gets much darker. changing to 3 makes it much lighter, and 2, 1, and 0 are abou the same as 4. I'm stumped. I've also read that these sets have different light engines so the values are unique to your set so using someone else's numbers may not work. I've also read that turning off DNIE works wonders.

I just got my 5667 delivered this Monday, and have been toying with it nonstop. This is my first foray into HDTV and all I can say is wow. This thing is awesome.

Since this is the samsung 720p dlp owner thread, I have to ask:

How comparable is the samsung 720p dlp televisions to the jvc d-ila 720p televisions?

If I could get the jvc for considerably less than the samsung, would it be worth it?

I'm looking at an open box item from best buy for like 500 bucks cheaper than the comparable dlp samsung.

I was tempted by an open box SXRD and passed on it. I would pass up the JVC too. Just my opinion. Samsung is the better DLP IMO.

Try wrangling the best deal. It can be done. I got my Samsung at an incredible price. Try other stores, make a deal, get their business card and shop around. BB or CC for example, will beat each others prices. So if you can get them to make their best offer you should okay. No reason to pay the retail asking price. Watch their web site for the next 30 days after and if the price drops below what you end up paying you can get the diffrerence back too.

FYI. The 61" 6167W is for sale for $1999 from Amazon and free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009E6I3A/ref=amb_link_776712_7/002-8744324-8200849?n=172282


I bought it from Nice Electronics. They have it for $1769. I think I paid $260 shipping from them. Nice deal at Amazon.

FYI. The 61" 6167W is for sale for $1999 from Amazon and free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009E6I3A/ref=amb_link_776712_7/002-8744324-8200849?n=172282


I bought it from Nice Electronics. They have it for $1769. I think I paid $260 shipping from them. Nice deal at Amazon.Oh well, I just paid $200 less for the 5667W. Still, I think the 61" is too big for my apartment, so it works out OK.

I was in BJ's yesterday and they just got in a 5666B and were selling it w/stand at an insane amount (meaning too much). It looked to be essentially a 5667 except without Firewire and some other features missing. Anyone see this model before?

I am planning to buy HLR5667W....I got one confusion.. It would be great if any of you proud owner can clarify it.
I read on the specs that, this TV is 'Digital cable Ready' meaning You don't actually need a Digital Cable-set top box. Just connect the TV to your std cable wall outlet in the wall. Has any one tried this? How good does it work with Comcast Standard Cable?

You still need your cable provider to feed you the HD signal. Either through a set top box or a cable card. So to answer your question - no - simply plugging your current coaxial cable into the TV will not automatically allow you to view HD content. You will need either a set top box with the cable running into it and back out to the TV or a cable card plugged into the cable card slot in the back of the TV with your coax then running directly into the TV. Cable cards are supposedly buggy and you don't get "premium" content like interactive guides or PPV.

edit: I suppose if all you care about is "basic" cable then it will work - but then there's really no reason to pony up the cash for a HDTV if you don't plan on subscribing to HD content. The other option would be to get a OTA antenna for your roof and get local HD stations that way.

edit: I suppose if all you care about is "basic" cable then it will work - but then there's really no reason to pony up the cash for a HDTV if you don't plan on subscribing to HD content. The other option would be to get a OTA antenna for your roof and get local HD stations that way.

From Time Warner Cable in Houston area you can get several unscrambled HTDV channels provided by major networks with standard or even basic service package. In this case you don't need any STB or cable card to view such HD channels.

From Time Warner Cable in Houston area you can get several unscrambled HTDV channels provided by major networks with standard or even basic service package. In this case you don't need any STB or cable card to view such HD channels.

I believe you would need a QAM capable ATSC tuner for that. It would be able to receive standard HDTV channels directly through the cable from the wall.

Greetings,
This is somewhat off topic but I noticed today that a certain membership only warehouse club now has the hl-r4667 in stock.
Does anyone know if they are planning to specially price this item below where it is currently listed in a future "wallet" promo?
No need to mention either the price or even the retailer.
b.

I am planning to buy HLR5667W....I got one confusion.. It would be great if any of you proud owner can clarify it.
I read on the specs that, this TV is 'Digital cable Ready' meaning You don't actually need a Digital Cable-set top box. Just connect the TV to your std cable wall outlet in the wall. Has any one tried this? How good does it work with Comcast Standard Cable?
I am a Comcast subscriber. In addition to using a HD STB, I just hooked up my HL-R5067W directly to the wall outlet in order to take advantage of the PIP/POP function (so I don't have to use my VCR for PIP). From the direct cable connection, I am able to pick up the local FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC and KQED HD channels. I have a Digital Cable subscription, so I don't know if that has anything to do with the ability to receive local HD channels without the use of a HD STB. In short, you CAN connect your TV directly to the wall outlet and receive a signal. However, you may or may not receive HD channels.

I am a Comcast subscriber. In addition to using a HD STB, I just hooked up my HL-R5067W directly to the wall outlet in order to take advantage of the PIP/POP function (so I don't have to use my VCR for PIP). From the direct cable connection, I am able to pick up the local FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC and KQED HD channels. I have a Digital Cable subscription, so I don't know if that has anything to do with the ability to receive local HD channels without the use of a HD STB. In short, you CAN connect your TV directly to the wall outlet and receive a signal. However, you may or may not receive HD channels.

I had basic service from Time Warner Cable in Houston Texas before. I could watch PBS, ABC, WB39, etc. HD programs on my HLR5067W. I think if the HD signal from cable outlet is not scrambled, the HD tuners in HLRxx67W will catch it with no problems.

has anyone been successful connecting their HLR-5067 to a PC via firewire? I connected it up and it detected all the devices, I attempted to install the drivers, but the devices wouldn't start up after a restart. I can't find any threads of people being successful doing this.

has anyone been successful connecting their HLR-5067 to a PC via firewire? I connected it up and it detected all the devices, I attempted to install the drivers, but the devices wouldn't start up after a restart. I can't find any threads of people being successful doing this.Why bother? Just use the VGA port. That's why it's there.

The guy supposed to throw away my old entertainment center and put my 5667W on it's shelf didn't show up (again) today. Looks like I'll have to hire someone else... Can't believe I'm going to have to pay substantial money for a few simple jobs (bad back).<Sigh>

Could anyone tell me when the HLR4667W's started to receive the HD4 chips or do they all have em?

All the HLR4667W's have HD4's. Although the Canadian version (HLR4664W) has HD3's.

Not sure about the new error message, but if it refers to "DHCP" that is a configuration issue for the STB possibly indicating your cable box has lost its IP address, a TW problem not the Samsung. Try unplugging it completely (AC and cable) wait a couple minutes and reconnect.

Yikes, I just had to correct this correction. It was not a typo when Varkeast said his cable box displayed "Your TV does not support HDCP..." It has nothing to do with networking. HDCP is the correct acronym. It refers to High Definition Copy Protection. HDCP is a digital signal encryption technique used on some DVI-D and HDMI outputs to prevent copying of digital or HD programming. For instance Digital cable and Digital Satellite STB's commonly use HDCP on DVI and HDMI outputs, whereas a computer DVI output is unencrypted. All Samsung DLP's since the HLN series (and maybe HLM) have employed HDCP on all DVI and HDMI inputs. So, with an HLR you should be OK using an STB with HDCP. From what I have gathered, if you are having trouble with HDCP, you may need a firmware update on the STB. STB's are notorious for not properly implementing HDCP or the handshake correctly. Or it may be a bad cable...? One thing you can be sure of is that the HLR DOES support HDCP (it's in the Samsung spec sheet).

-Valkyrie-MT

Has anyone else encountered this:

When the TV is on, there's a rattling noise that emanates from the rear of the TV. It's quite noticeable. I thought it might be the cooling fan, but I was able to squish a soda straw throught he back slots and momentarily bring the fan to a stop via friction. The sound persisted.

Is it possible that it could be the color wheel? The sound seems to be coming from an area NEAR the fan. There's no problem with the actual picture or anything else, just this constant rattling/clicking noise. Are there any other moving parts that might be generating the noise?

:confused:

Thanks for all replies!

LS

I recently bought the Sony 50A10 lcd @ costco for $2199 including stand. After about 20 hours of viewing time the tv shut itself off 4 times. I read that models prior 11/05 need a software update. Anyway I'm going to return it and get another, but today I saw that costco had the Samsung 46" for $1499.99 w/stand. Aside from the $700 dollar savings would I be better off with the samsung? Would I miss the 4 inches of screen. Is the DLP technology better than Sony's lcd.
Any non bias help would be appreciated,
zaneren
PS I'm driving my wife insane

There is alot of choices and options here, and people that never used an external scaler before will be a little bit lost and confused with all the terms. For exemple. You really need to know the signal type you need to output.. So YCbCr 4:2:2 or 4:4:4, RGB or Extented RGB, the color space of your display (SDTV or HDTV), the ouput resolution of the scaler (and if you know it, you definitely want to output a 1:1 signal matching your diplay native resolution).

Does anyone have the answers to this for an HL-R6178W?

I was tempted by an open box SXRD and passed on it. I would pass up the JVC too. Just my opinion. Samsung is the better DLP IMO.

Try wrangling the best deal. It can be done. I got my Samsung at an incredible price. Try other stores, make a deal, get their business card and shop around. BB or CC for example, will beat each others prices. So if you can get them to make their best offer you should okay. No reason to pay the retail asking price. Watch their web site for the next 30 days after and if the price drops below what you end up paying you can get the diffrerence back too.

Thanks. i passed on the open item and will go with the 46" samsung from A* (no tax, free shipping)

i bought a tv stand from ikea in preparation for my 46" samsung. The stand is 23" tall, will that be too high?

Has anyone else encountered this:

When the TV is on, there's a rattling noise that emanates from the rear of the TV. It's quite noticeable. I thought it might be the cooling fan, but I was able to squish a soda straw throught he back slots and momentarily bring the fan to a stop via friction. The sound persisted.

Is it possible that it could be the color wheel? The sound seems to be coming from an area NEAR the fan. There's no problem with the actual picture or anything else, just this constant rattling/clicking noise. Are there any other moving parts that might be generating the noise?

:confused:

Thanks for all replies!

LS

Call and schedule a service visit - this should be a warranty item. Sounds like bearings going out in a fan - I think there is probably more than 1 fan in the set - and if you've ever had a pc fan start to go - this is what it sounds like. If your fan goes, your in real danger of damaging your set, as these things run hot with those lamps.

PS - i wouldn't go jamming anything else into the fan in the meantime. Imagine if you get something caught or lost inside and the tech finds it - "well here's your problem, somebody jammed a straw in here and it messed up the fan - sorry not a warranty item now." Don't add to a potential nightmare. :eek:

i bought a tv stand from ikea in preparation for my 46" samsung. The stand is 23" tall, will that be too high?

Depends on how high your sofa or seating area is - but no... that should be fine. My 56" set is on a stand 20" high and is perfectly at eye level. Your set is a few inches smaller, and a few inches higher - should be the same relative centering.

Enjoy. :D

i have 46'' and 23'' tall stand. perfect for me.

i calibrated my tv as best as i could with DVE. first off the V position was pretty skewed and so was the H position so i had to go into service menu to change it.

if you are seeing rainbows, calibrating your tv will greatly reduce it. i saw rainbows a lot (prob 80 percent of the time) after having the tv a couple of days. after a week, it decreased to ~20 percent of the time. now that i have calibrated it, i say it is now under 5 percent of the time. i actually have to shake my head around forcefully to see it actively now.

i actually have to shake my head around forcefully to see it actively now.


:p (picturing you doing this as the wife walks in, shakes her head and turns around and walks out..."Hey honey I can barely see it now")

It's true though - with or without calibration they do go away as you get used to watching a large screen in general compared to a small tv. I was worried I would see them always - but now I only notice them if it's a dark scene with alot of movement from side to side... if even then.

Not sure if anyone can answer this, but I jumped on that deal last week from amazon dot com, and it shipped out yesterday via BLI. Do the carriers normally call you to schedule a delivery time? Thanks in advance.

I believe I saw my question posted somewhere else before, but I cant find it by searching.
I just recieved my TV on Sunday and when I am watching a program with the bars on the side the look like this ) (. I read somewhere that someone thought it was the screen being pushed in, but I really can't tell. I dont see anyproblems when its streched or in HD though.
Does anyone have any ideas as to if there is an adjustment or if I should call Circuit City before the 30 days are up? Thanks!!!
By the way its a Samsung HL-R5067W

THANKS!

Lickwid -

Congratulations on your new purchase. You are going to love it.
They sure will call you and schedule a delivery time. You can let them call about 30 minutes before delivery so you can arrange to arrive home when they come.


Chris112 -

See posts #2268 and #2273 in this thread.

Here is a tip for detecting if the pincushion is due to screen bending in.

1. Turn on the TV and view in 4:3 mode.
2. Hold a thread and streach it tight vertically. Squat yourself close to the screen. Try to align the thread with the right edge which looks ( on your TV.
3. Move further right and now aim the screen with an angle. Align the thread with the right edge again. If you find the edge becomes strait looks this "|" at a certain angle, your screen is bending in.
4. Repeat 2-3 but on the left side instead if you'd like to.

If you can render some testing paterns like grids on your screen, it will be simpler. You just need to check the vertical line near the center of screen. If the screen is not flat, this line will not be strait when viewed at an angle.

Lickwid -

Congratulations on your new purchase. You are going to love it.
They sure will call you and schedule a delivery time. You can let them call about 30 minutes before delivery so you can arrange to arrive home when they come.


Chris112 -

See posts #2268 and #2273 in this thread.

Here is a tip for detecting if the pincushion is due to screen bending in.

1. Turn on the TV and view in 4:3 mode.
2. Hold a thread and streach it tight vertically. Squat yourself close to the screen. Try to align the thread with the right edge which looks ( on your TV.
3. Move further right and now aim the screen with an angle. Align the thread with the right edge again. If you find the edge becomes strait looks this "|" at a certain angle, your screen is bending in.
4. Repeat 2-3 but on the left side instead if you'd like to.

If you can render some testing paterns like grids on your screen, it will be simpler. You just need to check the vertical line near the center of screen. If the screen is not flat, this line will not be strait when viewed at an angle.

That's odd since I don't remember leaving a phone # when ordering through amazon dot com. Possibly they'll e-mail me or something to request a phone #.

N/M, I had to call them to update the correct phone #, since my account has a really old cell phone #, thanks guys.

POTENTIAL PROBLEM?

HLR4667

I notice a brightness/contrast flicker, every so often. Kind of hard to explain, the screen will dim for a second and then return to it's normal brightness. I mostly notice this in PC mode, I am wondering if this is a sign of a problem to come. The tv is only a few months old.

On a side note, these tvs are only 720p, why does it show a resolution of 1920x1080i when you press display?

I just bought a samsung 5667 and love it. almost bought a plasma but saved a bunch of money and got way more tv by choosing the dlp instead and the pitcure will be pretty close in comparison to a plasma i figure

Does anyone have the samsung hd860 upconversion dvd player? i originally bought a sony upconversion dvd that used components and that looked good but i saw that sammy and it upconverted to almost hd 1080i so I switched for that one. However, the picture looks a little soft and some dvds the sound is weak going through hdmi. there is no difference when i switch from 480 to 720 and 1080 does anyone have this problem with hdmi and if not which dvd player would you recommend? i figure the tv is already doing the upconversion?

awwww man amazon.com sold out of the 46" dlp's. I dont really want to go up to the 50" because i think it may be too big for my room.

does amazon usually get these back in stock or should i just shut up and order the 50" while its in stock?

my tv says "not supported mode" if I try to switch my cable box's 4:3 override setting from "off, 480p or stretch" to "480i". Is this normal? The Samsung website says 480i is supported.

man amazon sold out of the 46" dlp's. I dont really want to go up to the 50" because i think it may be too big for my room.

does amazon usually get these back in stock or should i just shut up and order the 50" while its in stock?


I don't know Amazon's stocking policies, however the new HL-S series are just starting to be made available.

The are a few advancements in the new models and a few items taken out. I'm currently looking at the HL-S4266W, the smaller sibling to the 46". The new models appear to not have PIP or cablecard slots, if that is important to you. Personally I have really never used PIP, and intend on using a cable box so those two features aren't strong points. The new models are supposed to have two HDMI inputs available, one more than last year. The new model also has a 5 color wheel, last year was a 7 segment(RGB*2 + clear).

Lastly, the new models sport a lower MSRP. I saw the price of the current 42" model which was lower than the price of last years model(which happened to be on sale).

Good Luck in your future television purchase.

I have a Samsung DLP HL-R5067W hooked up to a Sony PS2 with component video cables. I've had the same problem when it was hooked up with S-video. The picture does not fill the screen and looks slighty distorted. There is also an intermittent flicker where it looks like the TV is trying to synch up with the video signal. What can I do to resolve this?

I just bought a samsung 5667 and love it. almost bought a plasma but saved a bunch of money and got way more tv by choosing the dlp instead and the pitcure will be pretty close in comparison to a plasma i figure

Does anyone have the samsung hd860 upconversion dvd player? i originally bought a sony upconversion dvd that used components and that looked good but i saw that sammy and it upconverted to almost hd 1080i so I switched for that one. However, the picture looks a little soft and some dvds the sound is weak going through hdmi. there is no difference when i switch from 480 to 720 and 1080 does anyone have this problem with hdmi and if not which dvd player would you recommend? i figure the tv is already doing the upconversion?

I had the Samsung HD850 - identical except the ability to play SACD. I connected via HDMI and noticed nearly no increase in detail or resolution. I sold it on ebay and bought an all-purpose 5-disc CD/DVD/CD-R/DVD-R/MP3/SACD player instead for the same price. Connected via component now and let the TV do the upconversion - looks great.

Also - set the player to 720p, not 1080i, and you will be sending the signal pure digital from the source with no upconversion done by the tv then. This will help prevent any audio lag issues you might encounter, and also eliminate the player from upconverting from the source DVD to 1080i, only to have the TV then cross convert it back to 720p. Just like a xerox, the more times you run a signal through a process, the more degradation it will get.

If you like it or think you notice a substantial difference - enjoy, but I didn't like having to use 2 players for my music, movies and mp3's. :cool:

I don't know Amazon's stocking policies, however the new HL-S series are just starting to be made available.

The are a few advancements in the new models and a few items taken out. I'm currently looking at the HL-S4266W, the smaller sibling to the 46". The new models appear to not have PIP or cablecard slots, if that is important to you. Personally I have really never used PIP, and intend on using a cable box so those two features aren't strong points. The new models are supposed to have two HDMI inputs available, one more than last year. The new model also has a 5 color wheel, last year was a 7 segment(RGB*2 + clear).

Lastly, the new models sport a lower MSRP. I saw the price of the current 42" model which was lower than the price of last years model(which happened to be on sale).

Good Luck in your future television purchase.

im still gonna go with the hlr series because i know its going to be cheaper and i want the cable card slot (no box needed for hd and its cheaper than a stb)

Im going to wait a few days and then probably just order the 50" before they go out of stock too.

I just got a confirmation that my 5667 will be delivered on the 12th. I found a killer dealer on Amazon, and it was coming from Tigerdirect so I ordered from Tiger.

The price delivered was >$500 cheaper than anyone else BEFORE delivery. :D

I just bought a samsung 5667 and love it. almost bought a plasma but saved a bunch of money and got way more tv by choosing the dlp instead and the pitcure will be pretty close in comparison to a plasma i figure

Does anyone have the samsung hd860 upconversion dvd player? i originally bought a sony upconversion dvd that used components and that looked good but i saw that sammy and it upconverted to almost hd 1080i so I switched for that one. However, the picture looks a little soft and some dvds the sound is weak going through hdmi. there is no difference when i switch from 480 to 720 and 1080 does anyone have this problem with hdmi and if not which dvd player would you recommend? i figure the tv is already doing the upconversion?

There won't be any noticeable difference when switching resolutions on an upconverting DVD player. Any picture improvement is across the board from the digital HDMI connection. The set is going to accept any resolution and convert it to it's native display resolution of 720P unless you feed it a 720P signal to start with. Having the player output 720P is what you should be doing for less processing.

I think HDMI audio is flaky at best. I like digital optical connections to my surround sound receiver.

Another new owner who jumped on the Amazon 6167w deal last week.
Two things...
1) TV question:
I searched, read, searched again, read some more, but didn't find any similar issues in posts.
This TV is replacing a 50" Syntax LCoS 720p unit that is going back to the manufacturer for a refund after blowing 4 bulbs in 9 months. The picture on the new 6167W is nowhere near as sharp as that of the Syntax unit. Sharp may not be the correct technical term, but the image on the Samsung looks pretty grainy to me. I notice the grainyness less on SD, and more on HD broadcasts, although it is present during either.
Just curious what others are seeing.
The only other 67w series TV that I've seen was a 5667w at the local Best Buy, and the image did not look grainy on that TV. I have read that the inside of the screen is textured in a way that some describe as grainy, and I should clarify that is not what I'm referring to. The grainyness that I am reporting is in the image itself, not the screen.

The image looks about the same to me whether being fed from the internal ATSC tuner or my PC's HDTV card via the VGA connector. In neither case is it anywhere as clear of an image as the Syntax provided from the VGA (Syntax didn't have ATSC tuner built in).
I have found very few adjustments available via the "Picture Control" section of the manual, and none of them helped.
I've actually been wondering if the 61" screen is just too large to display a 720p image with the clarity that I got used to on the 50" screen. The grainyness is less noticable at greater distances, but even at 15 feet it is noticable, and significant compared to the image that I am used to from the Syntax.

At this point I expect that I'll be calling Samsung to see what they say.
Thoughts anyone?

2) Amazon "delivery" experience:
I've seen others inquire about Amazon deliveries. Here is my experience. Ordered the morning of March 31, received immediate email stating would ship April 10, with delivery by April 18. Received "your order has shipped" email around dinner time the same day. Checked online tracking on April 1 (the next day after ordering) and saw that it was already at my local air freight terminal (Dang! that was fast)
Hunted down the shipping company's local contact info on Monday and called to make sure they had my phone number to arrange delivery, which they didn't. Was eventually told that it would be Friday before they would deliver, and only between 11a and 1p... while I'm at work. So I pulled the seats out of the minivan and picked it up myself Tuesday night.
Shipped from PA, i live in NC.

Well I just finished reading this entire thread. Wow, it was no small task. Wanted to read thru everything before asking my questions, to make sure there aren't already answers out there. Thanks to everyone for spending so much time in your postings here... It has definitely been a learning experience already for me. In reading all this, holding back until the end, I now have a whole lot to say.

In early March, I ordered a HLR5067W from Amazon. Boy, I wish I had done more research first (here, especially!), because if I had, I would not have bought the thing (especially from Amazon, since it can't be returned! I had no idea!). Same deal as so many other posters here... DVDs look crappy (darks are all blocky, especially), there is audio lag, and Xbox (original version) experiences lag from when I press a button until when it reacts on the screen (Halo2 is my best example... Press JUMP and it does not jump immediately). Movies I have watched with poor results are The Interpreter, March of the Penguins, and Finding Nemo. Checked Star Wars Ep3 (just the beginning) and it looked pretty good.

