hmm.. seems there are positive reviews thusfar but not without some negative.

I'm curious to hear Cocteau's impression of this beautiful panel. I'm thinking that it's almost too early to judge this 1080p display because it truely needs some outstanding hd-dvd transfers and I bet we won't fully see this until months down the road.

Serenity and Chronicles of Riddick both are recieving rave reviews in the PQ department so I imagine these would respresent a taste of what lies ahead for the 4095/6d's.

Keep us posted!

Impressions part 3

I did catch the All-Star game on Fox HD last night - simply amazing in 720p. The resolution does matter; 1080p does matter, even on 720p and 1080i content. Sorry, did not see Nova but I'll try some more OTA content tonight. The more SD I see, I'm more than OK with it, but it doesn't look as nice as real HD.

Playing DVDs on my Xbox 360 (480p) looks spectacular too. I think HD DVD will probably knock me unconscious from bliss. I did get a taste of HD video running the HD movie trailers on 360 and I was blown away. Ice Age is sick.

I'll have HD cable TV installed tomorrow. I'll try to run the PS2 today for Spark.

By the way I read that Ign gear article about controller input lag and it is pretty clear to me that these concerns don't apply to this baby, even without setting it in gaming mode. Last night I was popping off multiple headshots in PDZ which is better than usual for me. If anything, the TV helps gaming because you can see EVERYTHING.

And OMG, Fight Night Round 3. So real! No post-purchase regret for me.

One more thing: jpg slide show via 360 is a real treat. My sweet wifey was blown away by the family pics.

Wow, this thread is blowing up in the last few days. Great to see all the new owners, gaming industry folks, HTPC experts. Let's keep the info flowing so this thread will be a good source for all owners. I hope this thing ends up working for the HTPC folks. Cocteau, you are in for a good day. Hope you get that HD DVD player. I've got 100 bucks in reward zone coming at BB so I may wait to get one until then.

Glad to hear you are happy with it Ryu :) Makes me want to pull the trigger right now. I want to wait until all the 1080p sets have come forth but this is killing me :eek:

I want to wait until all the 1080p sets have come forth but this is killing me :eek:I guess it all comes down to which of the old adages best fits the current situation. Is it "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" or "All good things come to those who wait". ;)

I spent about 2 hours at BB tonight looking at the 4095DX and the 5797. They had plenty of both in stock. He looked up the 4695 and he said MSRP is $4299 and will be available in about 2 weeks. He tried really hard to sell me the 5797 and was offering a good discount. But when the thing starts at $9999 even a nice discount is still pricey! I watch some of the All-Star game from Directv HD and it looked pretty good. Some of the SD D* channels were really bad.

As for the 4095 it was hooked to the blu-ray showing the demo disk. Most scenes looked great. I was actually at 2 different BBs since the first one could not or would not switch from blu-ray to the standard feed. The blu-ray at store 1 was soft while at store 2 looked like what I would expect. Great black levels and a viewing angle that was impresssive with very little color shift. Most people won't watch a panel outside of the prime 90 degrees anyway. Viewing from wider than that is just gravy.

I had them switch to the local feed that all of the other panels were displaying. For some reason it displayed a little jutter (I think that is the right term) that was not visible on the XBR1. Was it related to the 1920 resolution? Not sure. The Sony just looked a little better with the highly compressed and split HD signal.

I can't wait to see the XBR2 & XBR3 when they come out. I'm actually buying 2. I'm thinking of the 4095 for the gameroom and the 46" XBR3 for the family room. I will just need to see the Sony first.


One other thing. The sound was very weak. I had it turned up to 100% in the store and standing about 1 foot away it still wasn't loud. It also sounded like a weak AM radio. Too bad. I was set to buy one but I guess I will wait for the XBR3s to appear.

The sound was similar on the 5797 in the theater room. Weak.

LOL. Hey, if you can get it at a place with 30 day return, you might be able to buy it now and still have time to switch to the XBR if necessary.

This 4095 just destroys my old CRT.



Stansfield/

"Bingo!"

/Stansfield

he-he, I love The Professional. :)

One other thing. The sound was very weak. I had it turned up to 100% in the store and standing about 1 foot away it still wasn't loud. It also sounded like a weak AM radio. Too bad. I was set to buy one but I guess I will wait for the XBR3s to appear.

The sound was similar on the 5797 in the theater room. Weak.
It's so quiet I can barely hear it over the roar of my 360's fan. Just kidding. (Kidding about the TV, not the 360.)

I will politely disagree with kldat. It is plenty loud in-home but there is no bass and mid-range isn't very deep. If you are used to 5.1, you'll want to use the optical out on the telly to your receiver, or get a HDMI switching receiver. No TV is going to sound like a decent 5.1 (or 6.1, whatever) system. What else did you expect?

so on pc vga output....not 1920x1080 @60 Hz? that would suck.

can this set take pc at that resolution or not. dvi, or vga

Hi All,

I realize i should go to another forum page for this but since we're pals here....

How the heck do I get the Toshiba HD-A1 to upscale?

All my DVDs kept saying "Will play at 480p"

And when I checked Display during the movie, it said 480p.

Thanks

edit: Never mind. Toshiba said when I get the HDMI set tonight, it will begin to upscale via the Resolution button.

I guess it all comes down to which of the old adages best fits the current situation. Is it "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" or "All good things come to those who wait". ;)

:)

And I second the weak sound.



I have to ask -- is it even an issue that this display has weak sound?


Look at it from Samsung's perspective -- if a person is in the market to spend $3k on a TV, it is really feasible that said person isn't going to spend a substantial amount on a sound setup? Of course Samsung put $5 speakers in this TV. I guess I am just posting because it cracks me up that "weak sound" comments are posted, and then occasionally re-posted. :)

When will my PIP button be available? I browsed the manual - I can't seem to figure out why PIP is unavailable ---

Does more than one source have to be "on" in order for the 4095 to activate PIP? Seems like I've tried that but I can't get it to work ..

Just a couple of concerns -- the bezel is looking VERY delicate. If you're anal about cleaning, just use the shammy they have, and they're adament you don't use chemicals, just water.

Great review.

Adament is right!

That's a 300-layer AV film coating on that screen. Very high tech, and expensive.

Any use of chemicals will harm the coating.

Use water.

I get mine today.

Impressions part 3

I did catch the All-Star game on Fox HD last night - simply amazing in 720p. The resolution does matter; 1080p does matter, even on 720p and 1080i content. Sorry, did not see Nova but I'll try some more OTA content tonight. The more SD I see, I'm more than OK with it, but it doesn't look as nice as real HD.

Playing DVDs on my Xbox 360 (480p) looks spectacular too. I think HD DVD will probably knock me unconscious from bliss. I did get a taste of HD video running the HD movie trailers on 360 and I was blown away. Ice Age is sick.

I'll have HD cable TV installed tomorrow. I'll try to run the PS2 today for Spark.


Nice to hear that the 4095 is performing well. How about taking some pics of the set and also while playing some content (Xbox, HDTV)? I'm dying to see what it looks like in action.

When will my PIP button be available? I browsed the manual - I can't seem to figure out why PIP is unavailable ---

Does more than one source have to be "on" in order for the 4095 to activate PIP? Seems like I've tried that but I can't get it to work ..

If it's like other Samsungs, you can only have one digital source at a time with PIP. PIP works fine when my DVD player is hooked up with component, but does not work when I hook it up with HDMI and try to watch a digital OTA channel in the other window.

I have to ask -- is it even an issue that this display has weak sound?


Look at it from Samsung's perspective -- if a person is in the market to spend $3k on a TV, it is really feasible that said person isn't going to spend a substantial amount on a sound setup? Of course Samsung put $5 speakers in this TV. I guess I am just posting because it cracks me up that "weak sound" comments are posted, and then occasionally re-posted. :)

Yes it is and I'm one of them. I'm planning on putting this up in the game room for the kids. It will be connected to gamecube, xbox, satellite, etc. I don't want to have to buy a sound system to make it useful. Although now that I think about the low volume it has that may be good for the kids.... :) I also don't want to worry about the kids having to get everything working correctly.

so on pc vga output....not 1920x1080 @60 Hz? that would suck.

can this set take pc at that resolution or not. dvi, or vga


There is no DVI port, so you are forced to use the VGA port, and I tried everything I could think of to get something other than 1280x1024 onthe VGA port, and it did not happen. I tried to force 720p and 1080i and those modes just dont work at all.

Another option seems to be through a DVI-to-HDMI cable, but Samsung states quite clearly that PC through HDMI is NOT supported.

And possibly the last alternative is through comonent, if you can get 1080p component out of your video card, which I'm not sure I can do. Even if I could, I'd want it through the VGA port.

I might look at other TV's now. I just expected this to work. Am I missing something? I'm not really an expert, but it seems cut and dry to me.

Man this set does look nice otherwise.

Yes it is and I'm one of them. I'm planning on putting this up in the game room for the kids. It will be connected to gamecube, xbox, satellite, etc. I don't want to have to buy a sound system to make it useful. Although now that I think about the low volume it has that may be good for the kids.... :) I also don't want to worry about the kids having to get everything working correctly.I agree. A 40" 16:9 set is not really a "big screen" display. More like a decent size TV, being the equivalent of a 33" 4:3 set. Many people would use it in a bedroom, exercise room or even as a 2nd separate display in a home theater for when "just watching TV" for instance. Generally those apps don't include a full surround set up...


ron

There is no DVI port, so you are forced to use the VGA port, and I tried everything I could think of to get something other than 1280x1024 onthe VGA port, and it did not happen. I tried to force 720p and 1080i and those modes just dont work at all.