Xbox:
I set my COMPONENT1 (or 2) to GAME, with no noticeable improvement. Tried HD STB (per someone else's posting here, saying that advice came from Samsung support person), same deal. The performance is not terrible, but I expect it to perform at least as well as my 10-year-old GE 31" CRT that this set replaced. I tried an Xbox 360, played Project Gotham 3, and experienced no issues. That's just one game though, so who knows. The mass opinion here seems to be that everything is great when you're using a 360, so I'll believe it until I know otherwise. I don't plan to move to 360 for quite a long time though, as there are still a ton of standard Xbox games that I want to play.
DVDs:
Had a Toshiba player that I loved. When it came time to hook it up to this TV, I found that one of the component jacks (red) didn't work. It could have been like this since I bought the thing ~2 years ago, no way to know, as my old TV did not use component. So I ran over to Costco and picked up a Toshiba upconverting DVD player. Poor results, but probably in part because it's a junky player, at least compared to those mentioned in this thread. I attempted to calibrate the TV thru my "The Incredibles" DVD, but when it came to having special colored glasses I was out of luck. I rented AVIA from Blockbuster, but fear I will need special glasses for that to work fully also. We'll see. I have yet to adjust the gamma or index settings on the TV, that is next on my list. That, in combination with trying out the various picture settings that have been posted here by others. I may also pop for a Samsung HD950 player, since everyone seems to love that one.
TV Shows:
I picked up a TERK HDTVa OTA antenna, no luck there. It picked up some channels but they looked like garbage. I'm less than 10 miles from any of the stations that I want, with no tall buildings or tall trees in the immediate area. I will probably try one that mounts to the roof as my last resort, since I don't plan to pay $20 extra per month for a handful of HD stations from my cable provider. This, of course, is no fault of the TV.

I guess the main problem I have is that I don't expect it to be this much work, to make a $1600 TV perform properly. I don't feel that I should have to calibrate it, or especially pay some service to come to my house and calibrate the thing. It should come from the factory 100% calibrated. I also don't feel that I should have to have/buy some other device which will delay the audio in order to sync with the slow TV video processing. It seems to me that if the TV cannot process the video fast enough, then it wasn't really ready for release. From what I've seen in this thread though, people say that this is the case with all or most HDTVs (video lag). The funny thing to me is that it seems that some people have the problem and some don't. Is it that everyone really does, but not everyone notices? No idea, but it's very frustrating.

The other big thing that gets me is that some people have returned this TV in favor of a different brand/model (I forget who those people were), and had none of the problems on those new TVs. Like things were so much easier with those TVs. Why? And why, after reading thru this thread, would anyone intentionally buy this set? I am totally new to all this, but these problems are unacceptable to me -- I expect to buy something and have it work properly, without having to pay for all kinds of other Band-Aids to cover up its problems.

I really need to try the few things that have been mentioned here, and see what my results are. I will be messing with my index and gamma settings first... Then I will try to make some progress w/ Avia. I have to say that my expectations for those things are not the highest... But anything is possible. I would love to be surprised. I want to love this TV, but so far I pretty much hate it, and wish I could go back in time and stop myself from buying it. It was the price that got me, as the smart choice would have been to buy from Costco (easy returns).

Thanks again to everyone who has posted here. I know a lot of you love your TVs... Maybe it's just because you went into your purchase much more educated than I did, knowing that it would not be (close to) perfect without extra work intervention on your part. It also seems that many who know what they're talking about here feel that, for the price we paid, issues like this are acceptable and/or expected. Me, this is the most I have ever spent on something like this (even more than my current PC), so I (foolishly) expected to be dazzled... Not feeling like I just bought an expensive pair of shoes, only to immediately step in a huge pile of dog poop outside the store. :(

EDIT: Watched "Saw" tonight, after setting index from the default 45 to 42 and gamma from the default 4 to 0... Horrible. Will try Avia next, and see if I get any improvement. Will attach pictures if the site will let me.

I think HDMI audio is flaky at best. I like digital optical connections to my surround sound receiver.Agreed -- if the toslink is glass. Otherwise there's smearing (jitter), and even if they go so far as to polish the plastic ends and put it in a nice jacket. Coaxial (Monster's M1000, Sound & Vision/Canare Digiflex Gold or better) cable is then much higher quality (translates to more dialog clarity out of your center speaker for example) soundwise.

Another new owner who jumped on the Amazon 6167w deal last week.
Two things...
1) TV question:
I searched, read, searched again, read some more, but didn't find any similar issues in posts.
This TV is replacing a 50" Syntax LCoS 720p unit that is going back to the manufacturer for a refund after blowing 4 bulbs in 9 months. The picture on the new 6167W is nowhere near as sharp as that of the Syntax unit. Sharp may not be the correct technical term, but the image on the Samsung looks pretty grainy to me. I notice the grainyness less on SD, and more on HD broadcasts, although it is present during either.
Just curious what others are seeing.
The only other 67w series TV that I've seen was a 5667w at the local Best Buy, and the image did not look grainy on that TV. I have read that the inside of the screen is textured in a way that some describe as grainy, and I should clarify that is not what I'm referring to. The grainyness that I am reporting is in the image itself, not the screen.

The image looks about the same to me whether being fed from the internal ATSC tuner or my PC's HDTV card via the VGA connector. In neither case is it anywhere as clear of an image as the Syntax provided from the VGA (Syntax didn't have ATSC tuner built in).
I have found very few adjustments available via the "Picture Control" section of the manual, and none of them helped.
I've actually been wondering if the 61" screen is just too large to display a 720p image with the clarity that I got used to on the 50" screen. The grainyness is less noticable at greater distances, but even at 15 feet it is noticable, and significant compared to the image that I am used to from the Syntax.

At this point I expect that I'll be calling Samsung to see what they say.
Thoughts anyone?

2) Amazon "delivery" experience:
I've seen others inquire about Amazon deliveries. Here is my experience. Ordered the morning of March 31, received immediate email stating would ship April 10, with delivery by April 18. Received "your order has shipped" email around dinner time the same day. Checked online tracking on April 1 (the next day after ordering) and saw that it was already at my local air freight terminal (Dang! that was fast)
Hunted down the shipping company's local contact info on Monday and called to make sure they had my phone number to arrange delivery, which they didn't. Was eventually told that it would be Friday before they would deliver, and only between 11a and 1p... while I'm at work. So I pulled the seats out of the minivan and picked it up myself Tuesday night.
Shipped from PA, i live in NC.

Yea...61 is pretty big for a 720P even if you can get back 12 feet or more. You got used to a 50" screen and now the 61 seems inferior. HD should look excellent, but SD is going to be crap. If you can't get back away from it you will benefit greatly from a premium video scaler like the DVDO iScan HD+ or VP30.

There are no known "grainy" screen issues. That's not the problem. The set will require the best possible signal, period.

Well I just finished reading this entire thread. Wow, it was no small task. Wanted to read thru everything before asking my questions, to make sure there aren't already answers out there. Thanks to everyone for spending so much time in your postings here... It has definitely been a learning experience already for me. In reading all this, holding back until the end, I now have a whole lot to say.

In early March, I ordered a HLR5067W from Amazon. Boy, I wish I had done more research first (here, especially!), because if I had, I would not have bought the thing (especially from Amazon, since it can't be returned! I had no idea!). Same deal as so many other posters here... DVDs look crappy (darks are all blocky, especially), there is audio lag, and Xbox (original version) experiences lag from when I press a button until when it reacts on the screen (Halo2 is my best example... Press JUMP and it does not jump immediately). Movies I have watched with poor results are The Interpreter, March of the Penguins, and Finding Nemo. Checked Star Wars Ep3 (just the beginning) and it looked pretty good.

Xbox:
I set my COMPONENT1 (or 2) to GAME, with no noticeable improvement. Tried HD STB (per someone else's posting here, saying that advice came from Samsung support person), same deal. The performance is not terrible, but I expect it to perform at least as well as my 10-year-old GE 31" CRT that this set replaced. I tried an Xbox 360, played Project Gotham 3, and experienced no issues. That's just one game though, so who knows. The mass opinion here seems to be that everything is great when you're using a 360, so I'll believe it until I know otherwise. I don't plan to move to 360 for quite a long time though, as there are still a ton of standard Xbox games that I want to play.
DVDs:
Had a Toshiba player that I loved. When it came time to hook it up to this TV, I found that one of the component jacks (red) didn't work. It could have been like this since I bought the thing ~2 years ago, no way to know, as my old TV did not use component. So I ran over to Costco and picked up a Toshiba upconverting DVD player. Poor results, but probably in part because it's a junky player, at least compared to those mentioned in this thread. I attempted to calibrate the TV thru my "The Incredibles" DVD, but when it came to having special colored glasses I was out of luck. I rented AVIA from Blockbuster, but fear I will need special glasses for that to work fully also. We'll see. I have yet to adjust the gamma or index settings on the TV, that is next on my list. That, in combination with trying out the various picture settings that have been posted here by others. I may also pop for a Samsung HD950 player, since everyone seems to love that one.
TV Shows:
I picked up a TERK HDTVa OTA antenna, no luck there. It picked up some channels but they looked like garbage. I'm less than 10 miles from any of the stations that I want, with no tall buildings or tall trees in the immediate area. I will probably try one that mounts to the roof as my last resort, since I don't plan to pay $20 extra per month for a handful of HD stations from my cable provider. This, of course, is no fault of the TV.

I guess the main problem I have is that I don't expect it to be this much work, to make a $1600 TV perform properly. I don't feel that I should have to calibrate it, or especially pay some service to come to my house and calibrate the thing. It should come from the factory 100% calibrated. I also don't feel that I should have to have/buy some other device which will delay the audio in order to sync with the slow TV video processing. It seems to me that if the TV cannot process the video fast enough, then it wasn't really ready for release. From what I've seen in this thread though, people say that this is the case with all or most HDTVs (video lag). The funny thing to me is that it seems that some people have the problem and some don't. Is it that everyone really does, but not everyone notices? No idea, but it's very frustrating.

The other big thing that gets me is that some people have returned this TV in favor of a different brand/model (I forget who those people were), and had none of the problems on those new TVs. Like things were so much easier with those TVs. Why? And why, after reading thru this thread, would anyone intentionally buy this set? I am totally new to all this, but these problems are unacceptable to me -- I expect to buy something and have it work properly, without having to pay for all kinds of other Band-Aids to cover up its problems.

I really need to try the few things that have been mentioned here, and see what my results are. I will be messing with my index and gamma settings first... Then I will try to make some progress w/ Avia. I have to say that my expectations for those things are not the highest... But anything is possible. I would love to be surprised. I want to love this TV, but so far I pretty much hate it, and wish I could go back in time and stop myself from buying it. It was the price that got me, as the smart choice would have been to buy from Costco (easy returns).

Thanks again to everyone who has posted here. I know a lot of you love your TVs... Maybe it's just because you went into your purchase much more educated than I did, knowing that it would not be (close to) perfect without extra work intervention on your part. It also seems that many who know what they're talking about here feel that, for the price we paid, issues like this are acceptable and/or expected. Me, this is the most I have ever spent on something like this (even more than my current PC), so I (foolishly) expected to be dazzled... Not feeling like I just bought an expensive pair of shoes, only to immediately step in a huge pile of dog poop outside the store. :(

EDIT: Watched "Saw" tonight, after setting index from the default 45 to 42 and gamma from the default 4 to 2 (zero was too dark, and no improvement). Horrible. Will try Avia next, and see if I get any improvement. Will attach pictures if the site will let me.

Welcome to the forum! Congrats on your purchase! Let's see if we can turn around some of your negative thinking. First, hats off to you for reading this entire thread. Wish everyone did.

xbox...you will have excellent results with a component to VGA adapter and going in on the vga computer input. Google it!

DVDs...you don't need an upconverting player unless you want the digital HDMI connection. The set is very capable of converting the 480i to 720P. Component cables will work fine. Settings are important. Before launching into the service mode you should always exhaust your possibilities with the basic user settings. These sets like very high contrast of 90 or more, sharpness of 20 or less, mid-level brightness according to room light, good color, but not over saturated, more bright=more color and less bright=less color. Some people like warm 1, but I like normal for whiter whites. I stay in Standard mode. Tint is usually disabled when using component cables. Some tint control is available in Setup and Color Weakness where I have my Green on 2 for a yellow push condition.

Macro-blocking is usually content related from video compression and is never a constant thing. Some have improved definition in blacks and reduced macro-blocking occurrences by reducing the index delay. Gamma is an overall brightness driver set at the factory for each light engine's characteristics, which vary according to engine type and lumin level. What someone else has changed may not work for you and can actually make things worse.

Off-Air HD Antenna
You said, "It picked up some channels but they looked like garbage." HD digital network channels never look like garbage. They are either perfect or not there at all. My guess is that you tuned VHF analog signals and not digital HD stations with the .1 or -1 designation. An indoor Terk HD antenna may or may not work for your situation. Sounds like it doesn't. I use an old Radio Shack UHF roof antenna. (the smallest one) If your antenna is pointed correctly your Auto tune will pull in two abc networks, a crappy analog and a perfect digital with a -1 designation. Same for nbc, cbs, fox, and others. Check this site and put in just your zip for distance and direction to the towers. www.antennaweb.org
When you tune in a real HD channel you're gonna freak!!! It's awesome, even with out of the box settings. Signal is everything! Proper distance (8-10 ft) from the set is a must. Proper vertical plane alignment with your eyes is a must. The picture will pop and I mean blow you away!!!

POTENTIAL PROBLEM?

HLR4667

I notice a brightness/contrast flicker, every so often. Kind of hard to explain, the screen will dim for a second and then return to it's normal brightness. I mostly notice this in PC mode, I am wondering if this is a sign of a problem to come. The tv is only a few months old.

On a side note, these tvs are only 720p, why does it show a resolution of 1920x1080i when you press display?

That flicker sounds power supply related (set) or the house power is fluctuating from some compressor or pump with a heavy momentary amp draw. You might want to try a line conditioner or UPS.

The display will show you the input signal resolution only. They assume you already know you're watching a 720P display.

That flicker sounds power supply related (set) or the house power is fluctuating from some compressor or pump with a heavy momentary amp draw. You might want to try a line conditioner or UPS.

The display will show you the input signal resolution only. They assume you already know you're watching a 720P display.

Display, did you mean the 'info' button on the remote? I couldn't see the resolution infomation on my HLR5067W when I press this button. :confused:

Macro-blocking is usually content related from video compression and is never a constant thing. Some have improved definition in blacks and reduced macro-blocking occurrences by reducing the index delay. Gamma is an overall brightness driver set at the factory for each light engine's characteristics, which vary according to engine type and lumin level. What someone else has changed may not work for you and can actually make things worse.


This is my first post here as I am a new Samsung HL-R4667W owner, and I was happy to see this particular topic. I too was very disappointed with the picture quality from my Samsung out-of-the-box. The factory picture settings are just awful !!! And having come from a 34" XBR Sony CRT, I now know why many argue that the old technology still provides the best picture quality. That said, I have managed to make some nice improvements using Avia and DVE to calibrate the set. My settings using the "Custom" picture mode are:
Contrast = 50 to 55
Brightness = 50
Sharpness = 0
Color = 48 to 52
Color Mode = Normal.
These settings have cleaned up and smoothed out the picture, but I am still having an awful problem with "blockiness" in background images and dark scenes when viewing DVDs. Not really a problem with my OTA HD feed.

Is the "blockiness" I describe the same thing as "macro-blocking" ??? The blockiness seems to occur most often when there are large patches of the video that are uniform in shade, but instead of a nice uniform and smooth color, I see one or more jagged transitions and a pixelated image in these areas. It is most prevalent with background images, grayish shades, and when the overall picture is on the dark side.

Other than reducing the Index Delay, what else can be done to minimize or eliminate this problem ??? I don't like the idea of setting a high contrast, but I will give it a try if it helps. I expect I will need to knock brightness down if I raise the contrast. And what do you recommend for an Index Delay if macro-blocking is a big problem ? Would it also help if DNIE could be turned off in the service menu ?

I actually just purchased and set up an Oppo DVD player in hopes it would solve the "blockiness" issue, but instead, it seems to have made things worst. I am running the Oppo through DVI/HDMI inputs, but my Denon DVD-1600 via component video inputs seemed to have less of a problem with blockiness, though still untolerable. I am not enjoying my DVDs anymore. :(

xbox...you will have excellent results with a component to VGA adapter and going in on the vga computer input. Google it!
It seems that a lot of people on here have complained about the image not filling the entire screen when they use VGA though? Or was that only when they use DVI? So using VGA has no issues of any kind then? Wow, that would be great!

DVDs...you don't need an upconverting player unless you want the digital HDMI connection. The set is very capable of converting the 480i to 720P. Component cables will work fine.
So, by my player not doing the conversion/scaling, am I not introducing a further source of audio lag?

Settings are important. Before launching into the service mode you should always exhaust your possibilities with the basic user settings. These sets like very high contrast of 90 or more, sharpness of 20 or less, mid-level brightness according to room light, good color, but not over saturated, more bright=more color and less bright=less color. Some people like warm 1, but I like normal for whiter whites. I stay in Standard mode. Tint is usually disabled when using component cables. Some tint control is available in Setup and Color Weakness where I have my Green on 2 for a yellow push condition.
Yes, this is one thing I have not touched yet. I have recorded everyone's settings that they posted here, and plan to try them all. Thank you for your additional explanation on this topic.

Macro-blocking is usually content related from video compression and is never a constant thing. Some have improved definition in blacks and reduced macro-blocking occurrences by reducing the index delay. Gamma is an overall brightness driver set at the factory for each light engine's characteristics, which vary according to engine type and lumin level. What someone else has changed may not work for you and can actually make things worse.
Yeah, I really noticed no improvement at all from adjusting either the gamma or index values. I probably should have adjusted the picture settings first, and then moved to this step? I only adjusted these because they have always been given as the primary solution for the blockiness (in this thread). Maybe what I will do then, is set these back to the initial values, and start by adjusting the picture settings. If I have the Avia disc, will I be able to do anything significant without the colored strips that I am supposed to use? All I have is the disc itself.

Off-Air HD Antenna
You said, "It picked up some channels but they looked like garbage." HD digital network channels never look like garbage. They are either perfect or not there at all. My guess is that you tuned VHF analog signals and not digital HD stations with the .1 or -1 designation. An indoor Terk HD antenna may or may not work for your situation. Sounds like it doesn't. I use an old Radio Shack UHF roof antenna. (the smallest one) If your antenna is pointed correctly your Auto tune will pull in two abc networks, a crappy analog and a perfect digital with a -1 designation. Same for nbc, cbs, fox, and others. Check this site and put in just your zip for distance and direction to the towers. <antennaweb link>
When you tune in a real HD channel you're gonna freak!!! It's awesome, even with out of the box settings. Signal is everything! Proper distance (8-10 ft) from the set is a must. Proper vertical plane alignment with your eyes is a must. The picture will pop and I mean blow you away!!!
I did the auto-tune and did see the different versions of the channels, with the -1 designation and such (the TV even knew that one was SD, another HD, for example). If I moved the antenna too much in the wrong direction, they would disappear, but when they were coming in they were not pristine, but instead worse than how my standard cable looks. I know what you're saying though... That it should be all or nothing... So I was shocked by the results that I got. Antennaweb told me that everything was less than 10 miles from my house, and that all I would need was a small multidirectional antenna. I picked up an amplified one, which I felt I should not need, yet still my results were poor. My next step here, like you, is to try a step up. Do you think it's a waste of time to put anything in my attic, and just go for the gusto in mounting one on my roof? Do you think the ones made for HD, like the TERK HD-TVS (I can't put in a link yet -- it's the gray, square-shaped one, Amazon has them for $88) are worth getting? Or just go with the basic, old-fashioned type to get results that are just as great?

Thanks so much for your great reply! You and a few others have really provided a wealth of information, as well as much assistance to others. It's so great to feel that when you ask a question out here, there is someone that can, or will certainly try to help.

It seems that a lot of people on here have complained about the image not filling the entire screen when they use VGA though? Or was that only when they use DVI? So using VGA has no issues of any kind then? Wow, that would be great!



The VGA input has 2 settings which you can switch to either std pc or widescreen pc. If you are connecting an original xbox, I am not sure which to use, but the new 360 will use the widescreen (and remember to set your xbox settings to output the widescreen resolution at 720 so there is no scaling issues). My xbox360 looks awesome using the vga input - very crisp and great contrast.

Also - I wanted to echo HiRez's comments about contrast. I 100% agree these sets need a high contrast setting on most programming (there's always exceptions), but I am always floating at 90-98 on contrast, 52-56 on brightness, and 52-55 on color, with either the normal or warm 1 setting (warm does make the whites a little yellowish for us purists).

I too experience the blocky gradiations in dark backgrounds (Watch Rome on HBO HD for the ultimate test of this issue).

The VGA input has 2 settings which you can switch to either std pc or widescreen pc. If you are connecting an original xbox, I am not sure which to use, but the new 360 will use the widescreen (and remember to set your xbox settings to output the widescreen resolution at 720 so there is no scaling issues). My xbox360 looks awesome using the vga input - very crisp and great contrast.
Ok, sounds good! Anyone have a good source for a quality and reasonably priced component to VGA adapter? When I tested the 360 on mine, it looked great over component, but if using the VGA will eliminate the lag on original Xbox, I'm all for it!

Also - I wanted to echo HiRez's comments about contrast. I 100% agree these sets need a high contrast setting on most programming (there's always exceptions), but I am always floating at 90-98 on contrast, 52-56 on brightness, and 52-55 on color, with either the normal or warm 1 setting (warm does make the whites a little yellowish for us purists).
Thanks for the info -- which picture mode are you using -- standard? Where do you tend to keep your sharpness? What are your gamma and index settings? Using some of the numbers that others have posted over time, this morning I set my picture to standard/contrast=90/brightness=50/sharpness=50/color=45/warm1 and did see some improvement. After that, I set the gamma back from 4 to 2. It's all right, but still pretty grainy and not up to my expectations. We sit about 8.5' from the screen, and that's really as far as we can go. I will tweak it some more, to be more in line with your settings, and see how it goes.

I too experience the blocky gradiations in dark backgrounds (Watch Rome on HBO HD for the ultimate test of this issue).
Did you go into this purchase expecting this blockiness? Do you think it is specific to this TV? Specific to DLP? Specific to HD TVs in general? Also, have you ever watched the movie SAW on this set? There is a scene, at about 18:55, set in a darkened room, with a close-up on a candle. The "color/light aura" around this candle, even after my adjustments so far, is not smooth at all. This perfectly demonstrates the problem I have with light sources in darkened scenes.

Agreed -- if the toslink is glass. Otherwise there's smearing (jitter), and even if they go so far as to polish the plastic ends and put it in a nice jacket. Coaxial (Monster's M1000, Sound & Vision/Canare Digiflex Gold or better) cable is then much higher quality (translates to more dialog clarity out of your center speaker for example) soundwise.

What you said about toslink cables is intriguing. It makes sense and when I moved I wrapped the ends to protect them. I've had them for quite some time and wouldn't hurt to clean/polish them. What would be good to use?

Thanks.

Dont bother polishing, the glass is smartly priced and beats expensive coax in several reviews and square offs that have been done ratings wise against high end coax and XLR interface$. Do a simple search on 'glass toslink' for some more discussion. Check it out:

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/general/messages/233584.html

Well worth it especially if your system is in family room and doubles as real hifi (say analog vinyl front end), or say you like DTS over DD, and/or if you like subtley in your movie selections,and not just the big bam boom blockbusters that all of us guys have in good supply. LOL

Thanks for the info -- which picture mode are you using -- standard? Where do you tend to keep your sharpness? What are your gamma and index settings? Using some of the numbers that others have posted over time, this morning I set my picture to standard/contrast=90/brightness=50/sharpness=50/color=45/warm1 and did see some improvement. After that, I set the gamma back from 4 to 2. It's all right, but still pretty grainy and not up to my expectations. We sit about 8.5' from the screen, and that's really as far as we can go. I will tweak it some more, to be more in line with your settings, and see how it goes.


Did you go into this purchase expecting this blockiness? Do you think it is specific to this TV? Specific to DLP? Specific to HD TVs in general? Also, have you ever watched the movie SAW on this set? There is a scene, at about 18:55, set in a darkened room, with a close-up on a candle. The "color/light aura" around this candle, even after my adjustments so far, is not smooth at all. This perfectly demonstrates the problem I have with light sources in darkened scenes.

I have not messed with the service menu. I am not bothered by anything thus far enough to tinker in there. Sharpness I usually have at 20 for HD via cable or at 1 for DVD's. Standard and Custom are my 2 settings for inputs listed above respectively.

I didn't expect anything except amazing pictures - but I knew the SD content would be subpar - even worse than standard television - but I have seen a marked improvement switching from component to HDMI on my cablebox (upgraded to a SA8300 from SA800). Artifacts went away for the most part and are replaced by this 'graininess' some people are describing. I'd rather have that than blocky artifacts that look like a poor mpeg2 video.

Ironically, I just DVR'd SAW the other night in HD. I'll check it out and see.

I have not messed with the service menu. I am not bothered by anything thus far enough to tinker in there. Sharpness I usually have at 20 for HD via cable or at 1 for DVD's. Standard and Custom are my 2 settings for inputs listed above respectively.

I didn't expect anything except amazing pictures - but I knew the SD content would be subpar - even worse than standard television - but I have seen a marked improvement switching from component to HDMI on my cablebox (upgraded to a SA8300 from SA800). Artifacts went away for the most part and are replaced by this 'graininess' some people are describing. I'd rather have that than blocky artifacts that look like a poor mpeg2 video.

Ironically, I just DVR'd SAW the other night in HD. I'll check it out and see.
Ok, so there is no eliminating the graininess with this TV. That's kind of where I'm at now. In The Interpreter, about 10 minutes in, Nicole Kidman is walking thru some dark hallways and into her unlit office. The wall texture seems to be constantly moving, as an example of this graininess. With Saw, the best illustration is that part with the candle, but the whole movie looked pretty bad for me last night. BTW, I have HDMI connection from DVD player to TV, if that's important at all.

Thanks again for your insights!

Hey guys, I just got my 5667 set up and have noticed 2 disconcerting problems. The first one being after the unit was turned off overnight, the next morning on 2nd power-on the fan started buzzing like a really loud electric shaver. After powering down it hasn't done it again and I am hoping it was a one time thing, but not counting on it.

The 2nd thing (outside of the pincushining and overscan being way off, and the other adjustments I'll have to make from service mode) is two fairly large, opaque circles towards the bottom of the screen that I notice when the screen goes to black. Is this normal? It seems my picture is really bright. Will adjusting brightness and contrast from service mode eliminate or lessen that effect?

If I have to call in Samsung Customer Service for the fan (and maybe the circles) issue, will they notice I've been messing around in service mode?

Ok, so there is no eliminating the graininess with this TV. That's kind of where I'm at now. In The Interpreter, about 10 minutes in, Nicole Kidman is walking thru some dark hallways and into her unlit office. The wall texture seems to be constantly moving, as an example of this graininess. With Saw, the best illustration is that part with the candle, but the whole movie looked pretty bad for me last night. BTW, I have HDMI connection from DVD player to TV, if that's important at all.

Thanks again for your insights!

I just watched the SAW scene you're talking about - it's not that bad to me - I do see graininess, but that is more the movie itself than the tv IMO. I have noticed some DVD's and broadcasts are just plain poor production or compressed too much that it looks poor on the TV which shows inferiority of this type. The candle didn't look that bad - try watching ocean or sky scenes where the color gradients from dark blue to light blue are very noticeable. Those are the things that drive me nuts. This is where plasma seems to far outperform DLP, but for the maintenance free aspect of DLP and lower power consumption - I'll take it. No burn in and no degradation of picture quality over time is more important to me than absolute color recreation.

I think you're just noticing things alot more than most, and maybe this will gradually fade like me noticing the rainbow effect compared to when I first purchased the tv. ???

Good luck with more adjustments....

I just watched the SAW scene you're talking about - it's not that bad to me - I do see graininess, but that is more the movie itself than the tv IMO. I have noticed some DVD's and broadcasts are just plain poor production or compressed too much that it looks poor on the TV which shows inferiority of this type. The candle didn't look that bad - try watching ocean or sky scenes where the color gradients from dark blue to light blue are very noticeable. Those are the things that drive me nuts. This is where plasma seems to far outperform DLP, but for the maintenance free aspect of DLP and lower power consumption - I'll take it. No burn in and no degradation of picture quality over time is more important to me than absolute color recreation.

I think you're just noticing things alot more than most, and maybe this will gradually fade like me noticing the rainbow effect compared to when I first purchased the tv. ???

Good luck with more adjustments....
Oh yes! I noticed this BIG TIME in March of the Penguins! However, this was before any of my adjustments. I no longer have the disc to watch again, but I expect it will have improved some from my adjustments... But I do not expect the problem to have been fixed.

So you notice this issue still on dark scenes, but are OK with it. You attribute the problem(s) to DLP technology in general, and not to this particular TV (right?). If that's what you're saying, then I understand -- DLP is cheaper than plasma and its picture quality is consistent instead of degrading over time. I hope you're right that I notice less over time, you probably are, though I am extremely picky with everything... It's just that it bothers me to have to see this at all on a TV this expensive... But I guess it's because DVDs are not "good" enough for this TV yet? I guess I wouldn't be so concerned, if it weren't fot the fact that other folks have HDTVs that don't have this problem... So it can't be that no HDTV can play DVDs beautifully. It just baffles me. What's the difference with this TV? Just that it's DLP vs. something else?



Hey guys, I just got my 5667 set up and have noticed 2 disconcerting problems. The first one being after the unit was turned off overnight, the next morning on 2nd power-on the fan started buzzing like a really loud electric shaver. After powering down it hasn't done it again and I am hoping it was a one time thing, but not counting on it.

The 2nd thing (outside of the pincushining and overscan being way off, and the other adjustments I'll have to make from service mode) is two fairly large, opaque circles towards the bottom of the screen that I notice when the screen goes to black. Is this normal? It seems my picture is really bright. Will adjusting brightness and contrast from service mode eliminate or lessen that effect?

If I have to call in Samsung Customer Service for the fan (and maybe the circles) issue, will they notice I've been messing around in service mode?
Dave, from what I've seen in this thread, the buzzing could be something to be concerned about, maybe your bulb will fail soon. As far as the opaque circles that you see when the set is off (never when it's on, right?), that, I believe, according to this thread, is normal. I see some shapes on my screen when it's turned off too... Never when it's on though. Anyone else?

Dave, from what I've seen in this thread, the buzzing could be something to be concerned about, maybe your bulb will fail soon. As far as the opaque circles that you see when the set is off (never when it's on, right?), that, I believe, according to this thread, is normal. I see some shapes on my screen when it's turned off too... Never when it's on though. Anyone else?My bulb will fail? I just turned it on for the first time!

I only see the circles when the unit is on and there is a black screen. Off there are no circles.:(

Looks like I'll be calling Samsung. Bad omen to have problems straight off the bat like this...

My bulb will fail? I just turned it on for the first time!

I only see the circles when the unit is on and there is a black screen. Off there are no circles.:(

Looks like I'll be calling Samsung. Bad omen to have problems straight off the bat like this...
Yes, for sure call Samsung. If you see circles when the screen is on (they have been referred to here as smudges), it seems that the screen will need to be replaced. The bulb is not necessarily going to fail, but from what I've read here, that sound is often an indication that it is going to very soon. Does it always make that sound when you turn it on, or just that first time? When the tech comes out for the screen, if this is a persistent issue, he will most likely be able to take care of that without a problem. People here have said that techs have replaced their bulbs even before they have failed. Then the customer hangs onto the original one as a spare.

Did you buy this TV from a B&M store or online? If B&M. would it just be easier to exchange it for a different one, instead of wasting time on the phone and waiting for techs?

Yes, for sure call Samsung. If you see circles when the screen is on (they have been referred to here as smudges), it seems that the screen will need to be replaced. The bulb is not necessarily going to fail, but from what I've read here, that sound is often an indication that it is going to very soon. Does it always make that sound when you turn it on, or just that first time? When the tech comes out for the screen, if this is a persistent issue, he will most likely be able to take care of that without a problem. People here have said that techs have replaced their bulbs even before they have failed. Then the customer hangs onto the original one as a spare.

Did you buy this TV from a B&M store or online? If B&M. would it just be easier to exchange it for a different one, instead of wasting time on the phone and waiting for techs?I bought it from Amazon, so I'll have to deal with Samsung directly.

The sound only happened the second time I turned on the unit, (this morning). It sounded like a fan/electric shaver type of buzzing, very very loud. After turning off the unit it took a few seconds to stop. Since turning it back on I haven't heard it again.

Thanks. I will call Samsung and have them address this immediately.

I bought it from Amazon, so I'll have to deal with Samsung directly.

The sound only happened the second time I turned on the unit, (this morning). It sounded like a fan/electric shaver type of buzzing, very very loud. After turning off the unit it took a few seconds to stop. Since turning it back on I haven't heard it again.

Thanks. I will call Samsung and have them address this immediately.
I made the mistake of buying mine from Amazon also. I went for a hot deal of a price and acted on impulse. If I had been thinking, I would have bought from somewhere that would allow me to return the thing. I had just always had great experiences w/ Amazon and returning things as needed -- would have never guessed that they would only allow the return of TVs 27" and under.

I wish I had not bought this TV, because it does not suit my needs. Most DVDs it does not seem to play very well, and DVDs are the bulk of what we use our TV for. All I can do now is try to move forward and make the best of it, but I am not happy with my $1600 investment.

The issue of DLPs and grainy/blocky images during dark scenes seems to generate a lot of discussion here, and frankly it is making me regret my purchase. I am still hoping there are things that can be done to fix or improve this problem, but I would like to better understand the problem first. I am not seeing a real consensus as to the cause or source of this problem, or even a consensus as to a means to fix the problem.

So with that in mind, I am hoping I can generate some discussion with the following questions and comments:


Is this a DLP only problem or do other technologies have a similar weakness with dark scenes ??? (I know my 34" Sony CRT did not have this issue. I recall noticing a similar problem only one time with my Sony CRT, when watching a dark scene in LOTRs.)
If it is primarily a DLP problem, is one manufacturer better or worse than another ???
Is this problem primarily or only associated with DVD playback ??? (I have not noticed the problem when watching either HD or SD digital OTA broadcasts).
What is the "technical" shortcoming that makes it difficult for DLP to resolve dark scenes properly ??? (Seems to me that DLPs need a minimum amount of overall light output to perform properly when receiving a signal that requires up-conversion or is up-converted. They can produce nice dark blacks, but only against a bright background.)
Will HD DVD (or Blu Ray) solve the problem ???
Are there any adjustments I can make to the DLP set that will minimize the problem, including entering the service menu ???
Will a professional calibration eliminate or minimize the problem ??? (So far, my own calibrations with Avia and DVE have produced a smoother and cleaner picture, but I don't think it has had any effect on the blocky/grainy images in dark scenes.)
Are there any DVD player adjustments or settings that will minimize the problem ??? (I played around with my Denon 1600 and my new Oppo, and dark scene performance is about equal. In other words, not good !!! I had hoped the Oppo would help, but it has not. The image from the Oppo with DVI output is a bit more detailed, but otherwise not too different from the Denon with component output.)
Why does the up-converted (to 720P) Oppo playback via DVI/HDMI not improve dark scene performance ???


I do like the DLP technology for a number of reasons (all digital, compact package size and weight, no screen burn-in, relative value, bright images), but the main reason for my purchase was movie watching. The poor performance in dark scenes (DVD playback only) is almost enough to make wish I had opted for something other than DLP... but than I am not sure there is a technology that has all the positives of DLP and yet no problems with dark scenes ?!?!

The issue of DLPs and grainy/blocky images during dark scenes seems to generate a lot of discussion here, and frankly it is making me regret my purchase. I am still hoping there are things that can be done to fix or improve this problem, but I would like to better understand the problem first. I am not seeing a real consensus as to the cause or source of this problem, or even a consensus as to a means to fix the problem.

So with that in mind, I am hoping I can generate some discussion with the following questions and comments:


Is this a DLP only problem or do other technologies have a similar weakness with dark scenes ??? (I know my 34" Sony CRT did not have this issue. I recall noticing a similar problem only one time with my Sony CRT, when watching a dark scene in LOTRs.)
If it is primarily a DLP problem, is one manufacturer better or worse than another ???
Is this problem primarily or only associated with DVD playback ??? (I have not noticed the problem when watching either HD or SD digital OTA broadcasts).
What is the "technical" shortcoming that makes it difficult for DLP to resolve dark scenes properly ??? (Seems to me that DLPs need a minimum amount of overall light output to perform properly when receiving a signal that requires up-conversion or is up-converted. They can produce nice dark blacks, but only against a bright background.)
Will HD DVD (or Blu Ray) solve the problem ???
Are there any adjustments I can make to the DLP set that will minimize the problem, including entering the service menu ???
Will a professional calibration eliminate or minimize the problem ??? (So far, my own calibrations with Avia and DVE have produced a smoother and cleaner picture, but I don't think it has had any effect on the blocky/grainy images in dark scenes.)
Are there any DVD player adjustments or settings that will minimize the problem ??? (I played around with my Denon 1600 and my new Oppo, and dark scene performance is about equal. In other words, not good !!! I had hoped the Oppo would help, but it has not. The image from the Oppo with DVI output is a bit more detailed, but otherwise not too different from the Denon with component output.)
Why does the up-converted (to 720P) Oppo playback via DVI/HDMI not improve dark scene performance ???


I do like the DLP technology for a number of reasons (all digital, compact package size and weight, no screen burn-in, relative value, bright images), but the main reason for my purchase was movie watching. The poor performance in dark scenes (DVD playback only) is almost enough to make wish I had opted for something other than DLP... but than I am not sure there is a technology that has all the positives of DLP and yet no problems with dark scenes ?!?!
You took the words right out of my mouth -- these are the same questions that I have. I fear that the problem is the DLP technology itself, more than it is this specific TV, but either way, it does not help me, because I am stuck with this TV as punishment for making a hasty decision.

Each technology has its own pros and cons, and it seems that this issue is the main con of DLP, or at least of this particular line. Others have mentioned moving to other TVs (LCD, LCD projection, etc.) and not having this picture issue or the audio or video game lag issues. I can only go by their statements, as I have not compared myself. Again... My own fault.

I made the mistake of buying mine from Amazon also. I went for a hot deal of a price and acted on impulse. If I had been thinking, I would have bought from somewhere that would allow me to return the thing. I had just always had great experiences w/ Amazon and returning things as needed -- would have never guessed that they would only allow the return of TVs 27" and under.

I wish I had not bought this TV, because it does not suit my needs. Most DVDs it does not seem to play very well, and DVDs are the bulk of what we use our TV for. All I can do now is try to move forward and make the best of it, but I am not happy with my $1600 investment.Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater as of yet. If Samsung hasn't fixed the TV to your liking keep on them. They are responsible for it. Regular DVDs won't look as good as HD, but Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are coming soon and those should look stellar.

Even with my malfunctioning set I can see the potential. Firewire input from my Motorola cable STB looks much better than even the internal tuner, and HD looks pretty good.

I'm hoping they'll repair the TV right the first time around. If not, I'll make sure they get it right. I don't care if it goes past the 1yr mark either. I've had problems since Day 1, and Samsung needs to make it right. Don't be afraid to use the info here to help make suggestions to the repair people when they arrive. I won't.

BTW: I really don't think my bulb is dying. It sounds more like the fan is failing. The screen needing to be replaced is probably correct though...

The issue of DLPs and grainy/blocky images during dark scenes seems to generate a lot of discussion here, and frankly it is making me regret my purchase. I am still hoping there are things that can be done to fix or improve this problem, but I would like to better understand the problem first. I am not seeing a real consensus as to the cause or source of this problem, or even a consensus as to a means to fix the problem.

So with that in mind, I am hoping I can generate some discussion with the following questions and comments:


Is this a DLP only problem or do other technologies have a similar weakness with dark scenes ??? (I know my 34" Sony CRT did not have this issue. I recall noticing a similar problem only one time with my Sony CRT, when watching a dark scene in LOTRs.)

I do like the DLP technology for a number of reasons (all digital, compact package size and weight, no screen burn-in, relative value, bright images), but the main reason for my purchase was movie watching. The poor performance in dark scenes (DVD playback only) is almost enough to make wish I had opted for something other than DLP... but than I am not sure there is a technology that has all the positives of DLP and yet no problems with dark scenes ?!?!

I am not an 'expert' in the technology, although I did alot of research initially when I bought the set. However, from what I learned - this is a DLP specific issue due to the color wheel. You are getting the image through the circuitry (chip with tons of mirrors to generate the image) and passing that through the color wheel - problem is the color wheel is in front of the bulb, thus creating light at all times. The 7th color wheel segment is supposed to help this and DLP has constantly been working on the 'deep black' issues - read the comparisons of the latest models to the original, and you'll notice the emphasis on "DEEP or TRUE blacks" and higher contrast ratios. The 5667 I have is 2500:1 if I recall correctly, they are now up to 10,000:1 on the latest models.

Blacks and the are a factor of color wheel and the blockiness more the circuitry - not sure about graininess as I truly don't see it except on SD and no HDTV I have seen does good at SD programming.

That is one of the trade-offs for having no burn-in or degradation in image over time like plasma and LCD. LCD doesn't have this problem, but doesn't have the contrast ratio. Plasma doesn't have this issue, but is more expensive, has a shorter life, has burn-in, and uses much more power.

I can't summarize all of this in total, just that I reviewed the pros/cons and as far as bang for the buck - this TV was for me. I game alot on it - have menus or icons on the screen that would burn-in potentially, and I watch alot of hi-motion programs like hockey - eliminating LCD for me with it's 'ghosting' effect. I got a heck of a deal too right when they announced the 1080p line coming out. The current price for the 5667 is what I paid nearly 9 months ago.... with free shipping. I can't complain.

I am happy - but some of you aren't. I can understand that if you didn't fully understand the nuances between the different technologies... it may be late now - but for more info:

MORE (http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5108443-1.html?tag=txt)

My bulb will fail? I just turned it on for the first time!

I only see the circles when the unit is on and there is a black screen. Off there are no circles.:(

Looks like I'll be calling Samsung. Bad omen to have problems straight off the bat like this...

Do a search for "crop circles". I am having a tech out for something else but he said those cricles are caused by moisture droplets that dried on the lens. Can't recall if it was the lens. Tech called them softballs. I ran across posts on this.

I'd research before allowing them tp open it up.

Do a search for "crop circles". I am having a tech out for something else but he said those cricles are caused by moisture droplets that dried on the lens. Can't recall if it was the lens. Tsch called them softballs. I ran across posts on this.

I'd research before allowing them tp open it up.Well, I'd guess the fan is a fairly easy issue to fix (if that's what it is), the issue with the "softball sized circles" I'm assuming the tech will know how to handle that.

Either way, I'm not letting up until both issues are resolved. Why should I? It's a brand new TV I paid $2k for...

Well, I'd guess the fan is a fairly easy issue to fix (if that's what it is), the issue with the "softball sized circles" I'm assuming the tech will know how to handle that.

Either way, I'm not letting up until both issues are resolved. Why should I? It's a brand new TV I paid $2k for...
Exactly! In my case, I don't think there are any actual problems/defects with the TV, but in yours, Samsung is obligated to make things right.

stash64,

Unlike the old tube direct view TV, these sets need to be adjusted. One can't just plug them in and start watching and expecting it to look as good. If nothing else they are bigger. So garbage in, garbage out on a bigger scale.

Mine came out of the box looking pretty good and HD was incredible. I had mine professionally calibrated and that made a huge difference. My grayscale was waaaay off. My blacks look much, much better. Also got rid of annoying edge enhancement. Turned off DNIe. Got rid of some (faint to my untrained eye) blue hue in the whites as well as green being so prominent. There were many adjustments that were made along with gamma, etc. too numerous to mention,but you get the idea.

I got such a great deal on my set I was able to afford a professional ISF calibration. A calibrated set looks leaps and bounds better than a more expensive non-calibrated set. At the very least get or rent an AVIA type home calibration disk and spend some time with it paying close attention to grayscale settings as that affects not only the black but everything else as well.

The coating on the lamp needs to burn away and the lamp levels off after 100 hours minimum use before calibrating. Each component of different type inputs needs done. I had the HDMI done and the component done.

Good luck.

The coating on the lamp needs to burn away and the lamp levels off after 100 hours minimum use before calibrating. Each component of different type inputs needs done. I had the HDMI done and the component done. Good luck.
That's too bad... So this means that if you redo your connections at some point (due to upgrading a component, etc., then you would need to have it calibrated again? For example, say I don't have a cable box now, so I use the HDMI for DVD... But then I end up getting a deal on HD cable so I later opt for a cable box and want to use the HMDI for that instead -- recalibration would be needed?

That's too bad... So this means that if you redo your connections at some point (due to upgrading a component, etc., then you would need to have it calibrated again? For example, say I don't have a cable box now, so I use the HDMI for DVD... But then I end up getting a deal on HD cable so I later opt for a cable box and want to use the HMDI for that instead -- recalibration would be needed?

Not necessarily. I forgot about my XBox, but because it uses component it's ready to go. It would perhaps need minor adjustment based on personal preferences . Once you go through the calibration DVD it wouldn't take as much time a second time, but it's up to you. I personally wanted to wring every bit of performance out of this set and it shows. I also wanted to start maximizing my enjoyment right away and left the TV on a lot to rack up 100 hours on the lamp so I could get it calibrated. I already had my HD-DVR via HDMI and preferred DVD via component player in place. They are different, but not vastly so and it may be good enough. If it were me, I'd run through again to verify the settings, but that's just me.

Not necessarily. I forgot about my XBox, but because it uses component it's ready to go. It would perhaps need minor adjustment based on personal preferences . Once you go through the calibration DVD it wouldn't take as much time a second time, but it's up to you. I personally wanted to wring every bit of performance out of this set and it shows. I also wanted to start maximizing my enjoyment right away and left the TV on a lot to rack up 100 hours on the lamp so I could get it calibrated. I already had my HD-DVR via HDMI and preferred DVD via component player in place. They are different, but not vastly so and it may be good enough. If it were me, I'd run through again to verify the settings, but that's just me.
So now you are 100% pleased and wowed by this TV, even in watching DVDs? You don't see the blockiness/moving textures in dark scenes? Or it is still there, just down to a tolerable level now?

I wish I had not bought this TV, because it does not suit my needs. Most DVDs it does not seem to play very well, and DVDs are the bulk of what we use our TV for. All I can do now is try to move forward and make the best of it, but I am not happy with my $1600 investment.Hmm, I wasn't that impressed with DVD through component on the 4667 and since I already had seen the improvement that a DVI connection made with our DLP projector over say, component and s-video, I knew I needed to try to upgrade to a DVD player that sported a digital connector. I went with the Oppo based on it's annoyingly flattering reviews, and between the digital (HDMI to DVI) cable connection that it allows and the upconverting it does, I see new information coming out of all the DVDs I play. It looks remarkedly good. Mind you, I already had the Philips DVD963SA highly rated 13-bit DVD Player with DCDi (component video) that looked better than other players I had compared it to two years earlier. The images off DVD looks subjectively almost as good as HDTV (live evening news for example or Jay Leno) from off the air locals. Thumbs up to well executed up-conversion. I'm watching our movies as if for the first time.

HD looks good. My problem really was standard definition. You know, regular analog channels and compressed digital ones. It looked awful on the Samsung. Macroblocking, chief villain that everyone can see even if they don't know much about it. I came to this site, worried that I might have to return it right after it had arrived, since even after using Avia to dial in custom settings, I was not happy. The macroblocking, especially on standard def was enough to make me want to get rid of the set. Well as soon as I saw the service menu changes in this forum, I knew I had to try them if I was going to keep the set. I changed index delay from 46 to 43 (some liked 42 but I didn't) and that improved things mightily. I made a similar modest change to Gamma. Using the Avia Disc, it told me to turn off all sharness and while that change did improve our (massive) Sony XBR tube television (that blew it's picture tube after six years, hence us shopping for new technology) in the past but well, I did NOT like it on the Samsung! That unlike some others here, especially for me on SD, it looked worse. So I left the sharpness up near default setting. Between these changes and the high quality Digital cables I bought, I am much, much happier with SD. Also, I've decided that until I have an ISF guy dial things in (can hardly wait, ppl that had it done are floored), I've changed my mind about edge enhancment. It does clean up Satellite SD -- whether it's the compression or other anomalies, the flaws are subjectively less offensive. On most of my viewing I use the standard picture preset setting, but change the color temperature from Cool1 to Normal. I see a lot of folks here seem to like Wam1 but I think it pushes red too much. On the Sony Tube we had, warm was almost perfect 65k standard. Go figure.