Another option seems to be through a DVI-to-HDMI cable, but Samsung states quite clearly that PC through HDMI is NOT supported.

And possibly the last alternative is through comonent, if you can get 1080p component out of your video card, which I'm not sure I can do. Even if I could, I'd want it through the VGA port.

I might look at other TV's now. I just expected this to work. Am I missing something? I'm not really an expert, but it seems cut and dry to me.

Man this set does look nice otherwise.

I am not an HTPC expert, but you should listen to Necrolop and try the DVI to HDMI cable. Amir had some luck with that.

Also, for trying VGA, there are a bunch of options listed on pages 76-82, concerning:
1. supported resolutions (lists 1920x1080 at 60 hz, sync polarity -/+, 138.5 pixel clock frequency)
2. Picture quality. Change source to PC, then go to Setup, PC, Image Lock, then you choose coarse or fine. (It says "this feature may change the width of the image, if necessary adjust the position to center.")
3. Changing position up down left right
4. automatic adjustment
5. Changing picture size. It states " 16:9 scales the picture to 92 % of the TV screen, regardless of the aspect ratio of the input source. 4:3 displays the picture as it is without changing the aspect ratio of input source."
6. Viewing current resolution
7. Reset/initialize picture settings.

You can see the manual on Samsung's site.

Nice to hear that the 4095 is performing well. How about taking some pics of the set and also while playing some content (Xbox, HDTV)? I'm dying to see what it looks like in action.
Coming soon buddy.

Thanks! I know I did not see the adjustments in the settings menu.

First time trying to post photos, so hope it works. Keep in mind I took this during daylight hours, with blinds open wide and backlight powersaving on medium, so these are suboptimal conditions.
From Gears of War video on Xbox 360.
http://img340.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00419a2ga.jpg

Cars trailer on 360

http://img428.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00417a8dy.jpg

Higher res shot of Rainbox Six trailer. Reddish tinge is not the TV, just the way they made the trailer look.

http://img318.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00427a2tg.jpg

never mind my dubious post

OK, here's the best one. Those gaming shots don't quite do it justice. This is the 360 displaying a photo of a black Ferrari Enzo.

http://img123.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00459a0ik.jpg

My 4095 arrives on Friday, Comcast cable next Tuesday.

This thread and Ryu's excellent picture are getting me pumped!

OK, here's the best one. Those gaming shots don't quite do it justice. This is the 360 displaying a photo of a black Ferrari Enzo.

http://img123.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00459a0ik.jpg

oh god, im in awe...

Cant wait to hear your PS2 review!

Ryu,

Thanks for your effort.. I've been waiting to see pics like this ever since you and Cocteau bought the tvs. If you don't mind.. could you perhaps take a pic of the green and orange traditional backgrounds on 360? I would like to esp. see how the green background looks.

(no rush ryu i'm not that important.. but do know that I envy you right now. :p

Just so y'all are aware.. and assuming your taking pictures of your screens with a digital camera? There's a thing called White Balance.. and all of the color values in the pictures you're taking are dependent on whatever color temperature your camera "thinks" is correct for the scene its taking a picture of. So accuracy of color reproduction is not probably too high. think of how with film cameras you get orange scenes when taking shots illuminated by table lamps and bluish scenes when taking pictures on cloudy overcast days..

Thanks for the pics Ryu! I have a request if you have the time, I would love to see some SD. Thanks again.

Opinion: would you guys try an exchange for one stuck and bright pixel in the lower side 1/3 area?

Also, I know HDCP was mentioned earlier in this thread, but this TV does not support it? I've read in other threads that it was desired, but here it does not seem to be an issue?

*********UPDATE***************

Samsung just updated its site for the 4696D from 'coming in June' to 'coming in August' :( I want it now and 40" is too small! So by the time this one comes along, all the other companies will have their 1080p TVs out. I have my heart set on this one, but now I have to wait, and knowing the competition like the XBR3, I feel like I'll have to start my search all over again (I don't even want to think about starting to read a different forum page than this one.)

Hopefully, though, Samsung will be forced though to lower its price of the set due to the competition and its certain inabilities in comparison to other sets like 1:1 pixel mapping.

By the way, thanks for all the reviews on the 4095, Ryu, and Cocteau (in advance). I'll still stay with Samsung probably as I'm too lazy to start the whole new TV search process.

I have a question though for you guys. How is the PIP? Is it split screen half-and-half or is it a small percentage of the whole screen in one of the corners?

Thanks,
Jared

Just so y'all are aware.. and assuming your taking pictures of your screens with a digital camera? There's a thing called White Balance.. and all of the color values in the pictures you're taking are dependent on whatever color temperature your camera "thinks" is correct for the scene its taking a picture of. So accuracy of color reproduction is not probably too high. think of how with film cameras you get orange scenes when taking shots illuminated by table lamps and bluish scenes when taking pictures on cloudy overcast days..

Full disclosure: I just did stupid mode point and click with my Sony Cyber-shot MSC-D2 five megapixel and downscaled in iPhoto. I am not a photography expert. I noticed with the Ferrari that the color changed in the four photos I took of it.

Opinion: would you guys try an exchange for one stuck and bright pixel in the lower side 1/3 area?

Also, I know HDCP was mentioned earlier in this thread, but this TV does not support it? I've read in other threads that it was desired, but here it does not seem to be an issue?
1. No. I haven't bothered to look but I haven't noticed any. Why put yourself through the trauma? I've "heard" of people massaging them out, but BE CAREFUL! And there's no guarantee the next one will be perfect.

2. It does support HDCP over HDMI

3. Did you get the VGA cable to work? Can you let us know how you set it up if you did?

*********UPDATE***************

Samsung just updated its site for the 4696D from 'coming in June' to 'coming in August' :( I want it now and 40" is too small! So by the time this one comes along, all the other companies will have their 1080p TVs out. I have my heart set on this one, but now I have to wait, and knowing the competition like the XBR3, I feel like I'll have to start my search all over again (I don't even want to think about starting to read a different forum page than this one.)

Hopefully, though, Samsung will be forced though to lower its price of the set due to the competition and its certain inabilities in comparison to other sets like 1:1 pixel mapping.

By the way, thanks for all the reviews on the 4095, Ryu, and Cocteau (in advance). I'll still stay with Samsung probably as I'm too lazy to start the whole new TV search process.

I have a question though for you guys. How is the PIP? Is it split screen half-and-half or is it a small percentage of the whole screen in one of the corners?

Thanks,
Jared

I have the exact opposite problem. I can't stay with just one forum and one display because my mind wanders just as fast as technology progresses. But I'll admit this Samsung is the first thing of this decade that made me calm down and feel somewhat relieved that 1080p may be discovered. But with the Sonys on the horizon.. I'm going to have to increase my prozac intake.

What I'm going to end up doing is somehow wait this deal through and compare at my local tweeter the xbr3 and 4696 and just buy on the spot what I think is best. Because I could run myself into the ground with this dilemma from now until the next generation of media format. Then after I pull the trigger, I probably will resist coming to avsforums for at least 2 years to escape buyer's remorse.

Ryu, hope u don't mind but I put your pics on my photo-hosting site so it could be viewed more easilty. If u want me to take em down I'll be happy to oblige. :cool:

http://images1.fotki.com/v334/photos/4/45607/3709663/dsc00417a8dy-vi.jpg

http://images1.fotki.com/v334/photos/4/45607/3709663/dsc00419a2ga-vi.jpg

http://images2.fotki.com/v332/photos/4/45607/3709663/dsc00459a0ik-vi.jpg

http://images18.fotki.com/v328/photos/4/45607/3709663/dsc00427a2tg-vi.jpg

this lack of pc input at 1920 x 1080 is a real turn off considering this unit cost over 3k. for that kind of loot. I want everything but the kitchen sink and no damm hick up.

I guess for me it will be sony xbr2/3 or waiting on some good reviews of westy 47" which so far is doing really good.

I wont judge this sammy yet, considering that I drooled on it again this afternoon at best buy. yum!! I just wish that blue ray was not as noisy as it was comparing it to the HD dvd on the westinghouse 42" which looked.....perfect. no noise.

ofcourse the sammy has way better blacks.

at this price point seriously, i hope this is an isolated issue. I will wait for cocteau or Ryu Hayabusa to post some shots of their pc hooked up to this.

come on guys please confirm this. :)

this lack of pc input at 1920 x 1080 is a real turn off considering this unit cost over 3k. for that kind of loot. I want everything but the kitchen sink and no damm hick up. I guess for me it will be sony xbr2/3 or waiting on some good reviews of westy 47" which so far is doing really good.
What makes you think that the Sony XBR2/3 will accept PC input over HDMI at 1920x1080 without overscanning? That was the problem encountered by people who tried a PC input over HDMI on the Samsung 4095. Unless the Sony XBR2/3 does 1:1 pixel mapping it might have the same issue. I haven't seen a web site that mentions 1:1 pixel mapping for the XBR2/3. The retail sites that show the XBR2 for pre-order mention a "PC input" separate from the HDMI input. To me that would indicate an analog input for PC the just like the 4095. We'll have to wait and see to be sure whether this is correct.

Thanks Impetigo. I couldn't figure out how to do that.

Hi All,

I have the 4095D up and running, off the Toshiba HD-A1, and it looks great. I'm watching "The Professional" off a Superbit disc upscaling to 1080i and it's never looked like this before I'll tell you that. :)

The Apollo 13 HD-DVD disc I bought if off the charts. Both outperform the Blu-Ray disc presenation at Best Buy, even the upscaled Superbit, in my opinion. No artifacts, no nothing.

The Toshiba is connected via HDMI.

I'm not seeing this so-called red effect in the blacks, and the window reflection I had is gone.

Bottom line: The eBay dealer I bought it from is legit, and so far I'm very, very happy. :D

Sorry if that's short, but I'm busy watching this bad-ass TV. ;)

Heres the general breakdown:

LN-R469D - Last years model. 768P. Has a cable card slot/QAM tuner. I'm getting this model tuesday so I'll let you know how it is. 1HDMI port, 2 component

LN-S4692D - This years 768P. Does not have cablecardk/QAM. Has new features improving contrast and viewing angles. Blacks levels also likely improved. 2 HDMI ports, 1 component.

LN-S4696 - This years flagship 1080P. Has cablecard/QAM. Has new features improving contrast and viewing angles. Black levles also likely improved. 2 HDMI ports, 2 component.


I chose the first one because I want a tv now, and need a cablecard. If I wanted to wait, I would have went for the 4696, but I guess I ended up saving myself some money. My only doubt about the 4696 is how standard definition will look on 1080p, and when sources will be available for that resolution. So far ps3 games are a no go, so I guess the sole source will be HD DVD/Blue ray. However, if you have the patience and money I'd hold out until june when the 4696 will hit retail chains, its seems to have the best of everything.

Doug
you don't have to wait for sources to be 1080p, the TV upconverts all signals to it's native 1080p resolution, it has a true 1980x1080 resolution, whatever comes on the screen, that is the resolution you will be watching it at, which means a cleaner crisper tighter picture, it's like using your pc monitor in 800x600 amd then bringing up to 1280x1024, the difference is pretty significant in detail and sharpnes, no older model LCD will be able to compete with this new 1080p model, the 1080p models are the way of the future for LCD and Plasma, but since I already have both I will wait anoter 2 years before I jump this route, by then the prices will have droped significantly, since more manufactures will be going with that standart, hope this helped you out.

do you think that the 4696 could go down to as low as 3500? that would be awesome! :Djust google the model number, there is one retailer that is close to your number but I can NOT post it here, like I said, google it.

Thanks Impetigo. I couldn't figure out how to do that.

No prob. BTW, great pics! The colors look good, and the blacks on the Ferrari look really good. Only thing I don't like about the design is that metal rimmed circle under the "Samsung" logo. But the PQ looks good!

I don't think it's available yet, and given pricing on the 40", you are almost looking at a trade-off between the 46" Sammy LCD and a high-end 50" Pioneer plasma when it does hit the market.
the Pio 50" 1080p Plasma is double the price of the Sammy 46" 1080p LCD.

sammy 4696 or sony KDL-46XBR3?

I have the 4095D up and running, off the Toshiba HD-A1, and it looks great. I'm watching "The Professional" off a Superbit disc upscaling to 1080i and it's never looked like this before I'll tell you that. :) The Apollo 13 HD-DVD disc I bought if off the charts....That's great. Did you get the HD antenna for viewing OTA broadcasts? Between enjoying the Toshiba player, cutting out the wall in your apt and building the cabinet you should be kept busy even if you didn't get around to buying the antenna.

sammy 4696 or sony KDL-46XBR3?

If money is not a problem then Sony's model seems to have the aesthetic and theoretical (i.e. the features list) upper-hand. For a good-enough set a couple of grand cheaper the Sammy is OK (and the Westy 47" even better if you don't mind lack of ATSC tuner and a clunky remote) but make sure to read about PC compatibility issues with the Sammy 4095 models. Personally I'm leaning toward the JVC 1080p models but if I weren't I'd be looking at the Sammy's more closer than the XBR3's. I'm poor you know! :(

I could not get the display to run 1920x1080 @60 through the VGA, although the manual has screenshots showing that resolution. I don't know why it don't work for me, however?

Long and short is that it is not useable as a PC monitor for me because I either have to set it for a small display like 4:3, or to 16:9 and see only about 60% of it. I can't figure it out.

I could not get the display to run 1920x1080 @60 through the VGA, although the manual has screenshots showing that resolution. I don't know why it don't work for me, however?Long and short is that it is not useable as a PC monitor for me because I either have to set it for a small display like 4:3, or to 16:9 and see only about 60% of it. I can't figure it out.My guess is that your video card isn't capable of delivering the desired resolution. I'd be willing to accept 1280x1024 @60 Hz as a compromise. At least you've got essentially the same level of detail as 1920x1080.

this is why i am dissapointed with this set esp when a lesser brand like the 42-47 westy can easily handle pc inputs.

I really hope this is an isolated issue with the user or video card drivers or can be fixed via firmware from samsung. I am hoping that cocteau or other users who just bought their sets can shed some light on this lack of pc input at 1920 rez.

for me it does matter that this set can be used a computer monitor, i game too and 1:1 pixel mapping would def help HDdvd / blue ray look better.

*********UPDATE***************


I have a question though for you guys. How is the PIP? Is it split screen half-and-half or is it a small percentage of the whole screen in one of the corners?

Thanks,
Jared

Both. I got to playing around with it and someone said that the samsungs will only allow one digital source in PIP; so my DVD over component was the "audio" and OTA was in the corner, or split screen.


Question -- is there a way to swap the audio source during PIP? I couldn't get the audio to come from the OTA while also viewing the DVD in PIP..

thanks

michael

this is why i am dissapointed with this set esp when a lesser brand like the 42-47 westy can easily handle pc inputs.

Just to be clear, The samsung 4095 has no problems with 1920x1080 1 to 1 pixel mapping on the pc input (vga) with a d-sub cable. You can see my lcd doing it in the pic below.

The tv also can be hooked up to a pc via a dvi/hdmi adapter. However, so far the best case scenarios do not result in 1 to 1 pixel mapping.

I really hope this is an isolated issue with the user or video card drivers or can be fixed via firmware from samsung. I am hoping that cocteau or other users who just bought their sets can shed some light on this lack of pc input at 1920 rez.
My next project is powerstrip. I was unsuccessful with the mac equivalents: displayconfigx and switchresx. Hopefully ill achieve 1 to 1, but the outlook isnt so good. It seems that over hdmi, there is no way to get a signal that isnt processed first by the lcd. We'll see....


http://pictures.shiftpc.com/4095/PcVga1080p.jpg

Ryu,

Could you tell me what you would compare the PQ of this set to if possible?

Things I consider great are the new Samsung 42" plasmas, Samsung 720p lcds, Sony bravia lcds, Pio 42" plasma, etc.

Obviously I'm wanting to think yours is the best of the bunch but so far with your experience how would you rank yours amongst the competition out there? How about that WOW factor?

Finally, how close can you sit to this thing without seeing the pixels? I ask specifically watching an hd-dvd or upscaled dvd movie. Because I plan to sit very close so I can use as a secondary pc monitor and *hopefully* I can resolve every bit of the 1080p detail for my future hd-dvds and playing the upcoming Crysis game. I can't stand sitting too far back (not just for gaming but anything.. I wanna be *in* the action.

Thanks again Ryu (and Cocteau)!

That is why my PC settings said too, except hitting Advanced and selecting the display tab and there it said 1280x1024 @60, and 40% of the screen was off the display. Also, if you hit Info on the TV remote, does it still say 1920x1080 @60?

My video card specs. are max of 1920x1080 @120 or 2048x1536 @85. I could get dual display to work (VGA on my CRT and Component to the 4095), with both monitors running at 1920x1080, but the Composite only does 1080i, and the 4096 reported that correctly (info). Surely the DVI port could do single 1080p display?

I'm not saying I'm not an ignoramous, I certainly can't figure it out.

thanks sjmueller, I am glad it can at least take a vga cable and does 1920 with it. there is hope for HTPC after all. wont be as clear as hdmi / hdmi from computer...but its not bad either.

Hey, great post hammersuit. I'm also in the industry here in San Mateo.

Anyway, have you tried SD gaming on it yet? mainly ps2 games? If a gamer says ps2 games look and play great then I might be sold. :D

Hey, thanks, if you're into gaming this seems to get the job done... I'm going to hook up the PS2 and GameCube tomorrow via component cables. GameCube (the older ones with the digital output) seemed to always have the biggest jump from analog. I'll definitely post back with some feedback!

I have to ask -- is it even an issue that this display has weak sound?


Look at it from Samsung's perspective -- if a person is in the market to spend $3k on a TV, it is really feasible that said person isn't going to spend a substantial amount on a sound setup? Of course Samsung put $5 speakers in this TV. I guess I am just posting because it cracks me up that "weak sound" comments are posted, and then occasionally re-posted. :)

Good point. But to be fair, some of us don't have those 5.1 systems yet because we just dropped $3K on the TV! ;)

It's just a comment, kind of like commenting on the trunk size of sports car. I guess it would be ok with you if there were no speakers at all?

More impressions from the second day.

So I finally got the two HDMI cables, meaning I got to hook up the HD DVR cable box and this Sony upconverting DVD player I snagged off Amazon. I also played around with the 360 some more.

One thing that I'm trying to get right is the calibration. Sometimes it seems too bright, sometimes too dim, but it'll get there. I am also on the fence about DNIe, though thankfully you can turn it completely off if you wanted. I think I may keep it on for the HD broadcasts and turn it off when in Game Mode. The blacks just seem to bleed a bit when it's on and you're looking at the Xbox dash, but I need glasses. What do you guys think so far?