Finally, I have both the player and the Samsung plugged into a Chang Lightspeed Power Conditioner that has improved video (and audio) on anything I've ever plugged into it. Best hundreds of dollars I ever spent :) I say this since I wonder if perhaps at least some of the people who are having light engine, circuit board failures and fan noise issues are getting power surges from dirty power. Dirty power that everyone has now with the largely now uncontrolled power grid, our country's dirty little secret. We bought this power conditioner after a nearby lightning strike took out all the electronics in our house years ago. It does happen more than you think, ask your insurance company. And you should know the normally small and medium sized power surges happen daily, are cumulative in their bad effect on newer electronics and go on all the time, even if you don't see the lights flicker or dim. It shortens life. As you know the power supplies inside our electronics (sometimes the first, last, only line of defense) are made cheaply these days, no wonder our things don't last 20-30 years anymore. Just a suggestion. Don't bother with cheap $10-$20 surge protectors, at least with stuff you value like your DLP set; use them with alarm clocks and such since the strips are compromised quickly (months) even if their green lights don't go out ...

Hope this helps a little, YMMV.

So now you are 100% pleased and wowed by this TV, even in watching DVDs? You don't see the blockiness/moving textures in dark scenes? Or it is still there, just down to a tolerable level now?

The only time the picture sucks is in Battlestar Gallactica. in D*'s overly compressed SD makes the blacks bad. But that's the fault of D*. When repeated in HD on the UHD channel it's awesome. Otherwise yes, the PQ is great and I'm pretty picky.

To give you a very rough idea of the improvement of just grayscale from my report table: Calibration Gray Score: Pre-Calibration Gray Score 18.1 Post-Calibration Gray Score 93.7.

"These grayscale report tables also provide a formula-based Gray Score to give a generalized assessmentof grayscale tracking performance both overall and for each of the three major ranges -- Near Black (20-30%), Mid Levels (40-70%) and Near White (80-100%)." My note...The percenatges are related to the how closely calibrated the color temp is.

"The best possible Gray Score is 100 and the lowest rating displayed is –100. Any score below 60 is, in effect, a “failing grade.” The Gray Score system aggressively “rolls off’ scores below zero and by design limits the worst grade to –100, even though scores of –500 or lower are theoretically possible. A floor is
applied to the Gray Score system for the simple reason that a score is 200 points below “failure” instead of just 140 points below the minimum acceptable level. At that point, the only thing you really need to know is that the set’s grayscale is in critical need of attention.

"The Gray Score system is designed to provide a quantitative measure of grayscale fidelity. While it isn’t the final word on grayscale, it is useful in gaining an overall understanding of the before-and after-calibration state of a display. The Gray Score system is especially useful in avoiding over-reliance on potentially
misleading color temperature measurements."

Edit: I don't own many DVDs but one that has many dark scenes is Gladiator. It looks beautiful. And FYI I have the 50".

Hmm, I wasn't that impressed with DVD through component on the 4667 and since I already had seen the improvement that a DVI connection made with our DLP projector over say, component and s-video, I knew I needed to try to upgrade to a DVD player that sported a digital connector. I went with the Oppo based on it's annoyingly flattering reviews, and between the digital (HDMI to DVI) cable connection that it allows and the upconverting it does, I see new information coming out of all the DVDs I play. It looks remarkedly good.... I'm watching our movies as if for the first time.
Rocky, thanks for all the info! I have been told here that connecting my Xbox (original version) to the TV via DVI will make my game response lag a thing of the past, so I am planning to do this. Do you know of a way that I would be able to connect my DVD player to the TV via DVI also, though? Is there some sort of switcher that I could get? Probably yes, but do these result in signal loss? Any better than others? Also... I would assume that any DVD player that has a HDMI connector will work just fine when that connection is converted to DVI -- is this correct, or does my player specifically have to say that it supports DVI?

Finally, I have both the player and the Samsung plugged into a Chang Lightspeed Power Conditioner that has improved video (and audio) on anything I've ever plugged into it. Best hundreds of dollars I ever spent.
As far as power conditioning, so even if I have my components on their own breaker, this would still be an issue, and I should invest in something like this? What about a simple UPS from a computer? Maybe more affordable and less obtrusive? Which model Chang did you get? I see there are a ton of choices. All I need it for is the HT setup. 6 items, 8 max. Thanks again!!

The only time the picture sucks is in Battlestar Gallactica. in D*'s overly compressed SD makes the blacks bad. But that's the fault of D*. When repeated in HD on the UHD channel it's awesome. Otherwise yes, the PQ is great and I'm pretty picky.
Crap! BG is our favorite show (though this will not even be an issue until October <groan>)! I know that Sci-Fi does not bcast in HD, so I figred it would not be great... But it sucks? Oh well. I'm not sure what the "UHD" channel is. Also, what does "D*" stand for?

To give you a very rough idea of the improvement of just grayscale from my report table: Calibration Gray Score: Pre-Calibration Gray Score 18.1 Post-Calibration Gray Score 93.7
The TV started with a grayscale score of 18.1 (complete failure), and ended with a 93.7?? Holy crap! How was all this adjusted, thru the SM? So after the calibration, the TV looks just amazingly good, and you have no more gripes at all?? Wow!! How much did the calibration cost you? This will definitely be something that I invest in, then, to get the most out of this TV.

Thanks for your help!

Crap! BG is our favorite show (though this will not even be an issue until October <groan>)! I know that Sci-Fi does not bcast in HD, so I figred it would not be great... But it sucks? Oh well. I'm not sure what the "UHD" channel is. Also, what does "D*" stand for?


The TV started with a grayscale score of 18.1 (complete failure), and ended with a 93.7?? Holy crap! How was all this adjusted, thru the SM? So after the calibration, the TV looks just amazingly good, and you have no more gripes at all?? Wow!! How much did the calibration cost you? This will definitely be something that I invest in, then, to get the most out of this TV.

Thanks for your help!

BG is broadcast in HD on the Universal HD channel. It was on Time Warner briefly in my area during the olympics - as they carried all the NBC HD hockey games - and happened to show BG at night between olympic programming. It looks awesome in HD and widescreen format - but they pulled the channel here locally after the olympics ended : (

I hope Sci-Fi comes in with a HD channel soon so I can pick up the next season in HD. Aside from the sci-fi theme - that is still one heck of a well written show - I love it. (female starbuck and all...)

... As far as power conditioning, so even if I have my components on their own breaker, this would still be an issue, and I should invest in something like this? What about a simple UPS from a computer? Maybe more affordable and less obtrusive? Which model Chang did you get? I see there are a ton of choices. All I need it for is the HT setup. 6 items, 8 max. Thanks again!! My suggestion is to make sure you get one that isolates digital components from your other gear and ACTUALLY does power conditioning, cleaning up the sine wave, not just protection from surges. you can spend as much as the T.V. and not really be extravagant, based on what they do. There is a big payoff that lasts, outlasts the stuff you plug in. I chose the Chang CLS 9600 ISO years ago and it still does an excellent job, the new improved models are even better. I believe there is even an online seller. But also there are more modest ones that also fit the bill. Monster (who makes overpriced cable!) makes some good Line Conditioners acorrding to reviews. There are several at this site:
http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/productdetail.asp?sku=MCHTS3500&product_name=HTS3500%20MKII%20Reference%20Power%20Center%20a nd%20Line%20Conditioner
The possibilities are many but worth checking out for the sake of not compromising your video -- and audio. I don't know about you but we hardly go out to theaters anymore!

... Do you know of a way that I would be able to connect my DVD player to the TV via DVI also, though? Is there some sort of switcher that I could get? Probably yes, but do these result in signal loss? Any better than others? Also... I would assume that any DVD player that has a HDMI connector will work just fine when that connection is converted to DVI -- is this correct, or does my player specifically have to say that it supports DVI?You need a video switcher, and some of our sponsors here make good ones, Monoprice for example makes very good cable that competes with pricier fare, and just go with HDMI to DVI cable and/or HDMI on both ends depending on components. The switcher will use the HDMI ends and allow you switch between your components. No matter where you shop be sure to get one that is HDCP Compliant. If you don't the anticopying schemes will make you end up buying a good one after bad. Check it out just as example:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=2777&seq=1&format=2
The DVD player should come with HDMI or DVI as a feature and the upconverting ones are very reasonably priced (and outperform very high end pieces of justa year or two ago) and Samsung makes one that rates well but you have choices; you can find a great comparison with ratings here:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all

BG is broadcast in HD on the Universal HD channel. It was on Time Warner briefly in my area during the olympics - as they carried all the NBC HD hockey games - and happened to show BG at night between olympic programming. It looks awesome in HD and widescreen format - but they pulled the channel here locally after the olympics ended : (

I hope Sci-Fi comes in with a HD channel soon so I can pick up the next season in HD. Aside from the sci-fi theme - that is still one heck of a well written show - I love it. (female starbuck and all...)
Yup, my wife and I rank that one as our favorite show. One of my friends had told me that the pilot was so good, etc., and I wanted no part of it. Finally I decided to give it a chance, maybe half-way thru the first season. I watched, but my wife didn't waste her time watching with me. After the first couple of episodes, I told her we needed to start over, her watching with me, because she would love it to. Now we can't miss it. Every episode is just awesome. It's extra good for us, because we enjoy sci-fi shows, but the great thing about it is that, like you said, it's so well written that people who don't like sci-fi can thoroughly enjoy it too. What a show!

But also there are more modest ones that also fit the bill. Monster (who makes overpriced cable!) makes some good Line Conditioners acorrding to reviews. There are several at this site:
http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/productdetail.asp?sku=MCHTS3500&product_name=HTS3500%20MKII%20Reference%20Power%20Center%20a nd%20Line%20Conditioner
The possibilities are many but worth checking out for the sake of not compromising your video -- and audio. I don't know about you but we hardly go out to theaters anymore!
I've seen these Monster ones before, and they look like they're from the 1980s. I know that what something does is more important than how it looks, but I just don't want to see this thing in my house. I will have to look into these more, in general. You say to get one that isolates analog from digital devices... Why? Which devices are considered analog, besides VCRs? DVD player, the TV, cable box, and Xbox... Those would be digital, right? Or is it anything that uses component or composite cables is considered analog? Thanks for any clarification you can give.

You need a video switcher, and some of our sponsors here make good ones, Monoprice for example makes very good cable that competes with pricier fare, and just go with HDMI to DVI cable and/or HDMI on both ends depending on components. The switcher will use the HDMI ends and allow you switch between your components. No matter where you shop be sure to get one that is HDCP Compliant. If you don't the anticopying schemes will make you end up buying a good one after bad. Check it out just as example:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...&seq=1&format=2
Can these switchers be controlled by Harmony universal remotes?

The DVD player should come with HDMI or DVI as a feature and the upconverting ones are very reasonably priced (and outperform very high end pieces of justa year or two ago) and Samsung makes one that rates well but you have choices
The DVD player that people in this thread seem to like the most is the Samsung HD950. Oppos and the Panasonic S97 has had a lot of good things said about it too, but the Samsung in general seems to be the favorite. So any player than can do HDMI can also do DVI, right? As long as I get a cable/adapter to convert it to DVI? I am wanting to use the DVI port on the TV for my DVD player, as it's been said that I will get the best performance from there.

We hardly go to theaters anymore either... Only for movies that will truly be worth seeing there (i.e. will look better or sound better). King Kong was an example, one that we made an exception for.

I got the 5667 a couple weeks back. Well I just got around to hooking up my region free samsung hd850 via hdmi and I popped in a couple dvds and the sound from the tv was horrible. It was making all kinds of popping sounds kinda like the speakers are busted. I then went back to my Sony NC85 via hdmi and it went away. Anyone got any idea of whats wrong with the combination of the Samsung 850 and my 5667? Thanks for any advice.

Hi guys, I'm new here and just wanted to say "hey" and express my appreciation for the voluminous amount of info provided in this thread. My wife and I recently made the purchase of a HL-R5067W and we couldn't be happier with our decision.

The HL-R5067W replaces an aging Panasonic PT-47WX53 that was falling out of calibration. The convergence IC's blew TWICE and had to be replaced, unfortunately the gentleman who replaced them had (what seemed like) zero experience with the service menu and half-assed the convergence, geometry, overscan, etc. He had to be called back to fix the convergence from the service menu, but never really got it just "right." SD was watchable and HD was good, but it wasn't performing like it had when it was new.

Instead of opting for a $500+ ISF calibration, we decided to purchase a new set. It was between the Samsung HL-R5067W and the Sony KDF-E50A10. It was a toss-up between the two. Initially, I was leaning towards the Sony, because I was afraid I would experience the dreaded DLP rainbow effect. Fortunately, when we got to the store and saw both sets in person the Samsung's picture was simply better, IMO. When my wife and I realized that we were not among the few who perceive rainbow the decision was made.

My wife and I couldn't be more pleased with our new set. The info that everyone provided in this thread (and months of research) helped us to make an informed decision. The picture and performance so far have been great and it seems I've been lucky enough to avoid some of the bugs some of you have had with the HL-R. We've had ours about 3 weeks and after an initial tweaking of the picture settings, it's been absolutely awesome! Especially nice is NOT having to deal with annoying convergence issues (or cranky service techs who couldn't find their way around a service menu if their life depended on it).

Just an FYI...I recently upgraded from and Xbox to the 360 and the lag I was experiencing with the Xbox has completely disappeared. I just wondering why that was? Does it have to do with the fact that the 360's native resolution is 720p (which matches the set) and the original Xbox isn't? Just curious. I was having all sorts of lag before I upgraded (games like MVP NCAA Baseball '06 were unplayable, the timing of the pitching meter was WAY off), but since I got the 360, there hasn't been one issue as far as lag is concerned. Not too mention the 360's games look drop-dead gorgeous on this set. I've found myself losing hours on Sunday afternoons in the enveloping world of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Another question, I heard a rumor (not from a very good source, but I figured I'd ask you guys about it anyways) that the HL-R's have some issues with their color wheels...is this true? Like I said it wasn't from a very good source, but I just wanted to make sure. I'm not having any problems at all, but just wanted to get other people's take.

Again, thanks for all the info and insight, it was greatly appreciated! :D

stash64,

Unlike the old tube direct view TV, these sets need to be adjusted. One can't just plug them in and start watching and expecting it to look as good. If nothing else they are bigger. So garbage in, garbage out on a bigger scale.

Mine came out of the box looking pretty good and HD was incredible. I had mine professionally calibrated and that made a huge difference. My grayscale was waaaay off. My blacks look much, much better. Also got rid of annoying edge enhancement. Turned off DNIe. Got rid of some (faint to my untrained eye) blue hue in the whites as well as green being so prominent. There were many adjustments that were made along with gamma, etc. too numerous to mention,but you get the idea.

I got such a great deal on my set I was able to afford a professional ISF calibration. A calibrated set looks leaps and bounds better than a more expensive non-calibrated set. At the very least get or rent an AVIA type home calibration disk and spend some time with it paying close attention to grayscale settings as that affects not only the black but everything else as well.

Good luck.

Mo, Thanks for the words of advise and encoragement !!! I was hoping someone would acknowledge that a professional calibration can make a huge difference, and I think that is the route I will take. I actually have done a basic calibration on my own using Avia and DVE, but I am not brave enough to enter the service menu to calibrate gray scale. My "unprofessional" calibration did improve the picture all around, but did nothing to help with dark scenes. I suspect my gray scale is also way off because I still have a 10-15% green push after the "blue" calibration. How can manufacturers allow such poor tolerances on their product ? Do they not recognize PAL or NTSC standards ?

I have to say that I am pleased with the picture from my digital OTA broadcasts, even the SD stuff. I have noticed the "macro-blocking" issue on HD and SD digital broadcasts, but only rarely and much less pronounced than it is with DVD playback. For DVD playback, whether via component or DVI/HDMI, the problem crops up in every dark scene, and in some cases the blockiness can take up nearly the entire image. The opening scenes of "The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe" are a prime example. When the German bombers are flying through the clouds over London, my screen is just one big blocky image. Anyway, this is what really puzzles me. These are modern DVD movies (with I assume the latest camera technology and latest digital transfer technology), so how can they look so awful during dark scenes ? It puzzles me even more that the up-conveting Oppo did not help. Perhaps the testing performed by "Secrets" is done only with CRT-based televisions for evaluation ?

Hope to report back in a few weeks on the results of a professional calibration, but I may try contacting Samsung first to see what they suggest.

Just an FYI...I recently upgraded from and Xbox to the 360 and the lag I was experiencing with the Xbox has completely disappeared. I just wondering why that was? Does it have to do with the fact that the 360's native resolution is 720p (which matches the set) and the original Xbox isn't? Just curious.
Yes, that's the thinking in this thread, from what I've read here... That it's because the TV has to do the conversion to 720p, so it slows it down. However, this doesn't make complete sense to me, because, if that were the reason, then the audio should not lag too (at least this is what my novice mind tells me), which it does. Xbox lag is general game response -- both audio and video are lagging as one.

Another question, I heard a rumor... that the HL-R's have some issues with their color wheels...is this true?
There has been zero mention of that in this thread. I have not seen a single post on it.

Glad you're so happy with the set! I am hoping to be happy once I get mine calibrated.

I got the 5667 a couple weeks back. Well I just got around to hooking up my region free samsung hd850 via hdmi and I popped in a couple dvds and the sound from the tv was horrible. It was making all kinds of popping sounds kinda like the speakers are busted. I then went back to my Sony NC85 via hdmi and it went away. Anyone got any idea of whats wrong with the combination of the Samsung 850 and my 5667? Thanks for any advice.
Very strange! A lot of the posters in this thread use that player with this TV, and have not reported issues like that. Did you try your player on a different TV, and it's fine there? Does the Samsung make those same sounds if you use a different type of connection?

Yes, that's the thinking in this thread, from what I've read here... That it's because the TV has to do the conversion to 720p, so it slows it down. However, this doesn't make complete sense to me, because, if that were the reason, then the audio should not lag too (at least this is what my novice mind tells me), which it does. Xbox lag is general game response -- both audio and video are lagging as one.

Glad you're so happy with the set! I am hoping to be happy once I get mine calibrated.

Are you saying that some people are still experiencing audio lag with the 360? I have my setup hooked to a 600w Sony Home Theater system with the TV's internal speaker turned off and I haven't experienced a single moment of audio lag.

Yeah, it sounds like it's a hit-or-miss proposition as to whether someone is happy with how the picture looks out of the box. Jay, I hope the calibration really helps. I heard that some people were having trouble with pincussion. I have a friend who bought the HL-R4667W and he had this problem...nothing too bad, but he had to have a proffessional calibration technologist fix his. I was lucky enough to not have a serious pincussion problem. I'm sure my set would look even better with a professional cal, but to me the picture was able to be fixed to my liking through the regular user menu. Good luck and thanks!!

I got the 5667 a couple weeks back. Well I just got around to hooking up my region free samsung hd850 via hdmi and I popped in a couple dvds and the sound from the tv was horrible. It was making all kinds of popping sounds kinda like the speakers are busted. I then went back to my Sony NC85 via hdmi and it went away. Anyone got any idea of whats wrong with the combination of the Samsung 850 and my 5667? Thanks for any advice.

I had a similar problem - and it was the sound setting on the HDMI - make sure you have it set in the menu to BITSTREAM output, not PCM (default). That fixed my issue (not being able to get DD 5.1 - only stereo).

Good luck - hope that fixes it.

Are you saying that some people are still experiencing audio lag with the 360? I have my setup hooked to a 600w Sony Home Theater system with the TV's internal speaker turned off and I haven't experienced a single moment of audio lag.

Yeah, it sounds like it's a hit-or-miss proposition as to whether someone is happy with how the picture looks out of the box. Jay, I hope the calibration really helps. I heard that some people were having trouble with pincussion. I have a friend who bought the HL-R4667W and he had this problem...nothing too bad, but he had to have a proffessional calibration technologist fix his. I was lucky enough to not have a serious pincussion problem. I'm sure my set would look even better with a professional cal, but to me the picture was able to be fixed to my liking through the regular user menu. Good luck and thanks!!
No lag mentioned w/ 360. I had a 360 on this set for a while too, and had no issues. Only played one game though. It's the original Xbox that seems to have the issues.

I was just saying that the explanation that this is because the TV has to convert everything from the Xbox up to 720p doesn't make sense to me... Because with the Xbox, you are not only getting video lag, you are getting total lag -- everything. You push a button on the controller, say, to fire your weapon, and (1) you will not see the weapon fire immediately, (2) you will not hear the weapon fire immediately. So it's not just a video lag issue, like what we see when watching DVDs, etc. So, if the explanation for this is that the TV is taking more time to process the signal, why is the audio not delayed also? That's what I'm getting at.

I had a similar problem - and it was the sound setting on the HDMI - make sure you have it set in the menu to BITSTREAM output, not PCM (default). That fixed my issue (not being able to get DD 5.1 - only stereo).
I had to set my player to this also... Like you, I was only getting 2-channel output until that time... But no weird sounds.

Ok, I'm a TOTAL NEWBIE here and am considering the 5667.

I've been lurking for the last few months and reading quite a few of the posts. However, I still have a question. This is my current setup:

SA 8300 stb: component video to (new) tv, toslink to receiver

DVD (earlier Sony w/ progressive and component video): component video to (new) tv, toslink to receiver

1. What is the chance I will experience the audio lag with DVD/SD/HD sources?

2. Any other suggestions/set-up changes you might recommend when introducing the 5667 in to this environment?

Thanks!

Theo

Ok, I'm a TOTAL NEWBIE here and am considering the 5667.

I've been lurking for the last few months and reading quite a few of the posts. However, I still have a question. This is my current setup:

SA 8300 stb: component video to (new) tv, toslink to receiver

DVD (earlier Sony w/ progressive and component video): component video to (new) tv, toslink to receiver

1. What is the chance I will experience the audio lag with DVD/SD/HD sources?

2. Any other suggestions/set-up changes you might recommend when introducing the 5667 in to this environment?
Your chances of experiencing video lag, a certain percentage of the time, with this setup, will be 100%. To eliminate that, where caused by the TV, you would have to pipe your audio to the TV and then to the receiver afterward (supposedly the TV will then delay the audio to match the lagging video)... But the TV will not pass out 5.1 sound, so you're kind of screwed there (thanks, Samsung). The only solution would be to have a DVD player and/or receiver that has an audio delay feature, which would be used to match the audio to the lagging video. Yes... BAND-AID. :)

I am also interested in a HLR5067W. It will be primarly for my HTPC and Xbox 360. We don't have cable so I will get a broadcast HDTV antenna and hope to pick some HD up via air..

Couple questions.. Will broadcast SD look like total crap on this set? When all does the audio / video lag come in?

I will be hooking my Xbox 360 up via component and my HTPC via PC d sub connector.. It would truly suck to have video / audio lag!

I am also interested in a HLR5067W. It will be primarly for my HTPC and Xbox 360. We don't have cable so I will get a broadcast HDTV antenna and hope to pick some HD up via air.. Couple questions.. Will broadcast SD look like total crap on this set? When all does the audio / video lag come in?

I will be hooking my Xbox 360 up via component and my HTPC via PC d sub connector.. It would truly suck to have video / audio lag!
Everyone says that SD looks like crap. I have basic (non-digital) cable, and most channels look passable. I have yet to see any HD content on it though, as my initial efforts w/ OTA antenna were not positive. My next option there is to try a roof-mounted model.