So the HD channels looked good. Really good! I set it to movie mode, bumped up the contrast to 100%, kept DNIe on... seemed to give the best picture... after watching the TV with that for 30 min or so, going back to the other modes showed how terrible they looked... colors just all washed out. So you'll definitely need to tweak.

Also, some of the broadcasts looked better than others, but it was surprsing. Some of the broadcasts you thought would look amazing didn't... well, one, it was this movie Must Love Dogs (it was the thing on HBO HD at the time!), and it looked blurry. Then again, you don't watch that kind of movie for the res. On the other hand, Conan looked fantastic. Good stuff!

And odd enough, but I may end up using this energy saving mode at night, like suggested in the book. The screen is beautifully lit, but when it's chill time you may just want to press that button a couple times. The colors stay solid, just the backlight dims a bit.

For DVD, my girlfriend and I have been rewatching Arrested Development. Again, not something that lights up the screen, but a good chance to see how an everyday DVD would look. Man, it looks wonderful. Again, had to play with the settings and went with Movie mode, didn't touch the contrast and just set the temp to Normal, and it looked very nice. Waiting for House of Flying Daggers for a real test though.

A couple of things. I'm in a room that has us sitting maybe 12 feet away from the TV. I really thought the 40" would be a little small. I'll tell ya, I think it's the perfect size for movies and TV. With a game you may want to pull up a chair a bit closer, but you really don't have to. Also, for those of you worried about the delicate bezel, that scratch I had is probably still there, but I promise the first time I turned on the TV with something hooked up to it, I completely forgot about it. The black is beautiful and reflective, and the picture is solid enough that you'll never notice it.

The sound. I understand, a TV this good is meant for a 5.1 surround sound system, I totally agree. However, for those of us without that luxury (yet), the sound on this TV will make you really consider buying a system. It's not abysmal or anything, it's definitely passable. And it can get loud... a medium size room would fill with sound at around Volume 14 or so, and I'm assuming there are something like 70 notches. The problem is the quality isn't all that good. It's a downgrade from the 42" Samsung plasma we have, and that's disapppointing just because that TV does a great job with sound.

Apologies for the long post again. Tomorrow will be nice, checking out House of Flying Daggers on DVD, downloading a couple of new demos and trailers for Xbox 360 (if you haven't, get A Scanner Darkly trailer... I said it before, but wow, gorgeous), going to try out the PS2 and GameCube, and will keep tweaking the settings until I find some suggestions or I just get tired. ;)

hammersuit,

How would you say that the black levels/detail and over performance of your new lcd compares to your plasma? I ask because I really like the 42" sammys and if it comes close to it then I just may have to pull the trigger (and not wait for sony).

thanks bud!

Have been lurking this and the xbr2/3 thread for a while. I pre-ordered the 4096d from AbT during 7% off sale (for which they charged my card a refundable 10% deposit). Were it available by this time, I probably would have taken delivery. For numerous reasons (i.e. apparent lack of 1:1, and yes, even sound quality since I will not be able to afford 5.1 for a WHILE, not to mention the fact that I'm convinced the scaler is no better than that of the 95d) I'm starting to back off the 4096d and seriously considering a preorder on the sony kdl40xbr2 thru TapeWorks Texas. If Sony support can confirm QAM, I think I'm going for it. I really feel the Sony will do a better job upconverting SD. The presumable lack of cable card on the Sony won't keep me from seriously considering it, since my family won't live without Tivo anyway. Sorry for the lack of profoundness. Thanks.

Have been lurking this and the xbr2/3 thread for a while. I pre-ordered the 4096d from AbT during 7% off sale (for which they charged my card a refundable 10% deposit). Were it available by this time, I probably would have taken delivery. For numerous reasons (i.e. apparent lack of 1:1, and yes, even sound quality since I will not be able to afford 5.1 for a WHILE, not to mention the fact that I'm convinced the scaler is no better than that of the 95d) I'm starting to back off the 4096d and seriously considering a preorder on the sony kdl40xbr2 thru TapeWorks Texas. If Sony support can confirm QAM, I think I'm going for it. I really feel the Sony will do a better job upconverting SD. The presumable lack of cable card on the Sony won't keep me from seriously considering it, since my family won't live without Tivo anyway. Sorry for the lack of profoundness. Thanks.

In your case, I can tell you based on my experience with Samsung that SD never looked great to me. Before anyone jumps at my throat, this is just what I think. I've compared the Sony XBRs to Samsung plasmas and lcds and the Samsung always ended up taking last place. The sound quality of the current XBRs are very good! It's not 5.1 surround sound but the simulated surround really does its job in a medium shaped room. I could literally feel some bass while listening to Dr. Dre <--not trying to get sidetracked but in all honestly I did.

My comments aren't to put the Samsung down because I feel Sammy has put 200% effort this time around with their lcds and should be on par with the Sonys. The question remains whether Sony will be any better with it's 1:1 issue and other things. All things considering... the Sony will come at a higher expense and I believe you'll get what you pay for <--- with that said, sammys are still tremendous BANG for your 1080p butt.

The price difference between the lns4096d and the xbr2 is within $25 total, another consideration. Perhaps it's not the piano black of the xbr3 or the sleek bezel of the 96d, but to me aesthetics are not as important as performance. Thank you for the imput. I just purchased a bello 4212-t tv stand, so eventually, I will have to put something on it, whether it be Sony or Samsung.

That's great. Did you get the HD antenna for viewing OTA broadcasts? Between enjoying the Toshiba player, cutting out the wall in your apt and building the cabinet you should be kept busy even if you didn't get around to buying the antenna.

Hi LCD,

I really should get the antenna shouldn't I.

It means I'll have to reopen the whole wall area when I buried cables though.

Is there a web site that tells me what, if any, extra shows I might pickup?

I pay for CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, PBS, TNT hi def already, but is there other stuff I might poach? :)

Tonight I need to play around with the settings on the TV.

I gave my Super the dimensions for the cabinet just this morning. I hope I got it right. :eek: It's tricky to guess how much extra room the wires will need, but the HDMI wires are sure a pleasure to work with over all those Component cables.

Pictures are coming. Total amateur hour, I'll tell you that. :p

...All things considering... the Sony will come at a higher expense and I believe you'll get what you pay for <--- with that said, sammys are still tremendous BANG for your 1080p butt.

Isn't it, "All things considered"

and

"bang for your 1080p buck ?"

Just wondering :D

Hi LCD,I really should get the antenna shouldn't I.
It means I'll have to reopen the whole wall area when I buried cables though.
Is there a web site that tells me what, if any, extra shows I might pickup?...The reason I would consider an OTA antenna is that in many cases the 1080i OTA programming appears sharper than what one typically sees on cable. I've read that the cable companies compress their signals to squeeze more channels into their line-up. That tends to soften the image at the receiving end. PBS and CBS OTA are two of the best examples of high quality HD broadcasting. Even the networks soften the image by doing multi-casting but the effect is not as pronounced as it is with cable, at least that has been my experience. As for a web site that shows OTA offerings try:
http://ww2.titantv.com/TTV/MyTitanTv/Login/index.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fttv%2fGrid%2fgrid.aspx
The registration is free. Once you get to the schedule make sure to check the "HD" box at the top of the screen.

The reason I would consider an OTA antenna is that in many cases the 1080i OTA programming appears sharper than what one typically sees on cable. I've read that the cable companies compress their signals to squeeze more channels into their line-up. That tends to soften the image at the receiving end. PBS and CBS OTA are two of the best examples of high quality HD broadcasting. Even the networks soften the image by doing multi-casting but the effect is not as pronounced as it is with cable, at least that has been my experience. As for a web site that shows OTA offerings try:
http://ww2.titantv.com/TTV/MyTitanTv/Login/index.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fttv%2fGrid%2fgrid.aspx
The registration is free. Once you get to the schedule make sure to check the "HD" box at the top of the screen.

Thanks so much.

LOL. My Doorman just called me, too funny.

"Chris, I should have called you first, but me and Super just went in your place to remeasure the TV, is that okay?"

"No problem. Nice TV huh?"

"It's really nice. We just wanted to see if your measurements were the TV itself, or if you gave some breathing room..."

"Cool. Did you turn it on and look at it?"

"Ummm, yeah. Wow, what a picture!"

LOL, he couldn't help but snoop. I had it on PBS, so the picture must have been pretty sweet. :)

People are funny.

4095 supports 1920x1080 with PowerBook G4 via VGA.

It was super easy. Everything auto connected right away. I used Apple's mini-dvi to VGA connector and connected a VGA cable.

Mirror displays has to be selected on the Powerbook.

I played the Spiderman 3 1080p trailer in Quicktime and it displayed (but the graphics card (or integrated graphics, whatever) in the PowerBook was chugging and made the video framey - but that is an criticism of my computer, not the 4095). Upconverted SD homevideo in Quicktime displayed in 1080p looked surprisingly decent. (One note: although I had mirror displays on, it was actually displaying in that mode where the notebook screen is left and 4095 is right, so I could move the Quicktime video window back and forth from notebook screen to TV.)

Powerbook confirmed resolution. 4095 confirmed it too.

I'll try to get to some of your other questions today (especially PS2 impressions) but I do have one of those professional type things called a "job" that some of you may be familiar with so please be patient. And thanks to the other new owners for posting.