You should experience no lagging w/ Xbox 360, and as far as I know from what has been said in this thread, the same should be true for your HTPC, when connected via DVI.

I am also interested in a HLR5067W. It will be primarly for my HTPC and Xbox 360. We don't have cable so I will get a broadcast HDTV antenna and hope to pick some HD up via air..

Couple questions.. Will broadcast SD look like total crap on this set? When all does the audio / video lag come in?

I will be hooking my Xbox 360 up via component and my HTPC via PC d sub connector.. It would truly suck to have video / audio lag!

I'm not sure about the PC d sub connector, but I have my 360 hooked directly up via component cables to the Component 2 input and have experienced zero lag since getting the 360. I just had to change the name of the component input to "GAME". The games look and play great.

I'm not sure about the PC d sub connector, but I have my 360 hooked directly up via component cables to the Component 2 input and have experienced zero lag since getting the 360. I just had to change the name of the component input to "GAME". The games look and play great.
I played the 360 on mine, without changing the name of the input, and it still worked perfectly. Granted, the only game I played was Project Gotham 3.

Clutch414, I paid $400. Prices vary by region and by calibrator.

I've heard of more people thinking expensive cables will help and who happily fork over their money and balk at a professional calibration. I am using the cheap HDMI cable that shipped with my HD-DVR. If you look at my Gray Scale scores alone you see how it's money well spent IMO. Long ago I read somehere here in the AVS forum to figure in the cost of a calibration when buying a set. It's an individual choice and one I woud have had to do in the future had I not gotten such a deal on my purchase. AVIA, etc. help but nothing replaces the thousands of dollars equipment brought in to calibrate a set.

Clutch I have pretty severe pincushion and calibrating won't help.

jayfore, yes, all through the SM menu but using a bunch of fancy equipment and meters and a few hours time. I hear you in terms of being amazed and I was too since I thought it looked good out of the box. BG is my fave show as well as my sister. My brother-in-law is a big fan too. I find it impossible to not watch it on the SciFi channel because I am such a big fan. Non-fans are happy to watch it a couple of weeks later re-broadcast in HD on UniversalHD.

HD Hockey Guy, UHD was free only during the Olympics. It's part of my $9.99 HD channel package price (which I have free for 6 months). I have D* but I know other providers carry it as part of their package too.

stash64, no problem. Check out the calibration thread here in AVS. There is a whole section on who is in your area. Get references, make sure they are ISF trained and ask the calibrator a lot of questions in advance. I spent some time learning a little about it beforehand to help ask good questions during the calibration. Ask how many years experience, how many Sammy DLPs they have done, etc and make sure you feel comfortable with them. I'm very informal and I think this set the tone as my calibrator Doug is a great guy and we are becoming friends. It didn't hurt to have pizza and oven baked chocolate chip cookies on-hand either. Okay, that last part is what we women do. ;)

HD should look excellent, but SD is going to be crap.... The set will require the best possible signal, period.

That is my concern... HD does NOT look awesome.
For example, via a strong signal on the internal ATSC tuner, the local news in HD had a picture of a book on the screen and sized to take up about 1/4 of the screen. The book was rotated to roughly a 15 degree angle so that the sides of the book were not parallel to the sides of the screen. All four sides of the book were so laden with HUGE jaggies that it was barely discernable as a rectangular book. Had I not heard the reporter say "DaVinci Code" I would not have know that was the book's title, as the jaggies within the image of the book's cover made the title unreadable, and the Mona Lisa face on the cover unrecognizable.

Color gradients are also pretty pathetic. Hard transitions are evident when there should be a gradual, organic change. I've read a lot of complaints about dark scenes having poor color gradients, but I'm noticing it even on light content...like hockey games.

And why does solid (or mostly solid) colored backgrounds look like they are moving? For example, watching golf in HD this weekend I noticed that the grass on the green looked like it was moving. None of the players clothes showed evidence of wind, the trees weren't moving, the flag on the hole-marker wasn't moving... so I am confident that the super-close-cut grass on the green wasn't actually swaying wildly in the wind. It just looked like it was on my screen. Same for a wall in another HD program. It appeared to have surface motion. Not wavy motion, but an appearance of slight surface motion.

And many of the on screen things displayed during sports events seem to have ghost images around them. Like a box that shows the score of a game... it will have vertical ghost lines to the immediate right and left of the actual box.

Are you suggesting that the built-in ATSC tuner is not providing a signal of sufficient quality to provide a good image on the screen?

How about the content that I'm viewing from my PC? That tuner and signal are the same that I fed the LCoS TV with, and I never saw any of these issues on that monitor.

Interestingly, the SD image often looks better than what the Syntax 50" LCoS had. It is just the HD content that really looks sub-par. The best analogy for what I'm seeing on the HD image is that of a picture printed in the newspaper. Ya know how the actual dots are very visible in pictures in the paper? The screen on my 6167w looks kind of like that. Sure, I know that the image IS made up of thousands of little dots, but I've never seen another HDTV that had dots this big on an HD image.

That is my concern... HD does NOT look awesome.
For example, via a strong signal on the internal ATSC tuner, the local news in HD had a picture of a book on the screen and sized to take up about 1/4 of the screen. The book was rotated to roughly a 15 degree angle so that the sides of the book were not parallel to the sides of the screen. All four sides of the book were so laden with HUGE jaggies that it was barely discernable as a rectangular book. Had I not heard the reporter say "DaVinci Code" I would not have know that was the book's title, as the jaggies within the image of the book's cover made the title unreadable, and the Mona Lisa face on the cover unrecognizable.

Color gradients are also pretty pathetic. Hard transitions are evident when there should be a gradual, organic change. I've read a lot of complaints about dark scenes having poor color gradients, but I'm noticing it even on light content...like hockey games.

And why does solid (or mostly solid) colored backgrounds look like they are moving? For example, watching golf in HD this weekend I noticed that the grass on the green looked like it was moving. None of the players clothes showed evidence of wind, the trees weren't moving, the flag on the hole-marker wasn't moving... so I am confident that the super-close-cut grass on the green wasn't actually swaying wildly in the wind. It just looked like it was on my screen. Same for a wall in another HD program. It appeared to have surface motion. Not wavy motion, but an appearance of slight surface motion.

And many of the on screen things displayed during sports events seem to have ghost images around them. Like a box that shows the score of a game... it will have vertical ghost lines to the immediate right and left of the actual box.

Are you suggesting that the built-in ATSC tuner is not providing a signal of sufficient quality to provide a good image on the screen?

How about the content that I'm viewing from my PC? That tuner and signal are the same that I fed the LCoS TV with, and I never saw any of these issues on that monitor.

Interestingly, the SD image often looks better than what the Syntax 50" LCoS had. It is just the HD content that really looks sub-par. The best analogy for what I'm seeing on the HD image is that of a picture printed in the newspaper. Ya know how the actual dots are very visible in pictures in the paper? The screen on my 6167w looks kind of like that. Sure, I know that the image IS made up of thousands of little dots, but I've never seen another HDTV that had dots this big on an HD image.
This is exactly the behavior that I get with my 5067. I think this is the type of issue that MO is saying was resolved by her professional calibration... Right MO? I only hope that the calibrator will do as good a job for me, without pizza, cookies, and my being a woman. :-)

That is my concern... HD does NOT look awesome.

Are you suggesting that the built-in ATSC tuner is not providing a signal of sufficient quality to provide a good image on the screen?

How about the content that I'm viewing from my PC? That tuner and signal are the same that I fed the LCoS TV with, and I never saw any of these issues on that monitor.

Interestingly, the SD image often looks better than what the Syntax 50" LCoS had. It is just the HD content that really looks sub-par. The best analogy for what I'm seeing on the HD image is that of a picture printed in the newspaper. Ya know how the actual dots are very visible in pictures in the paper? The screen on my 6167w looks kind of like that. Sure, I know that the image IS made up of thousands of little dots, but I've never seen another HDTV that had dots this big on an HD image.

HD should look perfect from a digital off-air network. SD should not look better than the 50 did because of the enlarged 61 inch conversion. It doesn't make any sense. I'm getting the idea that something is not calibrated correctly. Perhaps it's time for a service call to Samsung. The tech has signal generators and test patterns to see if something is out of adjustment.

This is exactly the behavior that I get with my 5067. I think this is the type of issue that MO is saying was resolved by her professional calibration... Right MO? I only hope that the calibrator will do as good a job for me, without pizza, cookies, and my being a woman. :-)

LOL. I think he respected the research I had done and had reasonable expectations though too. Okay be manly and at least offer the guy a beer as mine offered a lot of interesting, good info after the calibration was done.

rjcress Even pre-calibration I had no jaggies. Were you watching the Masters? FWIW, I heard they were using handheld HD cameras. I'd call Samsung and see what they say. Don't bother with tier one ask for second tier tech.

I'm getting the idea that something is not calibrated correctly. Perhaps it's time for a service call to Samsung. The tech has signal generators and test patterns to see if something is out of adjustment.

Yep, that is the conclusion that I'm coming to as well. I'll report back when I have more info.
Thanks for the comments, folks.

LOL. I think he respected the research I had done and had reasonable expectations though too. Okay be manly and at least offer the guy a beer as mine offered a lot of intersting, good info after the calibration was done.

rjcress Even pre-calibration I had no jaggies. Were you watching the Masters? FWIW, I heard they were using handheld HD cameras. I'd call Samsung and see what they say. Don't bother with tier one ask for second tier tech.

I would think that any offers of beer should be reserved for after the technical portion of the calibration, unless you want the image to appear as if calibrated by a drunk. :^}

Yep, I was referring to the Masters. The motion that I mentioned was not camera motion, rather the appearance of relative motion among the stationary blades of grass on the green. They cut the greens so short that there is NO WAY the grass was waving in the breeze, which is what it looked like.

Everyone says that SD looks like crap. I have basic (non-digital) cable, and most channels look passable. I have yet to see any HD content on it though, as my initial efforts w/ OTA antenna were not positive. My next option there is to try a roof-mounted model.


So does SD look like crap on ALL HDTV's or just the Samsung DLP's?

And when you say "crap" do you mean non watchable?

Clutch414, I paid $400. Prices vary by region and by calibrator.


Clutch I have pretty severe pincushion and calibrating won't help.



I wasn't speaking about a calbration on the Samsung. I was talking about a calibration on my old Panny PT-47WX53. I was given a quote over the phone of $500 for convergence alone. The ISF certified tech quoted me $800 for the entire package (convergence, geometry, overscan, turning off VM, fixing red push, grayscale). I haven't had my HL-R5067W calibrated. I did a little tweaking through the user menu when I first turned it on, but I haven't needed anything more than that. I know I could get one and squeeze every bit of performance out of the set, but I'm really not in the market for one right now.

I'm sorry to hear about your pincushion problem. I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones who don't have this problem.

I would think that any offers of beer should be reserved for after the technical portion of the calibration, unless you want the image to appear as if calibrated by a drunk. :^}


Afterward of course! I mentioned it as when we were finished and hanging out he volunteered lots of good info and it gave me time to ask more questions.

Your chances of experiencing video lag, a certain percentage of the time, with this setup, will be 100%. To eliminate that, where caused by the TV, you would have to pipe your audio to the TV and then to the receiver afterward (supposedly the TV will then delay the audio to match the lagging video)... But the TV will not pass out 5.1 sound, so you're kind of screwed there (thanks, Samsung). The only solution would be to have a DVD player and/or receiver that has an audio delay feature, which would be used to match the audio to the lagging video. Yes... BAND-AID. :)

The 5067 will not process audio inputs to match the video. The set can only pass through stereo audio. The set will output digital 5.1 Dolby from it's internal tuner only. I'm not in favor of inputting audio to the set unless you don't own a Dolby receiver yet. You should get one because they are relatively inexpensive and complete the home theater experience.

Some A/V sync issues can be expected with any brand of HDTV. It's not just a Samsung thing. It's never a constant thing. Usually, it's content related from the broadcaster. I see it rarely with my 5067. It's very program specific. A high end A/V receiver with a minimum 200ms variable delay will solve the infrequent occurrence as will a Felston unit. It really doesn't happen often enough for me to care that much about.

I wasn't speaking about a calbration on the Samsung. I was talking about a calibration on my old Panny PT-47WX53. I was given a quote over the phone of $500 for convergence alone. The ISF certified tech quoted me $800 for the entire package (convergence, geometry, overscan, turning off VM, fixing red push, grayscale). I haven't had my HL-R5067W calibrated. I did a little tweaking through the user menu when I first turned it on, but I haven't needed anything more than that. I know I could get one and squeeze every bit of performance out of the set, but I'm really not in the market for one right now.

I'm sorry to hear about your pincushion problem. I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones who don't have this problem.

Wow, that a lot of money! As far as the pincushion goes mine is on the 1/4" spec allowed by Samsung. It was very annoying in the beginning. I had Doug over to check it out before calibrating and the PQ was so good we decided to keep it. I was 3 weeks into it and could have returned it. I considered myself lucky in terms of everything else. About a week ago I developed a different problem. Btw, I have 857 hours on the lamp. When anything fades to black, movie credits are white letters on a black background or that momentary pause in black when cutting to a commercial I see a very dark black 6" wide vertical stripe. The center of the screen is lighter. I had a tech out and we are going to replace the LE. The PQ has to be just as good or he will have to bring another one. The LE requires another calibration, but I won't be charged for it.

I had a 46" Mits before this that had the infamous red push. It was HD ready only and since I never bought the $1500 (at the time) HD tuner I never bothered beyond the AVIA disk. I really thought this one looked great too. But edge enhancement really bugged me and the greens were extra prominent. It was only later I found out how much else was off.

That is my concern... HD does NOT look awesome.
For example, via a strong signal on the internal ATSC tuner, the local news in HD had a picture of a book on the screen and sized to take up about 1/4 of the screen...

Are you positive that your local news broadcasts are actually broadcast in HD? Atleast where I live, the local news channels all broadcast in SD, even on the HD channels.

As for the other problems you mention, I've never seen anything like that with mine, I would check your cabling and signal levels and if they look ok, there might actually be a problem with your TV.

Are you positive that your local news broadcasts are actually broadcast in HD? Atleast where I live, the local news channels all broadcast in SD, even on the HD channels.

As for the other problems you mention, I've never seen anything like that with mine, I would check your cabling and signal levels and if they look ok, there might actually be a problem with your TV.


Depends on where you live. St. Louis just got one local news channel in HD.

I agree, doesn't sound like he was watching . HD

I'm sorry if this has been covered here before but I could not find it without looking through the entire thread.

I have been trying to connect the dvi port on my new intel mac mini to my HLR-4667 hdmi port. The image is terrible with color separation and multiple ghost images. (I have tried the mac htpc forum without much luck). Then I found this on samsung's site:

HDMI and HDMI/DVI Jacks
Many of Samsung's 2005 models (SP-R series, HP-R series, LP-R series, HC-R series, TX-R series) have a combined HDMI/DVI input jack. You cannot use the combined HDMI/DVI jack to connect your Samsung TV to your computer's DVI video output jack. If your Samsung TV has an HDMI only jack, you cannot use the HDMI jack to connect your Samsung TV to your computer's DVI video output jack. Samsung TVs do not support DVI to HDMI computer video connections.



Has anyone tried this with a pc? Any idea why this is a problem?

If your Samsung TV has an HDMI only jack, you cannot use the HDMI jack to connect your Samsung TV to your computer's DVI video output jack. Samsung TVs do not support DVI to HDMI computer video connections. Has anyone tried this with a pc? Any idea why this is a problem?
That sounds pretty silly to me, but it seems that with this TV, you just never can say never. I know that people here have connected their DVD players and Xboxes to this port via DVI, so why would a PC be any different? I'm pretty darn sure that people who have posted to this thread have connected PCs to this port (via DVI) also... But I can't say w/ certainty. You can do a search in this thread for "DVI" and/or "PC", and you should find some results.

So does SD look like crap on ALL HDTV's or just the Samsung DLP's?

And when you say "crap" do you mean non watchable?

You're kidding, right? Put analog or a VHS feed on any big screen and tell us how you like it. That's why scaling processors were invented. Bad analog cable signal is the worst. Compressed digital sat is edgy. It's all watchable, but cleaner enlarged images are better than enlarged garbage. SD is better on 50 inch and less screen sizes and worse on 61 inch and more screen sizes.

HD will spoil you. It looks so good that SD will be disturbingly inferior. The good news is that with digital off-air networks and dedicated HD channels like Discovery HD, HDNet, TNT, HDET Movies, HBO, etc. there isn't that much SD worth watching. SD is not why you buy an HD set anyway.

No, poor SD is definitely not exclusive to Samsung by any means.

Depends on where you live. St. Louis just got one local news channel in HD.

I agree, doesn't sound like he was watching . HD

Hehe, now y'all are starting to grasp the problem. It was HD, but didn't look like HD should. 16:9 image and HD indicator in the TV info, but a variety of PQ issues.

I live in Raleigh, NC... home of the very first commercial HD broadcaster in US (WRAL). We have HD feeds of all of the major networks in the area. On any given night I can chose from the analog feed, SD digital feed, or the HD feed of the local news on 3 of the networks. I assure you, I'm not that bright (honest. ask anyone that knows me :^] ), but I am 100% confident that I was watching HD... as I have been for about a year on a different HD monitor. Same goes for the examples I used of the Masters and Hockey on NBC HD this weekend.
So, the reason that I have been bending everyone here's collective ear is to get some insight in to the typical performance folks are seeing from their xx67w sets, as a benchmark for what I'm seeing. Based on the feedback I have received I will be calling Samsung to schedule a tech to come troubleshoot (probably will call Thursday, as that is the first time I'll be home during the day and have access to the TV while I'm on the phone with them).

Hehe, now y'all are starting to grasp the problem. It was HD, but didn't look like HD should. 16:9 image and HD indicator in the TV info, but a variety of PQ issues.

I live in Raleigh, NC... home of the very first commercial HD broadcaster in US (WRAL). We have HD feeds of all of the major networks in the area. On any given night I can chose from the analog feed, SD digital feed, or the HD feed of the local news on 3 of the networks. I assure you, I'm not that bright (honest. ask anyone that knows me :^] ), but I am 100% confident that I was watching HD... as I have been for about a year on a different HD monitor. Same goes for the examples I used of the Masters and Hockey on NBC HD this weekend.


As I understand here in Houston, TX, some local news are just upscaled from SD signal and fed to the HD channels. I never expected stunning pictures from local news (btw, most news are disappointing now a days :( ). I love prime time shows in HD. :cool:

As I understand here in Houston, TX, some local news are just upscaled from SD signal and fed to the HD channels. I never expected stunning pictures from local news

Sorry to hear that they skimp on the image for news in Houston. I am certain that the channels I am referring to are truly HD, as I've been watching them in stunning clarity for nearly a year on another HD monitor of my own, and various others that friends/family own. And anyhow, the news and hockey were just examples. The problem is pervasive, regardless of the source (HTPC via VGA, internal ATSC tuner), and and regardless of the program type. The image is equally poor in prime time shows as it is on WRAL news.
I understand that no one here knows me, and that I should not expect anyone to trust that I actually have a clue about whether the source is truly HD, but it is still getting a touch frustrating. And I hope that didn't sound harsh when people are probably just trying to be helpful.

For anyone curious about another reason for my certainty on my local station WRAL's HD news broadcast:
"By 2000, WRAL-TV was ready to present its newscast in high-definition, broadcasting the entire 5pm news in HD from the NC State Fairgrounds on Friday, October 13. Then on January 28, 2001 , WRAL-TV converted to an all-digital news operation during the late night newscast becoming the world's first news operation to gather and present high-definition local news on a continuous basis."
From http://www.cbc-raleigh.com/history/corp_history.asp#digital

If anyone has any constructive comments or suggestions about improving my PQ, please let me know. In the mean time I am contemplating more monkeying in the SM, and planning to call Samsung as soon as I can get to a phone while I am at the TV and their support # is open.

I have 2 questions. The first is one of clarification. I remember some time back, CounterMeasure posted (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6958464&&#post6958464) that he had resolved his Xbox lag issues by connecting his Xbox to the TV thru the VGA port. I am very close to going this route, but wanted to check on something else -- would it be possible/preferable to instead use DVI? Are there any tradeoffs to using either of these options -- colors not looking as good, anything else?

Finally, a question of how to properly integrate the OTA antenna's channels with the standard cable channels... If I want to watch HD content thru the OTA antenna, I have to switch the source to AIR? And then to watch cable channels, the source will need to be changed to CABLE? Or is there a way to watch all of them under a single setting? It seemed that I was only able to pick up the OTA HD broadcasts when I was in AIR mode, but I have to imagine that things can be more streamlined than this?

Thanks!

Jay

I have very bad pincunishioning and overscan- especially with PC input @ 1280*720.

Anyway to fix this from the Service Menu?

Also, right now I am using Firewire from my Comcast DVR and it looks much better than even the internal tuner. Is this normal? Is HDMI input equivalent, and does it pass the full DD 5.1 from the SPDIF the way Firewire does?

OK, I made the jump. I ordered a HL-R5667W and am told it was shipped today. Thanks to other comments in this forum I also ordered a DLP58x stand for it. It has also shipped, as has a DVI to HDMI cable which I need to go from my Samsung TS-360 Sat/OTA receiver. Looks like arrival should be next Mon > Wed or so.

I had a good laugh last night while measuring what the 56" is going to look like (I have tons of room...just wanted to see how much bigger things were going to be). Well....a slight miscalculation. I thought I had been looking at a 46" Toshiba for the last two years, so I wanted a good step up. On that basis: 46 to 56 ought to look pretty good....only last night when I was playing around with the tape measure, I noticed I had a 42" Toshiba....oooooppps! For once, I think I have not "under-purchased' in size. I do believe the change from 42" to 56" will be appropriately dramatic! I hope the wife sees the humor in it as much as I have.

What output setting should I use on the 360 (Sat receiver), 1080i or 720p? I assume setting it to the native resolution of the display (720p) is preferable? Anything disastrous happen if I look at it in 1080i just for comparison's sake?

I have searched the forum as well as I could to find the following information, with little result, some quite confusing. My questions:

1. How to get into the service mode (and get out).


2. What SM setting helps the black detail or black issues I've seen discussed. Recommended setting? Other recommended settings (either basic or inside the service menu)? Obviously turning it off torch mode and setting sharpness to 0 are pretty basic. Anything I'm missing to start out with? (Like bulb setting...what is the consensus on that?) Is there a single place I can go to review recommended SM settings based on user experiences?

3. Any other newbie recommendations other than Video Essentials to "home calibrate"?

(I have VE and have done a calibration on my Toshiba, so I'm familiar with it)

I have the TV on an 1100 watt UPS, with appropriate surge protection.

TIA for any tips, anxiously awaiting.

sorry if this is an entirely idiotic question, but...

Since these models boast integrated NTSC/ATSC tuners, does that mean i no longer need to purchase a separate antenna to receive free, over-the-air HDTV from local channels? Or do i still need to get the rabbit ears?

Anything OTA requires an external antenna. If you are in just the right area of the country, you may be able to get you HD locals via your satellite box, if you have one. In that case, you don't need a separate OTA antenna.

If you want to receive OTA HD (or SD for that matter), you still need an external antenna of some sort. If you are quite close to the transmit towers and don't have a lot of obstructions, you may get away with some variety of "rabbit ears" or other portable antenna like a UHF double-bow tie. In any case, you still need an external antenna.

All the "integrated" tuners mean is that the tuners for both OTA HD and SD are built in to the TV, as opposed to, for example, my current Toshiba which has no digitial/HD tuner built in, only SD. Basically, there are three configurations that TV's are sold in:

1. HD Ready = Monitor: no HD OTA tuner, but does have SD OTA tuner. Requires some sort of Set Top Box to get HD (can be an HD satellite receiver with OTA HD tuner. (and requires an external antenna for SD reception)

2. HD Television = full HD and SD tuner: capable of stand alone HD operation, with external antenna.

3. A plain monitor, not intended as a TV as such...video and audio inputs only, no tuners at all. Requires a set top box for the tuner, and that tuner requires an external antenna.