Full disclosure: I just did stupid mode point and click with my Sony Cyber-shot MSC-D2 five megapixel and downscaled in iPhoto. I am not a photography expert. I noticed with the Ferrari that the color changed in the four photos I took of it.

I'll put up a couple shots tonight.

I'll be sure not to scale them down too much. I'll put them on my hosting page.

I've got a Canon 1 body a pro photographer buddy sold me. The thing is over the top. :)

BTW, I like your car.

Ryu,

Could you tell me what you would compare the PQ of this set to if possible?

Things I consider great are the new Samsung 42" plasmas, Samsung 720p lcds, Sony bravia lcds, Pio 42" plasma, etc.

Obviously I'm wanting to think yours is the best of the bunch but so far with your experience how would you rank yours amongst the competition out there? How about that WOW factor?

Finally, how close can you sit to this thing without seeing the pixels? I ask specifically watching an hd-dvd or upscaled dvd movie. Because I plan to sit very close so I can use as a secondary pc monitor and *hopefully* I can resolve every bit of the 1080p detail for my future hd-dvds and playing the upcoming Crysis game. I can't stand sitting too far back (not just for gaming but anything.. I wanna be *in* the action.

Thanks again Ryu (and Cocteau)!

To answer your question, I think it blows away any 720p competition (although the Sammy 4092 is nice and gives you a taste of the 178 degree panel angle and CCFL backlight with wide color gamut, why not spend a few hundred more and move up to 1080p). And I ruled out plasmas about 2 months ago due to reflections and image retention (although the Sammy plasmas are less reflective now, they still don't compare to their new LCDs). I believe the main competitor is not yet out, the Sony XBRs that are 1080p, because they share Samsung's panel tech.

[EDIT: The Sharp 37" 1080p LCD is a legit competitor too. ]

You can sit very close before you start seeing pixels. You could easily sit at 4-6 feet and be immersed and not see pixels. (With SD, you'll want to sit farther back because this baby reveals noise and artifacts that are inherent to broadcast digital 480i.) For PC, HD gaming, HD-DVD, 480p DVD, it really draws you in. And even if you want to go back to 8-10 feet, it still looks really sweet.

Will be getting cable today, hopefully.

I'll put up a couple shots tonight.

I'll be sure not to scale them down too much. I'll put them on my hosting page.

I've got a Canon 1 body a pro photographer buddy sold me. The thing is over the top. :)

BTW, I like your car.

LOL. The only Enzo I drive is in Project Gotham Racing.

thanks sjmueller, I am glad it can at least take a vga cable and does 1920 with it. there is hope for HTPC after all. wont be as clear as hdmi / hdmi from computer...but its not bad either.
Hey Shinraven, there are two adjustments for Coarse and Fine for PC only. Seems to change sharpness and slightly expand or contract image. Not sure if this can get you clarity of HDMI 1:1 pixel mapping but at least it gives you some options to play with in VGA.

Will be getting cable today, hopefully.

I had a picture but no sound over Time Warner Cable last night.

I thought it was a problem with the TV, so I called Samsung and level 2 support said I needed a firmware upgrade from TW.

I called TW this morning, and all I needed was to switch the Audio setting menu to HDMI, and bang! sound. :)

So now *everything* works. I'm just waiting on my RF Universal remote.

Honestly, I'm having a hard time working today. I wish I was home with the TV. :)

Honestly, I'm having a hard time working today. I wish I was home with the TV. :)
No doubt. It's all I can think about. Great story about the doorman and the super, by the way.

No doubt. It's all I can think about. Great story about the doorman and the super, by the way.

Knowing those dudes, when I get home tonight, the cable box will be set to Telemundo and half my beer will be gone. ;)

Isn't it, "All things considered"

and

"bang for your 1080p buck ?"

Just wondering :D

Alright smartypants, the first one was a goof but the second was my added flavor. :cool:

Thank you Ryu for your feedback...again.

these panels have a "native mode" for displaying 1080p without scaling or overscanning...from that fact alone one has to assume it has 1080p input.

can we also assume the native mode will support 1080p pc signals over HDMI?

It ought to.

hammersuit,

How would you say that the black levels/detail and over performance of your new lcd compares to your plasma? I ask because I really like the 42" sammys and if it comes close to it then I just may have to pull the trigger (and not wait for sony).

thanks bud!

The black levels compared to the plasma are much better. On the plasma, you'd see the DNIe making the blacks lighten up and darken, sometimes in the same scene. It was really annoying, and you couldn't turn it off. From the stuff that I've tested on (and I'm about to pop in Sin City for the ultimate test), it seems the DNIe isn't as sensitive, and the good thing is you can even turn it off. Overall, I'm impressed by the black levels on this display.

And I can't find my PS2 anywhere!

The black levels compared to the plasma are much better. On the plasma, you'd see the DNIe making the blacks lighten up and darken, sometimes in the same scene. It was really annoying, and you couldn't turn it off. From the stuff that I've tested on (and I'm about to pop in Sin City for the ultimate test), it seems the DNIe isn't as sensitive, and the good thing is you can even turn it off. Overall, I'm impressed by the black levels on this display.

And I can't find my PS2 anywhere!

Oh Noes! :eek:

Hi,
I can get 1920x1080 off RGB (analog), but can't get anything off DVI-HDMI. When I connect to hdmi and select to hdmi source and reboot the computer. I can see the window screen loading. When it started loading to window logging screen, it displayed "no signal" Please help, or any thought will be appreciated. Thanks

BTW, It's 4095d, thanks

Hey did i miss something?

I just went to the Samsung site and this is what they list under the LN-S4692D specs:
HDMI in 2 (1080p/1080i) Does that mean this is a 1080P set? Although in the specs it lists it as 1366x768 Pixel Resolution. Why would they have 1080p input without the ability to display it?

I am looking at getting the 4695, but the price and delivery date is keeping me from thinking i can actually get one. Not waiting to wait months i'm thinking I may just get the 4692, but i'm not sure about the 1080p capabilities.

thoughts?

Hi,
I can get 1920x1080 off RGB (analog), but can't get anything off DVI-HDMI. When I connect to hdmi and select to hdmi source and reboot the computer. I can see the window screen loading. When it started loading to window logging screen, it displayed "no signal" Please help, or any thought will be appreciated. Thanks

BTW, It's 4095d, thanks

this sounds like a situation where the resolution is set too high for the monitor. Try lowering your computer resolution just to see if that let's you in windows.

Hi,
I can get 1920x1080 off RGB (analog)...

When you hit info on the remote, does the TV say 1920x1080 @60? I'm getting ready to give up.

I just got my 4095 today and am in the process of evaluating it. Sadly, I'm still waiting for my OPPO 970HD, HDMI cables, and OTA antenna to be delivered so I hesitate to make any real judgements regarding picture quality until then, but I do have my Motorola 6412 connected via component and have noticed that HD feeds look great approximately 8ft away, but when standing 2 feet away, you can definitely see the compression... something I knew could happen, but I wasn't expecting it to be as bad. I'd take pics, but I seem to have misplaced the battery charger for my digicam during my recent move.

One thing I can confirm, however, is that the 4095 does accept a 1080p signal over the VGA connection. I am actually typing this on the 4095 right now which is currently connected to my Titanium Powerbook G4 w/ Radeon Mobility 7500. All I had to do was connect a DVI to VGA converter and plug in the VGA cable. No problems at all and the info button does show 1920x1080@60Hz. So it seems many of those experiencing problems may simply have to tweak things a little more. This is encouraging and I may try to get a hold of a DVI->HDMI cable over the weekend to try that, though it seems I'll have to eventually upgrade this old workhorse since it chokes on the 1080p trailers from Apple.

but when standing 2 feet away, you can definitely see the compression... something I knew could happen, but I wasn't expecting it to bad as bad.

oh noes :eek:

oh noes :eek:

Yeah, not cool, but garbage in, garbage out and 1080p only makes it more obvious that the networks and cable companies put out a lot of crap. Hopfully OTA will be an improvement, though it's still disappointing how little decent content is available. :( Though there's still room for improvement and I don't want to give anybody the wrong idea with this set. It's great if given a good source and I am unable to do any proper callibration or play with it too mcuh due to the woman sitting next to me :rolleyes: I definitely plan to spend a good deal of the weekend playing with the TV and will try to provide some more informed feedback then.

I am unable to do any proper callibration or play with it too mcuh due to the woman sitting next to me.

Where are your priorities!

Yeah, not cool, but garbage in, garbage out and 1080p only makes it more obvious that the networks and cable companies put out a lot of crap. Hopfully OTA will be an improvement, though it's still disappointing how little decent content is available. :( Though there's still room for improvement and I don't want to give anybody the wrong idea with this set. It's great if given a good source and I am unable to do any proper callibration or play with it too mcuh due to the woman sitting next to me :rolleyes: I definitely plan to spend a good deal of the weekend playing with the TV and will try to provide some more informed feedback then.

sounds great :cool:

Eh... she actually wants to watch something on the TV ... watching Nightmares and Dreamscapes in HD and that looks great. I think the biggest weakness is going to be SD.

Okay, I found my PS2! Hooked up the GameCube (old style) using the component cables that Nintendo made for the system those three weeks in 2004. I also hooked up the PS2 with component cables. Settings for GameCube are automatic -- they ask if you want to display in progressive scan when you pop in a compatible disc. For PS2, I set it to Widescreen and Component.