These days, the most common mid-level and on up so-called HD TV's are category 1 above. The least expensive units are category 2 above.

HTH

sorry if this is an entirely idiotic question, but...

Since these models boast integrated NTSC/ATSC tuners, does that mean i no longer need to purchase a separate antenna to receive free, over-the-air HDTV from local channels? Or do i still need to get the rabbit ears?

As reported in this thread earlier I believe, the answer is "it depends" on your service. I am subscribed to Comcast Cable analog service, but am still able to receive unencrypted Digital channels without using a "box" or a cable card in my HLR-5667w, along with the normal (ugly) NTSC analog channels. The channel numbers are strange, like 124-3, etc., but I was amazed at what I could pick up and I made a list for everyone to refer to.

That being said, I still have a UHF table top antenna I got with an ATI HDTV card that is hooked up to the TV "AIR" input and sits 18 inches off of the floor. Many times, I find we get a better picture using this little antenna than getting the same program off of the cable.

As an aside, one thing I did do was to pair an LG LDA-511 Upconverting DVD player with this TV so that I could play 720p content over the component video cables right into the TV. Since my daughter has a bunch of region 2 DVDs, we needed the ability to play mine and hers. The great thing about this player is that it is so "hackable". (There is a thread about this under DVD Players.) This replaced a Philips DVP642 that died and is currently open and in pieces on my workbench. The good news: the LDA-511 will play DivX/avi files that the Philips couldn't.

Finally, I'm working on getting the PS/2 to perform with the TV. I use my kids to test this since I don't do games. So far, the entire family LOVES this TV. My neighbors were in awe watching 'The Masters' tournament this last Sunday off the air. This may have caused a few more sets to be sold!

What output setting should I use on the 360 (Sat receiver), 1080i or 720p? I assume setting it to the native resolution of the display (720p) is preferable? Anything disastrous happen if I look at it in 1080i just for comparison's sake?Nothing disastrous will happen, but 1080i, from others' experiences, will look no different. 720p should be used, since this is the native resolution of the TV. A 1080i feed will have to be converted (by the TV) to 720p.


1. How to get into the service mode (and get out).
With TV off... Mute-1-8-2-Power will get you into SM. To get out, just power the TV off.


2. What SM setting helps the black detail or black issues I've seen discussed. Recommended setting? Other recommended settings (either basic or inside the service menu)?
Many have changed the gamma setting to zero. That did not help my issues (dark scenes in many DVDs look crappy) though -- it's been said that a professional calibration would pretty much take care of that. Another setting that was discussed was index -- people have lowered the value from the default to (in most cases here) 42.

That being said, I still have a UHF table top antenna I got with an ATI HDTV card that is hooked up to the TV "AIR" input and sits 18 inches off of the floor. Many times, I find we get a better picture using this little antenna than getting the same program off of the cable.
Hi Steve... With your OTA antenna experience and this TV, are you able to answer my question from a few posts down?

Finally, a question of how to properly integrate the OTA antenna's channels with the standard cable channels... If I want to watch HD content thru the OTA antenna, I have to switch the source to AIR? And then to watch cable channels, the source will need to be changed to CABLE? Or is there a way to watch all of them under a single setting? It seemed that I was only able to pick up the OTA HD broadcasts when I was in AIR mode, but I have to imagine that things can be more streamlined than this?

Thanks!

Hi Steve... With your OTA antenna experience and this TV, are you able to answer my question from a few posts down?

Finally, a question of how to properly integrate the OTA antenna's channels with the standard cable channels... If I want to watch HD content thru the OTA antenna, I have to switch the source to AIR? And then to watch cable channels, the source will need to be changed to CABLE? Or is there a way to watch all of them under a single setting? It seemed that I was only able to pick up the OTA HD broadcasts when I was in AIR mode, but I have to imagine that things can be more streamlined than this?

Thanks!

Jay,

Right now, we just switch the TV source from "Air" to "Cable" and back via the remote. This is somewhat of a pain, and due to the amount of use the remote gets, I'm thinking of getting a spare to have, just in case. (Plus kids tend to loose these things.)

When I setup the channels list, I had the TV scan both the cable and the antenna inputs. Due to my Comcast Cable analog service, I do get a mixed bag of some HD unencrypted channels along with the normal NTSC channels. Same thing with the antenna. For example, in Baltimore, we receive VHF Channel 11 (NTSC) and HD Channel 11-1 and SD Channel 11-2, both broadcast on UHF Channel 59 off of the antenna. The OTA antenna seems to give the best picture, and almost everyone in the house is used to the "old" TV channel nomenclature, so they can find "Channel 11" or whatever. When you tell them that it is really "124-3" on cable, it's very confusing to them unless they refer to the spreadsheet that I made up, and they don't like doing that.

The TV Guide menu will do some interesting things also. If you select a cable channel, if I remember correctly, it automatically changes the TV from "Air" to "Cable" for that channel when you exit the TV Guide screen. I haven't really experimented with the PIP or the button to return to the previous channel to see if that will cause the TV to switch itself between "Air" and "Cable". Maybe someone else has had more experience with this and could give more guidance. As you know, there's a lot to explore with this TV and I have a lot more experimentation to do.

... I still have a UHF table top antenna I got with an ATI HDTV card that is hooked up to the TV "AIR" input and sits 18 inches off of the floor. Many times, I find we get a better picture using this little antenna than getting the same program off of the cable. ...

FWIW, I am using the same ATI antenna connected to my "air" input and with much better signal strength results than I got when using that antenna with my ATI HDTV card (how well my set displays the result of that signal is a different story). For the ATI card I had to upgrade to a Wineguard Squareshooter 2000 amplified antenna, and had to elevate it in order to get a reliable signal on a few of the more distant channels (37 miles from tower). (http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?CAT=&PROD=OBO-SS-2000). It sits on a shelf beside an upstairs window and the signal is routed through our home cable wiring to the HTPC downstairs. That was easier that putting it on the roof or in the attic, and got roughly the same result.

Antennaweb.org says that I need a red, medium directional antenna for digital. For the ATI HDTV tuner that was definitely true. However, for the internal tuner in the 6167w I'm using the small ATI directional antenna with no amp and getting great results. Heck, I don't even have to aim it for any except the channels that are from 37 miles away.

Based on the comparitively positive experience that I've had with the 6167w's internal tuner, I suspect that you should be safe with whatever antennaweb.org says you need, and likely can get by with less... like rabbit ears, a bow-tie, or a silver sensor type antenna.

My advice, unless antennaweb says that you need a large antenna, is to start with the $3 bow-tie and work your way up as needed. I've heard of some pretty amazing results from the old-tech cheapies.

[I had a good laugh last night while measuring what the 56" is going to look like (I have tons of room...just wanted to see how much bigger things were going to be). Well....a slight miscalculation. I thought I had been looking at a 46" Toshiba for the last two years, so I wanted a good step up. On that basis: 46 to 56 ought to look pretty good....only last night when I was playing around with the tape measure, I noticed I had a 42" Toshiba....oooooppps! For once, I think I have not "under-purchased' in size. I do believe the change from 42" to 56" will be appropriately dramatic! I hope the wife sees the humor in it as much as I have.[/QUOTE]


We added a family room that includes HT. The custom built entertainment system allows room for up to a 61" screen depending on the manufacturer's design. Instead of spending $3-6K to fill up the space, we bought the Samsung 4266 for our initial foray into HDTV. We plan to buy the larger TV when technology advances bring the prices down to a more comfortable level for us. My wife was concerned that the room would look funny w/ a large opening and a relatively small TV. It was not a problem. This TV will eventually go into a smaller room that is a better fit for the 42" screen. We are hoping that we will eventually buy two TV's for the same price that a 60" would cost today.

I did some calibration w/ AVIA and also played w/ the gamma and index settings. I could not see any changes in the test pattern when calibrating the sharpness. We ended up on a 67 setting based on my wife's viewing. Anybody else have similar problems or setting suggestion? Before AVIA was losing detail in dark scenes. After calibration, watched a few dark scenes from HP and the Prisoner... My wife noticed better details in the repelling of the wraith and hippogriff flying scenes. Changed the mode setting from dynamic to movie and noticed better flesh tones and color. Dynamic seemed to pale out the fleshtones. Then switched to Narnia but the snow scenes were approx the color of a beige computer casing. Switched back to dynamic the snow had a more natural color. Made sure that the contrast and brightness settings were the same under each mode. Looks like I still have some work to do. If anyone has some good settings for the 4266 send them my way. So far I have only seen posted settings for the 4667 and larger. My understanding is that settings will differ per TV as well as the user. Also considering prof calib if all else fails.

As an aside, I calibrated my old Zenith Inteq 27". On the component connections, maxed out the color setting before saturation calibration. Switched to composite and naturally the color was oversaturated. A color setting in the 60's fixed the saturation test and tint of 1 for hue. Believe I saw a definite improvement in the cable channels. Now its off to calibrate the Sony 32". Wonder if I should hook up a DVD player to the very old Toshiba 19" and calibrate her too?

FWIW, I am using the same ATI antenna connected to my "air" input and with much better signal strength results than I got when using that antenna with my ATI HDTV card (how well my set displays the result of that signal is a different story). For the ATI card I had to upgrade to a Wineguard Squareshooter 2000 amplified antenna, and had to elevate it in order to get a reliable signal on a few of the more distant channels (37 miles from tower). (http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?CAT=&PROD=OBO-SS-2000). It sits on a shelf beside an upstairs window and the signal is routed through our home cable wiring to the HTPC downstairs. That was easier that putting it on the roof or in the attic, and got roughly the same result.

Antennaweb.org says that I need a red, medium directional antenna for digital. For the ATI HDTV tuner that was definitely true. However, for the internal tuner in the 6167w I'm using the small ATI directional antenna with no amp and getting great results. Heck, I don't even have to aim it for any except the channels that are from 37 miles away.

Based on the comparitively positive experience that I've had with the 6167w's internal tuner, I suspect that you should be safe with whatever antennaweb.org says you need, and likely can get by with less... like rabbit ears, a bow-tie, or a silver sensor type antenna.

My advice, unless antennaweb says that you need a large antenna, is to start with the $3 bow-tie and work your way up as needed. I've heard of some pretty amazing results from the old-tech cheapies.
Thanks for your advice! I think I'll run over to Radio Shack and buy a cheapie... However, since I had poor results with the Terk HDTVa, I would expect a cheapie to work no better -- valid assumption? I will try anyway, and then go from there.

I had a similar problem - and it was the sound setting on the HDMI - make sure you have it set in the menu to BITSTREAM output, not PCM (default). That fixed my issue (not being able to get DD 5.1 - only stereo).

Good luck - hope that fixes it.

Well I did this now I get HDMI audio not supported. Anyway to fix this? Thanks

Guys- overscan. How do I bring more of the picture back into the screen? 1280x720 PC mode is way off.

FYI: I just spoke with Samsung tech. He said it sounded like my color wheel is the problem. Between that and the blotches, he said they would replace the whole assembly for me tommorow.

Anything I should specifically ask them to do when they come? Can I ask them to fix the overscanning and pincushioning?

Guys- overscan. How do I bring more of the picture back into the screen? 1280x720 PC mode is way off.

FYI: I just spoke with Samsung tech. He said it sounded like my color wheel is the problem. Between that and the blotches, he said they would replace the whole assembly for me tommorow.

Anything I should specifically ask them to do when they come? Can I ask them to fix the overscanning and pincushioning?

Will color wheel cause overscan? This doesn't make sense to me. It seems your set has same problems with mine. Last time Samsung contracted field engineer came to my house with the whole assembly you mentioned. Mine has pincushion and overscan too. He finally adjusted overscan in the service menu and didn't replace the optical system. My pincushion is within spec (1/4") but that's really anoying. He told me replacing the optical assembly may or may not help with the distortion on my TV. Maybe I should let him change and see what happens. I am eager to know how they will improve your TV.

Guys- overscan. How do I bring more of the picture back into the screen? 1280x720 PC mode is way off.

FYI: I just spoke with Samsung tech. He said it sounded like my color wheel is the problem. Between that and the blotches, he said they would replace the whole assembly for me tommorow.

Anything I should specifically ask them to do when they come? Can I ask them to fix the overscanning and pincushioning?
It seems that most people who say they display their PC content on this TV complain of overscan (and pincushioning), and from what I've seen, when it's been adjusted, it's been thru the SM, and no hardware replacement was needed. I guess we'll see -- good luck!

Well I did this now I get HDMI audio not supported. Anyway to fix this? Thanks

Are you still using the HDMI for the audio or using optical/digital coax?

It seems that most people who say they display their PC content on this TV complain of overscan (and pincushioning), and from what I've seen, when it's been adjusted, it's been thru the SM, and no hardware replacement was needed. I guess we'll see -- good luck!It's more than just the overscan. Go back and read my earlier posts- you will see that my set buzzes like a really loud electric shaver after being on for a few minutes- that's why they want to swap out the whole assembly.

I figure I might as well ask them to fix the bad overscan/pincushioning problem while they're here.

It's more than just the overscan. Go back and read my earlier posts- you will see that my set buzzes like a really loud electric shaver after being on for a few minutes- that's why they want to swap out the whole assembly.

I figure I might as well ask them to fix the bad overscan/pincushioning problem while they're here.
Yeah, I remember that... I thought you had said that that had only happened once though. So, for many reasons, it's good that you're having them come out and work on this sucker.

Yeah, I remember that... I thought you had said that that had only happened once though. So, for many reasons, it's good that you're having them come out and work on this sucker.More than once. It happens every day and I also have the 2 opaque circles.

well i just ordered my 46" sammy through amazon. The price was great (the 275 bucks in gift cards i got from my credit card company helped too).

I am still going through this whole thread trying to find the proper tweaks for this tv.

In the meantime, any advice from a current owner?

if i understand correctly, these models only have 1 HDMI input, right? Out of curiosity, how do owners manage their inputs then? Ideally, i'd like to be able connect my DVD player via HDMI, as well as HDTV signal (whether thru cable or OTA). Do i have to resort to component input for one of the two then? I guess that's why they have 2 HDMI inputs with the 2006 models huh. As well, how exactly is the OTA antenna connected to the TV? via coaxial cable?

Do i have to resort to component input for one of the two then? via coaxial cable?

Yes & Yes :)

if i understand correctly, these models only have 1 HDMI input, right?
That is correct - just 1 HDMI input.

Out of curiosity, how do owners manage their inputs then?
I have the HL-R5067W. Currently, I have my HD Cable STB hoooked up via DVI/HDMI. My DVD player is hooked up via Component, as it is just a progressive player. I'm letting the TV do the upconversion. For those interested, I do notice a tiny bit of audio lag (manifested as an echo) if I have the TV volume turned up and have my AV Receiver on (hooked up to DVD via optical). Turn the TV volume down and the lag is not noticeable. I have my PS2 hooked up to the other Component input. (I hooked up the HD STB to the HDMI input to free up one of the Component inputs for my PS2 - received the Component cables not too long ago).

Ideally, i'd like to be able connect my DVD player via HDMI, as well as HDTV signal (whether thru cable or OTA). Do i have to resort to component input for one of the two then? I guess that's why they have 2 HDMI inputs with the 2006 models huh.

You have a few options for Cable connection with the HL-RXX67's:
1) Directly to the TV, receiving only unencrypted HD signals
2) Via Cable Card, provided by your cable company
3) STB via Component or
4) STB via HDMI using a switcher (if connecting multiple components through HDMI) from some place like monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com).

As well, how exactly is the OTA antenna connected to the TV? via coaxial cable?
Yes, it's direct to the TV via coax.

That is correct - just 1 HDMI input.


I have the HL-R5067W. Currently, I have my HD Cable STB hoooked up via DVI/HDMI. My DVD player is hooked up via Component, as it is just a progressive player. I'm letting the TV do the upconversion. For those interested, I do notice a tiny bit of audio lag (manifested as an echo) if I have the TV volume turned up and have my AV Receiver on (hooked up to DVD via optical). Turn the TV volume down and the lag is not noticeable. I have my PS2 hooked up to the other Component input. (I hooked up the HD STB to the HDMI input to free up one of the Component inputs for my PS2 - received the Component cables not too long ago).



You have a few options for Cable connection with the HL-RXX67's:
1) Directly to the TV, receiving only unencrypted HD signals
2) Via Cable Card, provided by your cable company
3) STB via Component or
4) STB via HDMI using a switcher (if connecting multiple components through HDMI) from some place like monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com).


Yes, it's direct to the TV via coax.
The thing I don't get is how to integrate the channels you get from your OTA antenna with the ones you get thru cable. I can't believe that I would have to switch the antenna setting each time I want to watch an OTA channel instead of a cable channel (or the reverse). This TV is not smart enough to have both content sources available at the same time, without having go to press the Antenna button each time?

Assembly swapped, opaque circles appear to be gone.

OK folks, how do I adjust the really bad overscan in the PC mode @ 1280x720 resolution?

Also, how do I adjust the pincushioning?

Assembly swapped, opaque circles appear to be gone.

OK folks, how do I adjust the really bad overscan in the PC mode @ 1280x720 resolution?

Also, how do I adjust the pincushioning?

You said:
I figure I might as well ask them to fix the bad overscan/pincushioning problem while they're here.

What did they say? Pincushion cannot be adjusted by a consumer. It becomes a Samsung issue if it bows a 1/4" or more.

You said:
I figure I might as well ask them to fix the bad overscan/pincushioning problem while they're here.

What did they say? Pincushion cannot be adjusted by a consumer. It becomes a Samsung issue if it bows a 1/4" or more.Essentially she said she didn't want to bother with the pincushioning (was too close) and the Overscan thing she said was probably my videocard and to try a lower resolution.

Being that I want to run it as a HTPC, I don't see why I can't get the 1280x720/60Hz image more into the screen.

I figured this one out by experimentation.

To put my HLR5667W into "PC Mode" (to get the wide-pc option, the "signal lock" options, etc) I had to go into the "name input" menu and select "PC" (so that when you hit the input button afterwards it says "PC PC" on the vga input. That did the trick... woo hoo!

By the way, neither Samsung level 1 nor level 2 tech support knew this. I was supposed to get a mail from engineering with a fix/explanation, but that was more than a week ago and I got tired of waiting.

So "PC" puts the vga input into "PC" mode (only a problem with 1280x720, which defaults to DTV mode even on the vga input), and GAME puts the set into a reduced-lag mode. Samsung REALLY ought to document what these "names" do... figuring this out was really trying my patience on an otherwise great set.

--JackWow. I had to go back a long way to find this, but it seemed to solve my overscanning problem in 1280x720. How anyone figured this one out is beyond me.

Now my PC screen is too far to the left and up, there's about 1 1/2" of black. Anyone? I tried powerstrip's custom resolutions and they don't seem to help. This definitely seems to be something I have to resolve from the Service Menu.

So i just stopped by my local Best Buy to check out the 5067 in real life. I was pretty pleasantly impressed at first, but then i couldn't help but notice the 42" Samsung plasma on display above the 5067. As i understood things, the general rule of thumb is that plasmas and flat LCDs are brighter and have better viewing angles than microdisplay DLP, LCD, or LCOS, but that there wasn't necessarily a difference in image quality aside from that. When the tech guy put on scenes from Crash in HD on all the sets, the image displayed by the plasma was noticeably superior. Not to say just brighter or anything, but the image detail was significantly finer, so much that even my girlfriend who is usually very indifferent about these things exclaimed how much better the plasma's image was compared to "the one you want to get." :( Anyways, my question is whether this was an issue of perhaps poor calibration on the 5067? Does anyone have any complaints from their 5667 or 5067 in terms of HD details? I can't help but wonder how the plasma just looked THAT much better.

Just got my Samsung HLR5667W hooked up to my digital cablebox. Seems fine although quality of picture gets better at the higher channels. Have HD on order but my local cable company is out of stock on the HD boxes. So until the HD comes in what can I do to better enjoy my purchase? I previously had my Sony Wega hooked up to my surround sound and plan to do the same with my Samsung. On the Wega I used an optical cable from my DVD player to my amplifier as well as the component cables, should I run the optical cable to the Samsung instead of into the amp? What other tips can you knowledgeable people give to this rookie? Any suggestions for the menu settings?

? you're optical cable question makes no sense to me... you want to run it from the dvd player to the tv? the optical on the set is an output so you would be running an output to an output. besides using s video for your dvd and cable box connections there's not much you can do. you can try plugging the cable wire directly into the cable coax input on the back of the set and auto program it to see if your cable company doesn't scramble some of the HD channels and watch HD that way. as for menu settings there are many suggestions scattered though this thread. it all comes down to personal preference.... you are better off playing with them and deciding on your own what you like and dont like then having someone tell you what is good for them.

So i just stopped by my local Best Buy to check out the 5067 in real life. I was pretty pleasantly impressed at first, but then i couldn't help but notice the 42" Samsung plasma on display above the 5067. As i understood things, the general rule of thumb is that plasmas and flat LCDs are brighter and have better viewing angles than microdisplay DLP, LCD, or LCOS, but that there wasn't necessarily a difference in image quality aside from that. When the tech guy put on scenes from Crash in HD on all the sets, the image displayed by the plasma was noticeably superior. Not to say just brighter or anything, but the image detail was significantly finer, so much that even my girlfriend who is usually very indifferent about these things exclaimed how much better the plasma's image was compared to "the one you want to get." :( Anyways, my question is whether this was an issue of perhaps poor calibration on the 5067? Does anyone have any complaints from their 5667 or 5067 in terms of HD details? I can't help but wonder how the plasma just looked THAT much better.
I say get the one that looks best to you. I would not buy this 5067 again, wish I could return it. I called today and to calibrate it would cost me $400 for one input, and then $50/hr for additional ones. I feel that there should be no need for the customer to pay someone to calibrate a TV that they just bought -- it should come perfectly calibrated. Not to mention the fact that it has persistent serious issues:

1.) Dark scenes on DVDs look like crap
2.) Game lag w/ non-progressive consoles (Xbox, PS2, etc.)

3.) Video lag (audio is out of sync w/ video because TV takes too long to process the video). Should not have to buy an aftermarket (Felston) box to artificially delay the audio, or buy/use a special DVD player or receiver to do this. The TV should be able to handle this stuff properly by itself... Delivering full 5.1 output if you pass your audio thru the TV to your HT (since this is the supposed cheap fix for the video lag issue)

Go not with the best price, but what looks and works best to you!

The thing I don't get is how to integrate the channels you get from your OTA antenna with the ones you get thru cable. I can't believe that I would have to switch the antenna setting each time I want to watch an OTA channel instead of a cable channel (or the reverse). This TV is not smart enough to have both content sources available at the same time, without having go to press the Antenna button each time?
Jay,
Have you come across any TVs that can do this? I think the main reason for having several types of inputs is to provide consumers with the option to feed a signal to the TV whichever way they choose, and not so much for integrating channels from multiple sources. I actually have never even thought about a TV having the ability to integrate channels from different sources until I read your posts, but I think that would be a cool feature. I don't know if I would use it, but it would be a nice option. Actually, I have my cable signal split - one feed going to my HD STB and the other going directly to the TV. But it's solely for the purpose of using the PIP function.

I just spoke to a third tier tech at Samsung today, and he readily acknowledged that they have a problem with my model (HLR-4667W), or perhaps it is all recent production "R" models. The degree of macro-blocking from DVD playback is not normal. He did not have a lot of detail at this time because it seems Samsung is still working on a solution, but he did mention that he was suppose to attend an information meeting soon on this issue. He also hinted that a firmware update might be a possible fix.

I showed the problem to a friend using both my Oppo and Denon DVD players today, and he was amazed at how "bad" it looked. I played the first half hour or so of Goblet of Fire, and the problem was evident in even some brighter scenes. My friend has only a 27" SD set, and he thought the movie looked better on his TV. I also tried switching up the outputs on the Oppo and Denon (from 480i to 480p to 720p) and the macro-blocking was very bad in all cases, but perhaps a little worse with the 720p up-conversion.

I think the fact that the macro-blocking problem is severe with both players and with different outputs tends to point the finger at the television, particularly since 480i from the Denon did not in any way eliminate the blockiness. With progressive turned off on the Denon, there should have been no or very minimal processing by the Denon... in other words, a pure DVD signal. I think this eliminates the possibility that the Faroudja chipset is the problem, even though both of my DVD players and the Samsung set use Faroudja for scaling and/or de-interlacing.

Anyway, I am still waiting for a vist from a service tech. I will report back any findings, hopefully by next week.

Anyways, my question is whether this was an issue of perhaps poor calibration on the 5067? Does anyone have any complaints from their 5667 or 5067 in terms of HD details? I can't help but wonder how the plasma just looked THAT much better.
Noobster,
HL-R5067W owner here. I had some complaints about DVD and HD PQ with my set when I first got it, mostly just with dark scenes and shadows. The PQ just wasn't as good as what I saw with the display sets at Fry's, BB & CC. But I made a few tweaks and calibrated using DVE after reading several posts on this thread and I'm quite pleased with it now. I didn't compare Sammy DLP's to Sammy plasmas when I was shopping/doing research, as plasmas were out of my price range in the size I was shopping for. But, yes, the poor PQ you saw with the 5067 could very well have been due to poor calibration. It could also be due to the input used on each TV (HDMI PQ > Component PQ). I suggest you continue to do your research and make the most informed decision you can so you don't end up with buyer's remorse. Also, make sure that if you do take the plunge, buy from a place that allows you to return the TV if you're not satisfied with it.

I just spoke to a third tier tech at Samsung today, and he readily acknowledged that they have a problem with my model (HLR-4667W), or perhaps it is all recent production "R" models. The degree of macro-blocking from DVD playback is not normal. He did not have a lot of detail at this time because it seems Samsung is still working on a solution, but he did mention that he was suppose to attend an information meeting soon on this issue. He also hinted that a firmware update might be a possible fix.

I showed the problem to a friend using both my Oppo and Denon DVD players today, and he was amazed at how "bad" it looked. I played the first half hour or so of Goblet of Fire, and the problem was evident in even some brighter scenes. My friend has only a 27" SD set, and he thought the movie looked better on his TV. I also tried switching up the outputs on the Oppo and Denon (from 480i to 480p to 720p) and the macro-blocking was very bad in all cases, but perhaps a little worse with the 720p up-conversion. Anyway, I am still waiting for a vist from a service tech. I will report back any findings, hopefully by next week.
Yes! Please do!! If a Samsung person acknowledged this problem, maybe there is hope for us. The performance as it is is just unaccpetable. I bet though, if I were to call, I would not get the same story that you got. That's the tough thing... How did you get to third level, what problems were you complaining about in addition to this?

Also, make sure that if you do take the plunge, buy from a place that allows you to return the TV if you're not satisfied with it.
YES -- #1 PRIORITY IN THE PURCHASE! The mistake that I made in going w/ Amazon!

the dlp rookie has another question. what is all this talk about "video lag"? tell me after I hook up my dvd player that I won't experience this problem. and if I do what are my options?

the dlp rookie has another question. what is all this talk about "video lag"? tell me after I hook up my dvd player that I won't experience this problem. and if I do what are my options?

As I experienced it, video lag happens when I split my output from a device... in my case an HTPC... sending the video to the TV, and the audio to my home theater receiver, then to the TV. The TV does some processing of the video signal, which causes a delay in the display of the video and audio through the TV. So, the audio is not delayed going to the home theater receiver, but the video and audio are delayed on the TV... or they lag behind the home theater audio... hence the term "video lag".
My Denon home theater receiver has an adjustment for up to 30ms of lag/delay, but that is not nearly sufficient. I'm guessing that probably about 120ms is needed (purely a guess).

I hope that made sense.

Anyhow, I've read that you can route the audio through the TV first, then out to the home theater to solve the problem... which is great if you are using one of the TV inputs that supports this. I am using the VGA input to get the signal from my HTPC, and that port won't pass-through the audio... so that solution doesn't work for me.

Anyhow, I've read that you can route the audio through the TV first, then out to the home theater to solve the problem... which is great if you are using one of the TV inputs that supports this. I am using the VGA input to get the signal from my HTPC, and that port won't pass-through the audio... so that solution doesn't work for me.

so should I run audio cables from my dvd to the tv and NOT the reciever? and then run cables from my tv ( of which I'm not sure which outlets to use) to the receiver?

forgive my stupidity here but this is all new to me.

If you want to fix the lag from different inputs you have to do what I did to solve my PC input problem- You have to go to the menu where you can "name" inputs and choose what you have on each one (ie:"Game" for Component1, "DVD" for Component2, etc).That should fix it.

A totally undocumented feature. Even the tech didn't know about the "PC PC" setting to get centering back for 1280x720 PC input.

so should I run audio cables from my dvd to the tv and NOT the reciever? and then run cables from my tv ( of which I'm not sure which outlets to use) to the receiver?

forgive my stupidity here but this is all new to me.
ric,
If you are hoping to keep the surround sound effect, run the audio from your DVD player directly to the receiver, preferably via optical cable, if you can. From what I have read on this thread, the TV will not pass through 5.1 (I have not tried to confirm this). If you connect your DVD audio to both the TV and AV Receiver (my current set up), you might be able to get away with just turning down the TV volume completely. The lag might be so little that you don't notice it. You'll know if you're experiencing lag if there is an echo with the TV and receiver volume up. Also check to see if your receiver has a delay feature. You can change this setting to eliminate the lag, provided that your receiver can delay the audio enough.

so should I run audio cables from my dvd to the tv and NOT the reciever? and then run cables from my tv ( of which I'm not sure which outlets to use) to the receiver?

forgive my stupidity here but this is all new to me.


People need to use the search feature in this thread. This question has been answered probably every 2 weeks inside this thread alone. ;)

PS- it is known as leading audio more often than video lag.

I just spoke to a third tier tech at Samsung today, and he readily acknowledged that they have a problem with my model (HLR-4667W), or perhaps it is all recent production "R" models. The degree of macro-blocking from DVD playback is not normal. He did not have a lot of detail at this time because it seems Samsung is still working on a solution, but he did mention that he was suppose to attend an information meeting soon on this issue. He also hinted that a firmware update might be a possible fix.

I showed the problem to a friend using both my Oppo and Denon DVD players today, and he was amazed at how "bad" it looked. I played the first half hour or so of Goblet of Fire, and the problem was evident in even some brighter scenes. My friend has only a 27" SD set, and he thought the movie looked better on his TV. I also tried switching up the outputs on the Oppo and Denon (from 480i to 480p to 720p) and the macro-blocking was very bad in all cases, but perhaps a little worse with the 720p up-conversion.

I think the fact that the macro-blocking problem is severe with both players and with different outputs tends to point the finger at the television, particularly since 480i from the Denon did not in any way eliminate the blockiness. With progressive turned off on the Denon, there should have been no or very minimal processing by the Denon... in other words, a pure DVD signal. I think this eliminates the possibility that the Faroudja chipset is the problem, even though both of my DVD players and the Samsung set use Faroudja for scaling and/or de-interlacing.

Anyway, I am still waiting for a vist from a service tech. I will report back any findings, hopefully by next week.

how would the user perform a firmware update on these tvs?

how would the user perform a firmware update on these tvs?
My question as well! I don't see Samsung sending a tech to everyone's house to upgrade the firmware. Honestly though, I don't see them even fixing, or being able to fix the problem for us. Of course... I would love to be wrong.

My question as well! I don't see Samsung sending a tech to everyone's house to upgrade the firmware. Honestly though, I don't see them even fixing, or being able to fix the problem for us. Of course... I would love to be wrong.


Sony recently issued a firmware update for their A10 model line and sent a tech to everyone who requested the update. The process only took about 10 minutes and addressed a couple issues people were reporting. So I would expect Samsung COULD do the same thing, however, I don't think enough people are "squeaking" about the same issues so I doubt they'll be forced to do this.

Overall, more people are impressed with the set than are disappointed. I'm probably 95% happy with my 5067 now that I've done some tweaking. I don't expect HD quality from non-HD souces (even with an upconverting DVD player) and I only notice the macro-blocking problem when the image is in rapid motion.

The bottom line is that the PQ varies widely according to the the signal source. It's not perfect all the time, but it given a good clean signal (Discovery HD, for example), I'm quite happy with it.


Roger

i was always curious if there had been any firmware updates for these sets. i'm assuming there hasn't so far.

my 4667 was well worth the money. the 2 biggest dissapointments are the tvguide and the cable card features, which both seem to be problems with tv guide itself and time warner's cable cards. the sync issue is a bit annoying but its possible to work around it

Sony recently issued a firmware update for their A10 model line and sent a tech to everyone who requested the update. The process only took about 10 minutes and addressed a couple issues people were reporting. So I would expect Samsung COULD do the same thing, however, I don't think enough people are "squeaking" about the same issues so I doubt they'll be forced to do this.

Overall, more people are impressed with the set than are disappointed. I'm probably 95% happy with my 5067 now that I've done some tweaking. I don't expect HD quality from non-HD souces (even with an upconverting DVD player) and I only notice the macro-blocking problem when the image is in rapid motion.

The bottom line is that the PQ varies widely according to the the signal source. It's not perfect all the time, but it given a good clean signal (Discovery HD, for example), I'm quite happy with it.


Roger
But if you were to compare the very same source on a different set, would you not be more pleased? That has been the case with me, anyway... DVDs that looked terrible on this 5067 have looked just fine on my friend's A10.

But if you were to compare the very same source on a different set, would you not be more pleased? That has been the case with me, anyway... DVDs that looked terrible on this 5067 have looked just fine on my friend's A10.


If you are using the same source player in the same room with the same connection, then my guess would be that either:

1) The Sony is a superior model, or...

2) The Samsung needs some adjustments to improve PQ (more likely).

When I made my purchase I gave serious consideration to the Sony A10. We'd had nothing but Sonys for nearly 20 years and loved them. But seeing the A10 next to the 5067 in the same store I perferred the image on the Samsung. I thought the Sony suffered from excessive SDE and that would bother me regardless of the source. And I disliked the excessive "blurring" I observed during scenes with lots of motion.

But I also realized that all the sets in the big stores are pulled from the boxes and put on the shelf. They get no calibration or tweaking; in fact, most have been mal-adjusted by customers or sales staff. Still, the Samsung technology, PQ and pricing appealed to me.

Seriously, it may be that you need to have your set tweaked, serviced or replaced if you're not happy with the PQ. I'm just happy to report my results, and although less than perfect the Samsung meets my expectations with good HD material. Everything else is less than optimal but I can live with that.

I hope you're able to get resolution to your discontent.


Roger

Watched my first DVD tonight on my two day old HLR5667 and was taken back by the "noise" I could see in the picture. Is this common? I'm using Monster Cables via component.

The hookup to my amplifier worked out and I'm not getting the mentioned "video lag". But I'm curious as to why I'm seeing the noise. Any thoughts?

Watched my first DVD tonight on my two day old HLR5667 and was taken back by the "noise" I could see in the picture. Is this common? I'm using Monster Cables via component.

The hookup to my amplifier worked out and I'm not getting the mentioned "video lag". But I'm curious as to why I'm seeing the noise. Any thoughts?
Please read thru at least the last 10 pages of this thread. You will see that this is probably the most common complaint. A several hundred dollar calibration may help, but there is no known resolution.

Jay,
Have you come across any TVs that can do this? I think the main reason for having several types of inputs is to provide consumers with the option to feed a signal to the TV whichever way they choose, and not so much for integrating channels from multiple sources. I actually have never even thought about a TV having the ability to integrate channels from different sources until I read your posts, but I think that would be a cool feature. I don't know if I would use it, but it would be a nice option. Actually, I have my cable signal split - one feed going to my HD STB and the other going directly to the TV. But it's solely for the purpose of using the PIP function.

The only setups I've seen that integrate OTA material/Cable, etc. is DirecTV satellite antennas and I think they do it via a database. My Samsung T-360 does it with OTA and Satellite appearing in the same guide. However, since it adds stations to the guide that I don't receive OTA, I'm betting it is a service of DirecTV that uses a database. The sat receiver has a setup choice asking if you want to integrate the OTA and Sat stuff, btw.

My 5667W should arrive this coming Wednesday. Obviously, there is always the chance of a DOA or other significant problem upon arrival. It's coming freight (started out in New York by looking at the tracking).

Are there any precautions that I need to take when unboxing this monster? Worst case, what if it has to go back to the seller because it is DOA (dead on arrival)? The seller (TVA) indicated that if it were DOA, they would replace it within 30 dasy. My real question:

How do you unbox it, yet preserve things so it can be returned? Anyone been through this have some hints?

I have read all the items in the threads and see this question asked over and over and over. There are a couple of good reasons this happens, and it could be avoided if:

1. There was a decent, comprehensive set of instructions (by the numbers) of how to do this. Piecing together various descriptions is tedious at best, and confusing at worst. I have written a lot of documentation for fairly complex software programs for amateur radio equipment, and have found that explanations don't have to be long, but they must be comprehensive and clear.

2. People could find this set of instructions easily.

None of the comments I've seen here about how to actually change the values for index delay and gamma even come close to being either concise or clear. Important steps are always left out. If someone who knows how to do these adjustments from start to finish could post them in the following format, it would be of great benefit to many of the viewers of this thread.

Example of the kind of instructions for dummies that I'm referring to:

=============================================
0. Before going to Service Mode, preset your User Settings (normal color, brightness, contrast/ etc. to reasonable levels (provide sample settings that are likely to make any adjustments in SM observable)

Note: Approximate values for Index Delay and Gamma are set in the Service Menu: When you go into the SM, begin with the following values for Index Delay and Gamma: 42 (ID) 0 (Gamma) XXXX

Note: Before entering the Service Menu, you need to turn your TV OFF. Make sure your source device (DVD/Satellite Receiver) is turned on and being viewed before you turn the set off...it will be used to evaluate your changes as you make them.

1. To enter the Service Mode (SM): with the TV off Press in sequence XXXX
2. You will see: XXXXXXXX
3. Use the XXXX keys to move to menu item XXXX (one for index another for gamma....start with Index)
4. Select the item you want to change by pressing XXXX
5. Change the value of the (index) by XXXX
6. When finished with (index) look at the picture for the following XXXXXX
7. To change the Gamma: (put instructions here how to move from setting Index Delay to navigate to the location for setting Gamma XXXXXXXXXXXX)
8. Return to Item 4 above and follow the same procedure to set Gamma
9. When you are satisfied with the quality of your picture, exit the SM by turning the power off and then quickly back on to return to normal viewing and not put too much stress on the bulb.
==========================================

Things that are missing in the above example:

1. Everywhere you see XXXX, someone has to provide the values or description for navigation.

2. Do Gamma and Index Delay have to be set for each input, or are they basic settings that apply to all inputs?

3. A clear warning of any adjustments that might be hard to recover from

4. A clear warning to write down the value of any parameter that you intend to change (BEFORE) you change it, so you can get back to where things were.

OK, that's it as far as I can tell. If someone will take the time to "fill in the XXXX's", I'll save the reply as a file and volunteer to post the concise version all by itself in a reply that isn't cluttered with all sorts of other observations. This way, we can point to ONE POST/REPLY that has everything a person might need to do the Index Delay and Gamma adjustment in the service menu. Otherwise, at least every time the question gets asked, one of us who saved the "concise" instructions can post the agreed upon procedure with a simple cut and paste and be done with it.

Just received and assembled the TechCraft DLP58X Silver stand for my 5667W. It took two of us 50 minutes to assemble. The instructions are terrible, but the person helping me has a good "spatial" eye.

It feels quite rugged and has a very nice silver metal look. The large opening at the bottom is covered with glass (single shelf, no front doors, feet mount on glass in six places to prevent rattling) and will easily accomodate my Paradigm CC-350 center channel speaker. I plan to mount the speaker on the shelf with about a 1 to 2 inch uptilt (because the shelf is only about 3 inches off the floor). I think this will give me good center channel dispersion, but won't know until I try it.

The shelf opening is about 8 3/4 inches, which would permit a wide variety of center channel speakers to fit just fine. It has a oval hole in the back to route cables if needed, and the hole has a cosmetically pleasing insert to give it a more finished appearance.

How well it will work located so low is yet to be determined, but it was the easiest place to put the Paradigm speaker. There are no obstacles between the front of the TV and the listening area, so it should work out fine.

Overall I would rate the stand an 8 out of 10.

Instructions: 3/10
Aesthetics: 9
Construction: 10 (including how well parts fit and holes lined up)
Functionality: 10

I was sent TWO complete sets of hardware, and two sets of instructions, not to mention a bunch of the hardware was pre-mounted on the major boards, giving me three total sets of some parts. Much better than the typical problem of missing hardware.

For a price in the $150.00 range (+/- shipping), I think it is an excellent value, and certainly far better use of money than the 3 to 5 hundred dollar stands that the various TV retailers are asking.

Even though I also have the DLP58X I just purchased an OMNIMount shelf for $20 and placed my center on top of the TV.

I agree with the previous poster that there needs to be a sticky at the beginning of the thread stating all the basic values/adjustments discovered so far. I would really like to center my picture, adjust overscan and pincushioning but I have no idea if this is even possible. I read back through most of the thread, and see people mentioning it's not, then I see them mentioning they've done it with such tools as AVIA.

Even though I also have the DLP58X I just purchased an OMNIMount shelf for $20 and placed my center on top of the TV.

I agree with the previous poster that there needs to be a sticky at the beginning of the thread stating all the basic values/adjustments discovered so far. I would really like to center my picture, adjust overscan and pincushioning but I have no idea if this is even possible. I read back through most of the thread, and see people mentioning it's not, then I see them mentioning they've done it with such tools as AVIA.
I think I may need to center mine also? It seems that some OTA channels have a blinky white line across the very top -- has anyone seen this before? Very strange. Other than that, OTA seems to look OK (not 100% crisp and perfect, but I would say between 80-90%) with a $20 Radio Shack antenna.

My 5667W should arrive this coming Wednesday. Obviously, there is always the chance of a DOA or other significant problem upon arrival. It's coming freight (started out in New York by looking at the tracking).

Are there any precautions that I need to take when unboxing this monster? Worst case, what if it has to go back to the seller because it is DOA (dead on arrival)? The seller (TVA) indicated that if it were DOA, they would replace it within 30 dasy. My real question:

How do you unbox it, yet preserve things so it can be returned? Anyone been through this have some hints?
Yeah, you just need to people to unbox it without breaking the foam protectors. Other than that, should be no problem for you.

I think I may need to center mine also? It seems that some OTA channels have a blinky white line across the very top -- has anyone seen this before? Very strange. Other than that, OTA seems to look OK (not 100% crisp and perfect, but I would say between 80-90%) with a $20 Radio Shack antenna.From going back over the thread it appears that overscan and pincushioning are not something we can fix from service mode, correct?

I have seen, however, some reference to horizontal/vertical centering adjustments from service mode, and that would help a great deal. With the new assembly my image is much too high up, and needs to be brought down (at least 1/2"-1"). If someone knows how, please post them.

This is why we need a major sticky at the beginning of the thread (or a new post) that lists at least the basic geometry and color adjustments people ask for every time they get one of these displays.

I'm probably going to get ripped by someone on this board but I'll ask anyway. Explain to me how and why I should use a hdmi cable? I'm seeing a lot of mention of this but I did a search and couldn't find a direct explanation. If someone wouldn't mind explaining this to me in third grade language I would greatly appreciate it.

From going back over the thread it appears that overscan and pincushioning are not something we can fix from service mode, correct?

I have seen, however, some reference to horizontal/vertical centering adjustments from service mode, and that would help a great deal. With the new assembly my image is much too high up, and needs to be brought down (at least 1/2"-1"). If someone knows how, please post them.

This is why we need a major sticky at the beginning of the thread (or a new post) that lists at least the basic geometry and color adjustments people ask for every time they get one of these displays.

You are correct. There is no adjustment for pincushion. It's a screen anomaly.
In 4:3 mode you can take a knuckle and push against the screen an change the shape of the black bar. Some screens are better than others at minimizing the bowing effect. I think we all have it to some degree.

I sent you a PM on the "Vert Position" adjustment.

I'm probably going to get ripped by someone on this board but I'll ask anyway. Explain to me how and why I should use a hdmi cable? I'm seeing a lot of mention of this but I did a search and couldn't find a direct explanation. If someone wouldn't mind explaining this to me in third grade language I would greatly appreciate it.

No big deal, really. Some like to have an all digital connection from a set top box or an up-converting DVD player. Some actually use the audio that's integrated in the connection with varied results. Others just ran out of component inputs. I use mine for a DVD player.

I'm probably going to get ripped by someone on this board but I'll ask anyway. Explain to me how and why I should use a hdmi cable? I'm seeing a lot of mention of this but I did a search and couldn't find a direct explanation. If someone wouldn't mind explaining this to me in third grade language I would greatly appreciate it.
My understanding is that HDMI transmits the signal in digital, instead of analog. Also, it does both video and audio in the same cable. I am a novice also, but I'm pretty sure that my information is accurate on this one.

I think I may need to center mine also? It seems that some OTA channels have a blinky white line across the very top -- has anyone seen this before? Very strange. Other than that, OTA seems to look OK (not 100% crisp and perfect, but I would say between 80-90%) with a $20 Radio Shack antenna.

Gotcha covered! PM sent!

I'm probably going to get ripped by someone on this board but I'll ask anyway. Explain to me how and why I should use a hdmi cable? I'm seeing a lot of mention of this but I did a search and couldn't find a direct explanation. If someone wouldn't mind explaining this to me in third grade language I would greatly appreciate it.

We won't try to rip you off, but a store trying to sell you a HDMI cable priced over $100 is ripping you off. Any HDMI cable that can pass all the 1's and 0's whether priced at $30 or $125 will work. PQ with analog vs digital cable can be almost nil in some instances and often due to the original signal. You won't necessary get a better PQ by using a digital cable vs an analog cable though the difference can be measured by test equipment.

If you are currently experiencing problems with analog cables, then perhaps you may want HDMI cables...... however there in no need to spend a fortune on overpriced digital cables.

My 5667W should arrive this coming Wednesday. Obviously, there is always the chance of a DOA or other significant problem upon arrival. It's coming freight (started out in New York by looking at the tracking).

Are there any precautions that I need to take when unboxing this monster? Worst case, what if it has to go back to the seller because it is DOA (dead on arrival)? The seller (TVA) indicated that if it were DOA, they would replace it within 30 dasy. My real question:

How do you unbox it, yet preserve things so it can be returned? Anyone been through this have some hints?

After it's unboxed, I would let it sit for a bit to ajust to your room temp before plugging it in and turning it on.

Keep the foam inserts that are between the speakers and set. Someone else kept their's for better support since the set floats on the sides.

But I also realized that all the sets in the big stores are pulled from the boxes and put on the shelf. They get no calibration or tweaking; in fact, most have been mal-adjusted by customers or sales staff. Still, the Samsung technology, PQ and pricing appealed to me.


Not quite true. I know that the guy who calibrated my 5067 has calibrated display models in some higher-end stores. It may be true for CC and BB, but others are calibrated which is why a set may look better in some stores.

I actually prefer to watch from Motorola Cable STB over Firewire. I just use the S-Video port to see the menu, hit the DNet button and away I go. The Firewire inputs look leaps and bounds over any other connection, even the built in HD tuner.

This way I get to save the HDMI input for the PS3 when it comes out.

My 5667W should arrive this coming Wednesday. Obviously, there is always the chance of a DOA or other significant problem upon arrival. It's coming freight (started out in New York by looking at the tracking).