So... after doing all that, I had to turn on the Xbox 360 and play around with DNIe. Turn it off! It just isn't meant for games, I should have known that but it just doesn't work well. Blacks get very saturated, and you can see this very clearly on the Xbox 360 dashboard. It's off from now on when playing games.

To the GameCube... gorgeous, always gorgeous in progressive scan. If you don't have a GameCube and you're curious, pick up an OLD one with the digital out (two AV plugs in the back, not just one) and get some of those hard-to-find cables on eBay or something. The Wind Waker looks very good... coming from 360, of course not as good. But very nice, the lines were crisp, the color popped, everything was great.

Now the PS2. Popped in God of War, which I think is a mighty impressive looking game. When I started playing it, I nearly fell out of my chair... it... didn't look good. I'm like "something's wrong, it looked great on the CRT and GameCube looks better than it did there." Of course I'm an idiot, and I set the GAME settings to Widescreen and Progressive Scan (doesn't save the option for you, ugh).

The SD looks plain bad, worse than on a regular TV, with very fuzzy elements. However, just get the component cables AND make sure your console AND game settings are right, and you'll notice a very crisp, clean game experience. The only limitation is the system itself, but it look as good as I've ever played it.

As for the animation on all the systems, it's nice and fluid. I took some pictures and you'll see some ghosting (I'm assuming that's what it's called), but that's just because they were action shots and I have a crap camera. I tried to take pics with no special filters on the camera, nothing at all, so hopefully they help some people out. Took them of 360 game, 360 trailers, PS2 SD, PS2 progressive, and GameCube progressive.

And trust me, the games look better on the TV in motion. FIFA -- a stunner, always a system showcase.

Sorry for the gamer-centric post, but wow. ;)

http://homepage.mac.com/jbenyamine/PhotoAlbum28.html

hammersuit,

From a couple observations I notice that the greens are washed out like in Fifa. I imagine that's how it's supposed to look for this game, but can you tell me if this tv also does deep greens good? Like Far Cry Instincts for ex... be nice to see the light and deep shades of the jungle. Just try to catch some deep greens and let me know what you think.

Second, the water from the splish splash scene on the doa trailer... from the pic it looks dark but on my Sony 34xbr960 I can almost seethrough the water and its pretty vibrant. Perhaps your camera isn't showing all the vibrance and clearness but I assume this is how it's like on your tv?

Thanks hammersuit! I crown you the 'avs samsung 4095 pics award' because your pics have me reaching for my checkbook. If I can only get one more insurance that this tv performs flawlessly with hd-dvds and I don't infact need an hdmi 1.3 compliant tv then I'm buying it asap. The whole hdmi 1.3 issue has me in stalemate right now but users such as yourself are convincing me otherwise.

Hey PathofNeo, thanks for the award, I just wish I had a better camera and were a better photographer! The greens in FIFA are very nice and lush, really very crisp. I wish I had Far Cry, but I just bought the new Lord of the Rings game and I think that's supposed to have nice landscapes. I'll check it out.

As for the water on the DOA trailer, the water is a lot clearer... that trailer has a lot of in-game footage, and the motion was pretty quick so the pics came out kind of shaky. When I was taking pictures of that trailer in particular, the preview on the camera just didn't show how great the game looked on the TV.

Again, the pics are just an idea, I'll get the better digital camera out tomorrow and see if there's any difference.

Okay, I found my PS2! ...

Hey Hammer, thanks for the great post. I really appreciate you going out of your way to keep us all informed here, especially me, with my gaming questions :)

Hmm, looks like SD gaming leaves alot to be desired huh? Progressive looks ok but unfortunately not many ps2 games use progressive, I think Resident Evil 4 is the only game I have that's progressive (it's widescreen too). Sidenote: I HIGHLY recommend it if you haven't played it...

My question to you is this, and it's purely me asking your opinion. Will non-progressive ps2 gaming drive me crazy? Component is a given, but I still wonder...

The God of War SD picture in the hall looks extremely blurry, although the other SD pictures don't look TOO bad, especially the ps2 settings screen.

from all the talk, looks like we don't have to worry about input lag either!

Thanks again hammer!

One thing I can confirm, however, is that the 4095 does accept a 1080p signal over the VGA connection.

Well, poop on me. I'm off to the ati forums.

Obviously this is my first post and I'd like to say thanks to everyone for all the information as I've spent hours on the AVS forum lately.

I was trying to decide between plasma and LCD and given that I may be moving to a high elevation area and that plasmas are power hogs I went with LCD.

Yesterday I picked up my 4095D from BB and was pretty impressed. This was no suprise since I've been staring at a 21" Panasonic CRT for the past 3 yrs. As of now I'm running D* SD (S-Video) but will be getting Dish HD on 7/27 (can't wait, it's just not fair).

My wife and I watched Jarhead on the XBox (regular through A/V RCA), since my Panny DVD-F85 won't play through a movie w/o hanging up (any suggestions?). The movie looked great; I did notice some purplish/blue black's though.

If you haven't picked up yet this is all very new to me and I'm open to any suggestions as far as picture settings, a new upconverting DVD player, and anything else anyone feels like comenting on.

Thanks again everyone. I can't wait to get a good signal through this set to really see it shine.

Tom

anyone have any thoughts on how this panel will perform with the ps3's hdmi outputs being that its not supporting pc out properly through hdmi?

anyone have any thoughts on how this panel will perform with the ps3's hdmi outputs being that its not supporting pc out properly through hdmi?

Well according to the hundreds on the PS3 forum and gamespot.com, they believe that hdmi 1.3 compliant tv is a MUST-HAVE. I think the hdmi 1.3 will allow better framerate and color depth, along with superior audio, etc.

I don't even think the sony xbr2/3's will have hdmi 1.3 so if your gonna get a 1080p display this year you may as well get this one :p . Perhaps someone else can chime in with certainty.

You won't see HDMI 1.3 in very many products at all until after the new year. Even then, it will take years before we will see it used in any meaningful way, especially on the console end of things.

It will make no difference. This screen is 60fps, 1080p. HDMI 1.2 can handle that without any problem. The advantage to 1.3 is up to 48-bit color. On an LCD screen which can barely acheive NTSC color anyways, it will make no difference. There is no problem with 1.2, other than it doesnt pass HD audio.

It will make no difference. This screen is 60fps, 1080p. HDMI 1.2 can handle that without any problem. The advantage to 1.3 is up to 48-bit color. On an LCD screen which can barely acheive NTSC color anyways, it will make no difference. There is no problem with 1.2, other than it doesnt pass HD audio.
Agree on the last part. However, the former requires a pretty careful explanation:

There are two relevant standards for TV in the US: HD and SD (SMPTE-C). Each of these has a defined gamut of color, with HD being larger. Bit depth has no impact on these gamuts. Instead, what bit depth allows you to do is to move within these gamuts in smaller and smaller steps. How this shows up is with smoother transitions between colors (i.e., reduced banding), not with a fundamentally larger color space. Thus, HDMI 1.3 may ultimately help us get smoother video, but it will not give us "more" color.

Later,
Bill

The main thing I'de like to know is how you think 1080p movies will perform on this lcd? Like, whenever hd-dvd players become 1080p. Are they going to act like the current bd players and suffer or should it do good upon newer players?

This is what's stumping me. Hdmi 1.3 would prove meaningless to me as long as 1080p content will deliver on this set, without the problems.

As for the water on the DOA trailer, the water is a lot clearer... that trailer has a lot of in-game footage, and the motion was pretty quick so the pics came out kind of shaky. When I was taking pictures of that trailer in particular, the preview on the camera just didn't show how great the game looked on the TV.

.

Agree. i tried to take pics of that trailer and it moves so fast, my shots ended up blurry. there is no way pics can do justice as you need to see DOA4 game and DOAX trailer in motion.

Hammersuit, it's been great reading your reviews.

Yes, but its not just LCDs color range that is limited. Plus Blu-ray and HD-DVD are 24-bit to my knowledge.

The problem with HD-DVD and 1080p isnt from HDMi 1.2 .
For a film output at 1080i from HDDVD you will see no difference from 1080p as long as your TV correctly does inverse telecine which Im sure this one can. The only difference would be from 1080p60 content which pretty much does not exist.

I think the whole HDMI 1.3 thing has been blown completely out of purportion as to its nessesity. And either way, this TV does not have 1.3, nor will the new XBRs in all likelihood.

Hmm, looks like SD gaming leaves alot to be desired huh? Progressive looks ok but unfortunately not many ps2 games use progressive, I think Resident Evil 4 is the only game I have that's progressive (it's widescreen too). Sidenote: I HIGHLY recommend it if you haven't played it...

My question to you is this, and it's purely me asking your opinion. Will non-progressive ps2 gaming drive me crazy? Component is a given, but I still wonder...
Spark, I did run some PS2 today via S-video. I do have the monster component cables for PS2 but they are super tight and I won't put them on my new baby, so I just ran S, as this should be a good test of what you want to know about, PS2 in 480i.

I have to say it was better than expected. I played a Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater demo and the cinematic parts looked pretty good, but as you know, that in-game engine is pushing PS2 pretty hard with all the foliage, etc, so you are definitely seeing the limits of the PS2. It wouldn't want to sit 5 feet away and play as I might with 360 but if you go back 6-10 feet it's not bad.

I also tried Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal, and I think that looked cleaner in-game than MGSSE. Finally I tried the new cell-shaded Naruto: Ultimate Ninja which is like Smash Brothers with ninjas presented in a manga & anime style and I loved the way it looked.