Are there any precautions that I need to take when unboxing this monster? Worst case, what if it has to go back to the seller because it is DOA (dead on arrival)? The seller (TVA) indicated that if it were DOA, they would replace it within 30 dasy. My real question:

How do you unbox it, yet preserve things so it can be returned? Anyone been through this have some hints?
To open the box, there are four "clips" that secure the box top to the box base. Simply squeeze the horizontal bars on the clips, and pull the "door" forward and slide out the clips. You will then be able to slide off the box top without damaging the box (no cutting necessary).

To open the box, there are four "clips" that secure the box top to the box base. Simply squeeze the horizontal bars on the clips, and pull the "door" forward and slide out the clips. You will then be able to slide off the box top without damaging the box (no cutting necessary).
Thanks! That was exactly the answer I was looking for. I didn't want to take a box knife to the thing, should it have to be sent back. Now I just have to hope it arrives without damage, in good working order and without some of the significant flaws that have plagued a few of the posters here.

this is addressed to owners of the 5067 or other models who have had their sets professionally calibrated: any complaints? particularly with dark scenes? is macroblocking still evident?

Not quite true. I know that the guy who calibrated my 5067 has calibrated display models in some higher-end stores. It may be true for CC and BB, but others are calibrated which is why a set may look better in some stores.


You're correct. I should not have said "all" but "most". This is primarily true of the big-box and mainline electronics stores.


Roger

Sigh. Woke up this morning, tried to turn on my set and it wouldn't go on. That's 2 visits needed by Samsung repair within the first week of owning my set.:(

woo hoo my 4667 is being delivered tomorrow!

Sigh. Woke up this morning, tried to turn on my set and it wouldn't go on. That's 2 visits needed by Samsung repair within the first week of owning my set.:(
Damn! Did it do anything at all? Make the silly beep? That sucks!

Damn! Did it do anything at all? Make the silly beep? That sucks!I turned off the beep. Actually, the red "Stand by lamp" just keeps flashing. That is all.

I unplugged it for about an hour, plugged it back in, and turned it back on very quickly, and that worked, but when I turned it off with the remote it wouldn't turn back on again. Just the same flashing again.:(

According to the tech they'll probably have to replace the assembly again. That totally sucks. They should really just give me a totally new TV at this point.

I turned off the beep. Actually, the red "Stand by lamp" just keeps flashing. That is all.

I unplugged it for about an hour, plugged it back in, and turned it back on very quickly, and that worked, but when I turned it off with the remote it wouldn't turn back on again. Just the same flashing again.:(

According to the tech they'll probably have to replace the assembly again. That totally sucks. They should really just give me a totally new TV at this point.
I agree. I wonder how many times before the thing would be considered a lemon, if ever?

I agree. I wonder how many times before the thing would be considered a lemon, if ever?I dunno. It seems 2x within the 1st week is excessive.

It seems I can get the set to turn on every time as long as I unplug it from the powerstrip. That is just intollerable. Sounds more like a problem with the set's PS than the assembly.

Whatever. I just want a working TV!

Extended Warranty Question:

I got my 5067 from Circuit City and have had it about 4 months. I just got a mailer from CC giving me the option to purchase an extended warranty plan that comes into effect after my initial 1 year warranty expires. The coverage is as follows

1 year $152.94
2 years $289.50
3 years $415.14
4 years $518.93

I guess my question is, you guys that know more about these TVs than I do, are any of them worth it and which would be the best deal? About when should I expect my lamp to go out? Thanks in advance.
-Andrew

Extended Warranty Question:

I got my 5067 from Circuit City and have had it about 4 months. I just got a mailer from CC giving me the option to purchase an extended warranty plan that comes into effect after my initial 1 year warranty expires. The coverage is as follows

1 year $152.94
2 years $289.50
3 years $415.14
4 years $518.93

I guess my question is, you guys that know more about these TVs than I do, are any of them worth it and which would be the best deal? About when should I expect my lamp to go out? Thanks in advance.
-Andrew

I got a 3 year plan that actually starts at the end of the normal 1 year warranty for $315 and it includes bulb replacement (I've heard that alone can cost about $200)... so I'd say the 3 year myself. Depends on how often you turn it on and off, and how long you watch on average per day. I've seen 8,000 - 10,000 hours expected life on the bulbs... but I don't know for sure.

Good luck!

Well, they're coming once again to replace the light engine. 2x the charm eh?

Ok, I just watched a great movie for testing your darkness/gamma settings and seeing if you are truly getting macro blocking from the source or the TV.

I have seen alot of movies that have horrid blacks/blockiness no matter what I do to the settings, and I'm beginning to think more and more that it is the source, not the TV that is the culprit with this annoying issue.

I watched DOMINO last night - a very dark film with lots of good contrasting scenes, many colors and gradients. I didn't care much for the movie itself, but the intro, and the first 20 minutes have lots of good scenes for testing your settings.

The studio house intro is the first good test - a blue ball with gradient to black... good for adjusting the contrast and brightness to see how it deals with the gradient.

The opening interview scenes between the 2 girls is also a great indicator to me that macro blocking is more a source compression issue than the TV as I got NO MACRO blocking at all even at high brightness/contrast settings. The blacks were black - not gray, and the colors were vivid and bright without any blooming.

I adjusted 20 increments up and down on both brightness and contrast and changed from standard to custom to dynamic to compare. I actually ended up liking the dynamic setting for this movie with a 75 contrast and 50 brightness. It looked phenominal to me. No graininess other than the famous TONY SCOTT production style when he intended the brashness of his movie to have some.

I also had it on standard color instead of warm1 which i normally have it at to make the skin tones look right. This movie just was great for seeing HD type detail (skin on face close up - scary on Mickey Rourke)... even though it was upconverting from 480p to 720p.... it still looked HD quality.

Someone earlier mentioned SAW as a good test - but that movie had compression issues IMO, and this is a better test movie for darkness settings for me now - i hope this might help some of you evaluate your settings. cheers! :o

this is addressed to owners of the 5067 or other models who have had their sets professionally calibrated: any complaints? particularly with dark scenes? is macroblocking still evident?

No complaints whatsoever. My PQ is amazing and well worth the calibration cost.. I have the 5067. SD is not so great in dark scenes but that's not the fault of the set. It's D* compressing it too much. Battlestar looks dark in SD on the SciFi channel, but when rebroadcast in HD on the Universal HiDef channel, it looks awesome.

Ok, I just watched a great movie for testing your darkness/gamma settings and seeing if you are truly getting macro blocking from the source or the TV.

I have seen alot of movies that have horrid blacks/blockiness no matter what I do to the settings, and I'm beginning to think more and more that it is the source, not the TV that is the culprit with this annoying issue.

I watched DOMINO last night - a very dark film with lots of good contrasting scenes, many colors and gradients. I didn't care much for the movie itself, but the intro, and the first 20 minutes have lots of good scenes for testing your settings.

The studio house intro is the first good test - a blue ball with gradient to black... good for adjusting the contrast and brightness to see how it deals with the gradient.

The opening interview scenes between the 2 girls is also a great indicator to me that macro blocking is more a source compression issue than the TV as I got NO MACRO blocking at all even at high brightness/contrast settings. The blacks were black - not gray, and the colors were vivid and bright without any blooming.

I adjusted 20 increments up and down on both brightness and contrast and changed from standard to custom to dynamic to compare. I actually ended up liking the dynamic setting for this movie with a 75 contrast and 50 brightness. It looked phenominal to me. No graininess other than the famous TONY SCOTT production style when he intended the brashness of his movie to have some.

I also had it on standard color instead of warm1 which i normally have it at to make the skin tones look right. This movie just was great for seeing HD type detail (skin on face close up - scary on Mickey Rourke)... even though it was upconverting from 480p to 720p.... it still looked HD quality.

Someone earlier mentioned SAW as a good test - but that movie had compression issues IMO, and this is a better test movie for darkness settings for me now - i hope this might help some of you evaluate your settings. cheers! :o
I liked DOMINO, but that's neither here nor there. I just got it from Blockbuster the other day and have not watched the rental yet. Will make sure I do in the next couple of days, and see how it does. I would pop it in now, but it's too bright in the TV room to be able to make an accurate assessment.

That was me that pointed out how bad SAW looked -- can't get that one to look good no matter what -- clay faces and terrible gradients. INTERPRETER was really bad too. The only movies I have seen on this TV, that looked good, were Star Wars eps II & III. Watched CAPOTE the other night, and it was passable, but had moving wall textures during certain scenes.

I am a rookie/novice. This is my 3rd HLR-6167 from best buy, two others lost picture on hdmi input within first month. This one is pretty good, but one thing bothers me. When there is a white image on the screen, it is not white, but spotted. You can see the pixels when you look up close. The white letters on the directv guide, or on the sportscenter bottom crawl look speckled, rather than smooth white. Is there something wrong with my set, and is it something that can be fixed? In the store, the sets seem to have uniform whites, even from fairly close. Mine look speckled and pixeled, even when there is no motion. It is kind of making me crazy, now that my 30 days has expired and I don't think best buy is taking this one back.

One more think I have noticed, on broadcasts with the black bars on the sides, the line between the color picture and the black bar is kind of jagged, like the pixels don't mesh well, and there is some overlap or something. I don't know the lingo, but something seems out of alignment, like every pixel is slightly off, and there is some color or something breaking through in each pixel so it looks like a very tiny pixel-sized checkerboard of grey/white instead of clean white.

Anyone know what I'm seeing here?

I am a rookie/novice. This is my 3rd HLR-6167 from best buy, two others lost picture on hdmi input within first month. This one is pretty good, but one thing bothers me. When there is a white image on the screen, it is not white, but spotted. You can see the pixels when you look up close. The white letters on the directv guide, or on the sportscenter bottom crawl look speckled, rather than smooth white. Is there something wrong with my set, and is it something that can be fixed? In the store, the sets seem to have uniform whites, even from fairly close. Mine look speckled and pixeled, even when there is no motion. It is kind of making me crazy, now that my 30 days has expired and I don't think best buy is taking this one back.

One more think I have noticed, on broadcasts with the black bars on the sides, the line between the color picture and the black bar is kind of jagged, like the pixels don't mesh well, and there is some overlap or something. I don't know the lingo, but something seems out of alignment, like every pixel is slightly off, and there is some color or something breaking through in each pixel so it looks like a very tiny pixel-sized checkerboard of grey/white instead of clean white.

Anyone know what I'm seeing here?
Did your previous TVs have this "speckling"? I have not noticed this on my TV (I have noticed my share of other issues, though). As far as the jaggedness of the edges of the image in 4:3 mode, I am thinking that this could probably be adjusted via the Service Menu, perhaps the Index setting. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Can I get a better quality picture if I run something other than the standard coaxial cable from my cable box to my TV? My local cable company won't be able to hook up HDTV until they receive more HD Tuners, which should be in the next two weeks. But in the meantime I would like to be able to get the best possible picture I can via my digital cablebox.

Did your previous TVs have this "speckling"? I have not noticed this on my TV (I have noticed my share of other issues, though). As far as the jaggedness of the edges of the image in 4:3 mode, I am thinking that this could probably be adjusted via the Service Menu, perhaps the Index setting. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

I've noticed the "speckling" with my 46" Samsung, and I think it is mainly due to the surface texture of the anti-glare screen. I've also noticed it is accentuated with higher contrast, and the reason I am only running my contrast at a 60 setting now. I know you are suppose to set contrast as high as possible while maintaining color accuracy and proper black level, but I think the picture becomes "un-natural" looking, in large part due to the speckling as you call it. Higher contrast also seems to blur moving images... not as smooth. I noticed this while watching the NCAA basketball finals.

Can I get a better quality picture if I run something other than the standard coaxial cable from my cable box to my TV? My local cable company won't be able to hook up HDTV until they receive more HD Tuners, which should be in the next two weeks. But in the meantime I would like to be able to get the best possible picture I can via my digital cablebox.


Yes and not really.

Until you get a HDTV cablebox, don't worry much about the connection, as you'll be getting the SD signal which don't look that good on a HD set. Component is probably the best output a standard digital cablebox would have - try that if you like (they'll probably connect that standard).

For the HD box, use HDMI output (pure digital). If the box doesn't have that, try component, and only as a last resort use the coax. Well, I take that back... as a last resort use composite connections... blah! :eek:

...So, the reason that I have been bending everyone here's collective ear is to get some insight in to the typical performance folks are seeing from their xx67w sets, as a benchmark for what I'm seeing. Based on the feedback I have received I will be calling Samsung to schedule a tech to come troubleshoot.

Short version:
Samsung sent a tech who tested and adjusted my 6167w. The PQ is now MUCH better, but still has a couple of minor issues that he attributed to the design of the set and DLP technology. Overall though, I would buy the set again given its current performance. And the tech support is easily the best I've ever experienced.

Very long version:
I called Samsung last Weds. night around 9:30pm eastern. Once I got through their automated "press 1 to..." voice menu it rang one time and was answered. The L1 tech took my info, opened a ticket, tried to get me to hook up a DVD player (he couldn't grasp that I watch DVDs through my HTPC), and after about 5 minutes gave me a ticket number to talk to L2 support... which was closed.
I called Thursday and was quickly passed to L2. I had described about 1/2 of the issues that I have previously noted here when the tech interrupted me to offer to send a service tech to my home. The depatment that schedules service calls was closed, but I left a message. The next morning the local tech called me to schedule an appointment. He offered to come the next day... Saturday... at 10:30am. Not even 48 hours after talking to L2 the tech was at my house running diagnostics and making adjustments. Holy Crap, that is GREAT service!!!

Contrast that with the Syntax-Brillian folks pathetic phone and email only... and only if you are willing to sit on hold for an hour and a half, or wait 2 weeks for an email reply...non-support of my LCoS TV and it is clear that Samsung in a different league... head and shoulders above Syntax Brillian.

But I digress. The end result of the tech visit is that the grainy nature of the picture has been dramatically improved. As I suspected, the convergence (edit: actuator gain) was WAY off, and causing the pixels to blur and lump together on the screen. The perceived motion on flat surfaces that weren't moving has been reduced, but is still visible to me. The tech described this as shimmering... which I suppose is accurate, but not how I intuitively described it.

What the tech did:
-watched a few minutes of 2 HD programs that I had captured on my HTPC (full transport stream, no compression) to see some examples of the issues I was having.
-set the delay index to 40 (I think, I had it at 42, stock was 45)
-set the gamma to 2
-set the contrast and brightness using test patterns from his signal generator
-set the convergence (if I'm using that term correctly...I don't remember which SM item he was adjusting, but it had 4 plus signs ("+")... what were they... red, blue, green... don't remember the last one... yellow, maybe.
-OK, there were a few things that he changed that I didn't keep up with. I know that doesn't help, but he was flying through the test patterns and adjustments. The guy REALLY knew his way around the service menus. Not a 67W rookie like some I've read about.
-re-watched the 2 HD program clips to see what improvement, if any, was made.
-left a spare bulb "for my trouble", since I still wasn't totally satisfied with the result of the adjustments.
-left a sample bottle of screen cleaner.

At the end of his diagnostic and adjustment routine we re-watched the HD program clips and saw some improvement, but the shimmering was still there, as well as a color blending movement issue (best example was a red and white popcorn box in the image. there was significant apparent motion on the stationary box which he described as the TV trying to work out the correct color to display, and wavering between white and red , and not-totally-organic looking color gradient transitions (like shadows and skin tones).
He said 2 things about this:
1) some of the shimmering and transition issues are consistent with every other TV of the xx67w line that he has seen. He stated that he could change every part in the TV and adjust every setting and it would not totally clear up those issues.
2) some people have had success with a $500 calibration, but he personally questioned whether there was much room for improvement, given the technology used.

He also suggested 2 things to prolong bulb life:
1) avoid cycling the TV power any more than necessary. He suggested that if we were going to be away from the TV for more than an hour, to turn it off. Otherwise, leave it on. The hour of use is easier on the bulb than a shutdown and restart cycle.
2) don't use the dynamic setting in the picture menu. It is too bright and dramatically reduced bulb life.

There were definitely things that he adjusted that I would not have known to adjust, so I think it was worth the trouble of scheduling a service call.

I hope some of that is useful to someone.

A totally undocumented feature. Even the tech didn't know about the "PC PC" setting to get centering back for 1280x720 PC input.

DaveFi, can you explain what setting to PC PC does? I changed mine to that setting and saw no change in the way that the VGA input is displayed.
Thanks.

Hi RJ,

There is no convergence on these sets due to the fact that it's a single chip system. From the colored plus sign description you provided it appears he adjusted the actuator gain. The stock number is somewhere in the 90's and I've heard of adjustments as low as 72.

I think it's great that the technician was able to make some picture improvements. I'm hearing rumors of technical meetings involving the blocky motion in background color. They are aware of the digital board's inability to correctly resolve color gradient changes from time to time. This may result in a firmware upgrade. I don't see it all the time. Occasionally, I see the macro-blocking in SD, but almost never in HD. Thanks for sharing your service experience with us.

There were definitely things that he adjusted that I would not have known to adjust, so I think it was worth the trouble of scheduling a service call.

I hope some of that is useful to someone.

Definately! sounds like it may be worth some phone time to get a 'free' calibration in some respects...

I didn't realize there were so many calibrations outside of standard menu items - thanks! Service menu can be scary for some of us. :confused:

Hi RJ,

There is no convergence on these sets due to the fact that it's a single chip system. From the colored plus sign description you provided it appears he adjusted the actuator gain. The stock number is somewhere in the 90's and I've heard of adjustments as low as 72.

Yep, that was it, Actuator Gain. I had a feeling that convergence was the wrong term, but was going from memory.

Definately! sounds like it may be worth some phone time to get a 'free' calibration in some respects...

I didn't realize there were so many calibrations outside of standard menu items - thanks! Service menu can be scary for some of us. :confused:

I'm glad it helped. :D

Interestingly, many of the test patterns that he used were generated by the TV, not his signal generator. I wish I had seen for certain where in the SM he went to find them, but I think it was the very top option.
He said that one set of test patterns were routed through the digital board, and I don't remember what the other one tested.

I have the Avia disc, but have not attempted any calibration with that yet (probably won't have time until the weekend). I'll be interested to see how that compares to the Windows Media Center Calibration, which I also have not done yet on this TV, and the test patterns generated through the service menu.

I've noticed the "speckling" with my 46" Samsung, and I think it is mainly due to the surface texture of the anti-glare screen. I've also noticed it is accentuated with higher contrast, and the reason I am only running my contrast at a 60 setting now. I know you are suppose to set contrast as high as possible while maintaining color accuracy and proper black level, but I think the picture becomes "un-natural" looking, in large part due to the speckling as you call it. Higher contrast also seems to blur moving images... not as smooth. I noticed this while watching the NCAA basketball finals.

I'm glad I did a search for this because I'm having the same problems with whites. The most noticeable it's been has been while watching hockey. Speckling is a good way to describe it...I also would describe it as "dirty". I'll try lowering the contrast and see if that makes a difference. Thanks for the info.

Did this service tech visit happen for you yet?

I just spoke to a third tier tech at Samsung today, and he readily acknowledged that they have a problem with my model (HLR-4667W), or perhaps it is all recent production "R" models. The degree of macro-blocking from DVD playback is not normal. He did not have a lot of detail at this time because it seems Samsung is still working on a solution, but he did mention that he was suppose to attend an information meeting soon on this issue. He also hinted that a firmware update might be a possible fix.

I showed the problem to a friend using both my Oppo and Denon DVD players today, and he was amazed at how "bad" it looked. I played the first half hour or so of Goblet of Fire, and the problem was evident in even some brighter scenes. My friend has only a 27" SD set, and he thought the movie looked better on his TV. I also tried switching up the outputs on the Oppo and Denon (from 480i to 480p to 720p) and the macro-blocking was very bad in all cases, but perhaps a little worse with the 720p up-conversion.

I think the fact that the macro-blocking problem is severe with both players and with different outputs tends to point the finger at the television, particularly since 480i from the Denon did not in any way eliminate the blockiness. With progressive turned off on the Denon, there should have been no or very minimal processing by the Denon... in other words, a pure DVD signal. I think this eliminates the possibility that the Faroudja chipset is the problem, even though both of my DVD players and the Samsung set use Faroudja for scaling and/or de-interlacing.

Anyway, I am still waiting for a vist from a service tech. I will report back any findings, hopefully by next week.

What the tech did:
-set the delay index to 40 (I think, I had it at 42, stock was 45)

He also suggested 2 things to prolong bulb life:
1) avoid cycling the TV power any more than necessary. He suggested that if we were going to be away from the TV for more than an hour, to turn it off. Otherwise, leave it on. The hour of use is easier on the bulb than a shutdown and restart cycle.
2) don't use the dynamic setting in the picture menu. It is too bright and dramatically reduced bulb life.
RJ,
I recently changed my HD STB connection to HDMI/DVI and feel like my Index setting needs to be adjusted some more (currently at 42, default was 50). Did the tech use a test pattern to adjust the Index Delay? I believe Bill (UCSB) recommended using a pure red image a while back.

As for prolonging bulb life, I've already been doing the first suggestion. And the second was mentioned on here quite some time ago. But it's nice to have some confirmation from a knowledgeable tech.

A certain membership only club near me has a HL-R4667c on sale with stand for a great price. I'm looking to pick it up, but I can't find any information on the C designation - what does it mean? Most other sets seem to end in W rather than C.

Did this service tech visit happen for you yet?

Yep... I had a good experience too with the service tech, but the end result was no improvement or possibly a worsening of the macro-blocking. The service tech was an older gentlemen and he seemed knowledgable, and was friendly and courteous. He asked questions first and we watched some dark DVD scenes, and his conclusion was that much of what I was seeing was due to bad source material. For instance, he said the latest Harry Potter movie has some very bad source material and looks bad on most displays during certain dark scenes (especially the opening sequence).

So we used other DVDs to judge the problem. He went straight to the service menu and started adjusting the "Index Delay". It was set at "45", and we ended up at "40". I thought it made an improvement, but the movie I watched that night suggested otherwise. I actually went back into the service menu myself and ended up making an adjustment to "47". I was surprised by this since everyone seems to adjust Index Delay downward, but I swear the higher setting did lessen the macro-blocking problem but only slightly. I just kept rewinding and re-playing scene after scene (even the Harry Potter opening scene) while adjusting the Index Delay back and forth, and "47" seemed to be best.

I could call the service tech out to make more adjustments and he said he would be happy to do so, but I just decided I am going to have the set professionally calibrated. In fact, I just made an appointment with Eliab (Avical) for early May. He is on a calibration tour this Spring, and is going to be in the Chicago and Milwaukee area soon. Can't wait to see what he can do !!!

RJ,
I recently changed my HD STB connection to HDMI/DVI and feel like my Index setting needs to be adjusted some more (currently at 42, default was 50). Did the tech use a test pattern to adjust the Index Delay? I believe Bill (UCSB) recommended using a pure red image a while back.

As for prolonging bulb life, I've already been doing the first suggestion. And the second was mentioned on here quite some time ago. But it's nice to have some confirmation from a knowledgeable tech.

No test pattern was used when the service tech adjusted Index Delay on my set. We just tried different dark scenes from different DVDs. It was not easy to judge because of the color bars that take up the lower half of the screen when making the adjustment. When I made the adjustment myself, I actually adjusted Index Delay and then backed up into the main menu so that I could see the entire screen. I kept doing this with different Index Delay settings.

A certain membership only club near me has a HL-R4667c on sale with stand for a great price. I'm looking to pick it up, but I can't find any information on the C designation - what does it mean? Most other sets seem to end in W rather than C.
That C means that it is the special Costco version. All specs are the same, except you get two pounds of bacon with the TV purchase. :D Just kidding about the bacon. :) Actually, I think that the C may refer to a TV stand bundle at Costco. There is a thread on an earlier Costco model. But, information pretty much does not exist on the C models. You could call Costco or Samsung.