So my conclusion would be, as you know, it really depends on the game. Better looking games will be fine. RE4 in progressive scan will be great. And yes, I love that game (although I only played the Gamecube one, I should get the PS2 version with the bonus content). Watch out though, because once you get this TV it will make you want to get 360, PS3, 1080p gaming PC, and every other HD source you can get your hands on.

Right now I'm playing the new NCAA football demo on 360 and really liking gaming on this set.

I'm not really asking so much about the hdmi 1.3 or 1.2, but the fact that so far nobody on this forum has had 1:1 pixel mapping using the pc outputs with hdmi. my concern is will the ps3 have the same problem? i guess its to soon to tell.

HDMI 1.2 isnt the culprit for the 1:1 pixel mapping problem with this TV. That problem is caused by the apparent retardation of Samsung engineers. The Sony XBR2/3s will most likely have pixel mapping, as the X series just released in Europe which is almost the same set as the upcoming XBR2/3s have an option right in the Menu for 1:1 .

If the Samsung really doesnt have 1:1 over HDMI, which really isnt totally confirmed yet but I doubt it does now, it will affect PS3. But in the same way it affects Bluray and HD DVD. On the screen you are actually watching a picture that is scaled slightly larger than 1080p, then cropped to fit the screen. Why you ask? Cause samsung thought it nessisary to force a method onto a fixed pixel display being fed HD content that was intended to be used on CRTs from the beginings of TV when pictures were not square and each TV set was a slightly different shape, the solution, cut off the edges of the picture. Now why is this needed on an HD set? WHo the hell knows.

HDMI 1.2 isnt the culprit for the 1:1 pixel mapping problem with this TV. That problem is caused by the apparent retardation of Samsung engineers. The Sony XBR2/3s will most likely have pixel mapping, as the X series just released in Europe which is almost the same set as the upcoming XBR2/3s have an option right in the Menu for 1:1 .

If the Samsung really doesnt have 1:1 over HDMI, which really isnt totally confirmed yet but I doubt it does now, it will affect PS3. But in the same way it affects Bluray and HD DVD. On the screen you are actually watching a picture that is scaled slightly larger than 1080p, then cropped to fit the screen. Why you ask? Cause samsung thought it nessisary to force a method onto a fixed pixel display being fed HD content that was intended to be used on CRTs from the beginings of TV when pictures were not square and each TV set was a slightly different shape, the solution, cut off the edges of the picture. Now why is this needed on an HD set? WHo the hell knows.


If the xbr2/3's come in with 1:1 over HDMI and QAM and effective upconversion engine, I believe they may have a slight superiority over even the 96d. It looks as if the release dates will be within weeks of eachother. In a way, I'm glad the 96 has yet to be released, it may just work out for the best.

Yes, but its not just LCDs color range that is limited. Plus Blu-ray and HD-DVD are 24-bit to my knowledge.

The problem with HD-DVD and 1080p isnt from HDMi 1.2 .
For a film output at 1080i from HDDVD you will see no difference from 1080p as long as your TV correctly does inverse telecine which Im sure this one can. The only difference would be from 1080p60 content which pretty much does not exist.

I think the whole HDMI 1.3 thing has been blown completely out of purportion as to its nessesity. And either way, this TV does not have 1.3, nor will the new XBRs in all likelihood.
I agree that HDMI 1.3 has been blown out of proportion when it comes to displays. It is important for source units and receivers, if your source units do not decode DD+/TrueHD/DTS-HD natively, and you have a sound system that can actually make use of the better audio.

Both HD-DVD and Blu Ray are 8-bit component, in 4:2:0 format, so technically they would be 12-bit in PC vernacular. They are, however, upconverted to 24 total bits in component space, then converted to RGB (24-bits). Also, despite some clever marketing by Sony, this won't change for Blu Ray, short of the BDA changing the specification.

So, if I were a consumer, I would not worry about HDMI 1.3 on my TV for a while, like 5 - 10 years. PCs should change faster, but even those are going to take 2 - 3 years for the game companies to really start to use the additional bandwidth effectively. Console games won't matter until the next generation. Sony has basically guaranteed that by not making HDMI 1.3 standard across the board with PS3.

Yes, but its not just LCDs color range that is limited. Plus Blu-ray and HD-DVD are 24-bit to my knowledge.

The problem with HD-DVD and 1080p isnt from HDMi 1.2 .
For a film output at 1080i from HDDVD you will see no difference from 1080p as long as your TV correctly does inverse telecine which Im sure this one can. The only difference would be from 1080p60 content which pretty much does not exist.

I think the whole HDMI 1.3 thing has been blown completely out of purportion as to its nessesity. And either way, this TV does not have 1.3, nor will the new XBRs in all likelihood.

This is layment terms in which I can understand. Wow! I feel like I've just been to school on this board today. Thanks for clearing all that up for me.

So basically other than the fact that the new Sony xbr2/3's may indeed offer 1:1 pixel map over 1080p... they will basically be the same displays (give or take obvious brand differences).

The only other thing that bothers me is that I know Sony used an adjustable backlight in their xbrs and pretty sure it will be there for the new ones. This samsung as far as I know does not have an adjustable one correct? Well is it really needed?

You can understand my irony for asking all the nitpicky questions before I drop 3+grand on a tv. I don't want to wait another week because I've waited too long thus far but I will if the xbr is going to be technically superior.

The only other thing that bothers me is that I know Sony used an adjustable backlight in their xbrs and pretty sure it will be there for the new ones. This samsung as far as I know does not have an adjustable one correct? Well is it really needed?

The Samsung is dynamically adjustable, which is how they get to the 5000:1+ CR. The Sony is only "normally" adjustable. The dynamically adjustable backlight is why I want to get one of these into my lab.

Personally Im waiting it out for the XBR2. Pixel mapping is important to me, and I beleive the sony scaler will have a slight edge. If the 96 offers 1:1, then it will be a close call.

. That problem is caused by the apparent retardation of Samsung engineers. .

rofl :)

When you hit info on the remote, does the TV say 1920x1080 @60? I'm getting ready to give up.

yes, it displayed 1920x1080 when press info on the remote control. I'm using ati 9800 pro with analog input.

I also tried to lower the resoluton to 1280x1024. No help getting in the window with hdmi - dvi connection.

Okay, so now im pretty frustrated. Today I used boot camp to transform my macbook pro into a windows xp machine with dvi out - and most importantly - powerstrip installed. I immediately configured the 4095 to 1920x1080 60Hz to see what I would have to work with. Unfortunately, like i experienced with the OSX, there was lots of overscan. I was hopeful that poserstrip would help me overcome these issues.

Using the advanced timing options in powerstrip, I tried to scale down the image. For horizontal overscan, the buttons had absolutely no effect. The vertical adjustment buttons only moved the image up and down. The image, however, stayed the same size (too big for the screen).


The worst part is that I can't find any reliable information on the internet that can help me tweak the settings. Nobody seems to know what they are talking about!

So I'm asking for some help here. If anyone can give me some insight as to what I should try with powerstrip to reduce overscan, please speak up!

The Samsung is dynamically adjustable, which is how they get to the 5000:1+ CR. The Sony is only "normally" adjustable. The dynamically adjustable backlight is why I want to get one of these into my lab.
The 4095 also has three fixed/static backlight settings under the "Energy saving" menu: low, medium and high. It would have been much nicer to have a scale 1 to 10 as opposed to three steps....

So I'm asking for some help here. If anyone can give me some insight as to what I should try with powerstrip to reduce overscan, please speak up!
I am hoping to get some time this weekend to play with mine this weekend. I will report back with my experience....

Forgive me but, what is DCR tuner and a ATSC tuner??? (difference)

Thanks

The 4095 also has three fixed/static backlight settings under the "Energy saving" menu: low, medium and high. It would have been much nicer to have a scale 1 to 10 as opposed to three steps....
Agreed. I'll be curious to find out whether backlight control is in the service manual.

The 4095 also has three fixed/static backlight settings under the "Energy saving" menu: low, medium and high. It would have been much nicer to have a scale 1 to 10 as opposed to three steps....
Well, if you count "none" as a step then there are four options, but your point is well taken .

I agree that HDMI 1.3 has been blown out of proportion when it comes to displays. It is important for source units and receivers, if your source units do not decode DD+/TrueHD/DTS-HD natively, and you have a sound system that can actually make use of the better audio.

Both HD-DVD and Blu Ray are 8-bit component, in 4:2:0 format, so technically they would be 12-bit in PC vernacular. They are, however, upconverted to 24 total bits in component space, then converted to RGB (24-bits). Also, despite some clever marketing by Sony, this won't change for Blu Ray, short of the BDA changing the specification.

So, if I were a consumer, I would not worry about HDMI 1.3 on my TV for a while, like 5 - 10 years. PCs should change faster, but even those are going to take 2 - 3 years for the game companies to really start to use the additional bandwidth effectively. Console games won't matter until the next generation. Sony has basically guaranteed that by not making HDMI 1.3 standard across the board with PS3.

Necrolop and Bear5k thanks for putting the HDMI 1.3 worries to rest.

Personally Im waiting it out for the XBR2. Pixel mapping is important to me, and I beleive the sony scaler will have a slight edge. If the 96 offers 1:1, then it will be a close call.

i'm in the same position. In fact, I've pre-ordered the kdl-40xbr2 from TapeWorks Texas, and will probably purchase a Mack extended warranty that Brian there offers
(i.e. AVS/TapeWorks Group Power Buy). If the xbr3 becomes available by the time the xbr2 is ready to ship, I may opt for that, but I have my concerns regarding the reflectivity of the piano black in combination with the floating glass. My new bello avs4212-t stand is silver metallic with light green Italian frosted glass, probably a better match with the xbr2. Barring the demonstration of 1:1 on the 4096d, that set is now my 2nd choice (competent though it may be). I sure hope I don't get divorced any time soon.

I bought a DVI->HDMI cable today to connect my Powerbook G4 and experienced the same overscan issue, regardless of Game Mode or any other options. I also went in to the service menu and was unable to find any settings that would help. I'm still waiting to obtain a decent source source that this TV can take advantage of, but I'm beginning to realize that it may be a while and am starting to question whether I would be better off with another TV like Sharp's 37d90u or a lowerend Samsung for a lot less money. :o

Forgive me but, what is DCR tuner and a ATSC tuner??? (difference)

Thanks

ATSC tuner lets u receive OTA (over the air) HDTV channels using an external antenna (cheap at places like radio shack). DCR means "digital cable ready" and has a QAM/clear tuner for displaying non-encrypted HDTV channels via cable as well as a cable card slot (u insert a cable card supplied by your cable company) so u don't have to use a set top cable box. You can also have QAM tuner without a cable card slot.

btw, I recommend wikipedia to get info on any of these topics.

wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org)

hammersuit,

Second, the water from the splish splash scene on the doa trailer... from the pic it looks dark but on my Sony 34xbr960 I can almost seethrough the water and its pretty vibrant. Perhaps your camera isn't showing all the vibrance and clearness but I assume this is how it's like on your tv?

I'd bet it's just the camera.

I bought a DVI->HDMI cable today to connect my Powerbook G4 and experienced the same overscan issue, regardless of Game Mode or any other options. I also went in to the service menu and was unable to find any settings that would help. I'm still waiting to obtain a decent source source that this TV can take advantage of, but I'm beginning to realize that it may be a while and am starting to question whether I would be better off with another TV like Sharp's 37d90u or a lowerend Samsung for a lot less money. :oThere's another way to think about that. The 4095 has 1080 lines of pixels which means that every 1080i broadcast out there can benefit by not having to be scaled down to 720p. Then of course there is the HD-DVD player and Blu-Ray. Even at present the HD-DVD player outputs 1080 lines of data in 1080i format and therefore benefits from 1:1 mapping onto the 4095's 1080 lines of pixels. Future HD-DVD players are promised with 1080P output thereby eliminating the process step of de-interlacing. Elimination of that step provides a potential benefit to having a 1080P LCD like the 4095. Finally Amir said that he might have time this weekend to play with Powerstrip and hopefully correct the overscan issue with the DVI/HDMI cable. If he is successful in that then the PC could be connected with a DVI/HDMI cable to the flat panel. That would be the icing on the cake for the 4095.

Ive been looking to see where this TV is available, and Cocteau maybe was right with eBay - although now there is another person with the Sammy selling for a cheaper price and cheaper shipping with better feedback - sorry man :(. Anyway, that seems to be the best deal, but I have thought of another "eBay way." I can't post here in fear of the AVS gods, but PM me if you're interested and I'll let you know (It can save you BIG money).

1. As for HDMI cables when I need them, should I get 19 pins instead of 18?

2. Also, just to clarify, the only difference among digital cables is durability, right? I mean, I could go on eBay and get an HDMI cable for $1 and it would deliver the same quality as a monster $150 one? I thought that since it's digital, either all the data is transferred, or none of it is. I've always thought this, but I could always have been wrong. Can anyone please confirm/deny this - since my TV is coming late, I want to make sure that I don't have to wait any longer from using it due to having a lack of cables.

Thanks,
Jared

Maybe I'm just speaking for myself, although I would bet a number of people like myself are lurking and may have the same questions.

From those here that have the set, how is it just purely for watching television. No gaming. No computer work. Just watching TV. HD or otherwise. That's all I will be using it for. Mainly sports. Football in particular.

Thanks in advance. All of this is VERY interesting and educational, but is way over my head at this point. :cool:

ATSC tuner lets u receive OTA (over the air) HDTV channels using an external antenna (cheap at places like radio shack). DCR means "digital cable ready" and has a QAM/clear tuner for displaying non-encrypted HDTV channels via cable as well as a cable card slot (u insert a cable card supplied by your cable company) so u don't have to use a set top cable box. You can also have QAM tuner without a cable card slot.

btw, I recommend wikipedia to get info on any of these topics.

wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org)


So thats the difference in the 4095 and 4096?? so DCR used to be called HD-ready??

From those here that have the set, how is it just purely for watching television. No gaming. No computer work. Just watching TV. HD or otherwise. That's all I will be using it for. Mainly sports. Football in particular.

Thanks in advance. All of this is VERY interesting and educational, but is way over my head at this point. :cool:

Hi DJ,

The set is great for TV, though Standard Definition channels still have their shortcomings.

It seems the better the HD channels are made to look, the poor SD channels get further left in the dust.

As for fast action, the set is terrific.

Maybe I'm just speaking for myself, although I would bet a number of people like myself are lurking and may have the same questions.

From those here that have the set, how is it just purely for watching television. No gaming. No computer work. Just watching TV. HD or otherwise. That's all I will be using it for. Mainly sports. Football in particular.

Thanks in advance. All of this is VERY interesting and educational, but is way over my head at this point. :cool:

I will agree with Cocteau. Although I do not own this particular panel, I can say without a doubt that lcds have come a long way battling response time issues. Plasmas in general are the better choice for sports as you will see literally no ghosting with the balls. But I've seen this tv in action and can tell you that I was hardpressed to see much (if any) differences between this and the best plasmas out there. I think all in all you will be totally satisfied with sports and especially in hd. Sd is another story, and I can't comment on that.

Another question I have for the owners of this set...

Games like Doom 3 generally don't like widescreen. Their best played at 1600x1200. What would be the best thing to do with games like that on this display? Is it possible to run them at 1600x1200 or 1280x1024 and have the sides cut off like the Dell?

I'm pretty sure the newer games like to be run at 1920x1080 but the older games I'm wondering about. The answer of this question will determine whether or not I buy this tv today (or tomorrow).

Also, I have experience using powerstrip and hdmi-dvi cables including Sony bravias, dells, and hp monitors so if and when I buy this set.... I'll try to get to the bottom of this whole 1080p problem.

I'm looking on ebay for some of these sets, and just FYI, but for those looking for the 46 inchers, an authorized Samsung dealer (and also a power seller) claims to have 3 of them in stock. Interesting.

1. As for HDMI cables when I need them, should I get 19 pins instead of 18?

2. Also, just to clarify, the only difference among digital cables is durability, right? I mean, I could go on eBay and get an HDMI cable for $1 and it would deliver the same quality as a monster $150 one? I thought that since it's digital, either all the data is transferred, or none of it is. I've always thought this, but I could always have been wrong. Can anyone please confirm/deny this - since my TV is coming late, I want to make sure that I don't have to wait any longer from using it due to having a lack of cables.

Thanks,
Jared

You're correct about digital cables, so spending $100 for monster HDMIs would be a waste IMO. I recommend monoprice (http://monoprice.com) for buying any type of cables. I've bought my HDMI, DVI, digital coaxial, optical toslink, stereo miniplug, etc. all from there and they are cheap and good quality too.

I'm looking on ebay for some of these sets, and just FYI, but for those looking for the 46 inchers, an authorized Samsung dealer (and also a power seller) claims to have 3 of them in stock. Interesting.

oh really?

That's what it says. I sent him an email. We'll see.

Ive been looking to see where this TV is available, and Cocteau maybe was right with eBay - although now there is another person with the Sammy selling for a cheaper price and cheaper shipping with better feedback - sorry man :(. Anyway, that seems to be the best deal, but I have thought of another "eBay way." I can't post here in fear of the AVS gods, but PM me if you're interested and I'll let you know (It can save you BIG money).

If you mean the one by Datavis, that's a great price and they have a huge Manhattan store and are definitely legit.

1. As for HDMI cables when I need them, should I get 19 pins instead of 18?

2. Also, just to clarify, the only difference among digital cables is durability, right? I mean, I could go on eBay and get an HDMI cable for $1 and it would deliver the same quality as a monster $150 one? I thought that since it's digital, either all the data is transferred, or none of it is. I've always thought this, but I could always have been wrong. Can anyone please confirm/deny this - since my TV is coming late, I want to make sure that I don't have to wait any longer from using it due to having a lack of cables.

Thanks,
Jared
Jared - There is a quality difference between cables. How this is manifest for digital signals is how well it is capable of carrying signals a) over length and b) resolution. Thus, for low resolution and short length runs, most any cable should work. However, as the frequency gets higher (more bits being pushed at once), you want a better constructed cable. Also, as the length increases, you want a better quality cable (less attenuation of signals over distance).

When a cable is not up to the task, it is not a binary works/not works proposition. Instead, you can get something called "sparklies" and/or banding in your image. The cheapest place I have found for HDMI cables is Monoprice (forum sponsor above) who posts the actual wire gauge used in their HDMI cables. Since 1080p is right at the limit of the single link spec, I personally would not screw around with trying to save $10 on cables, when you paid $3k for a TV.

Bill

impetigo

That's correct. Apparently this is a brick and mortar store. Nice.

Thanks DallasJoe for the headsup!

Definitely thanks! Two left. ;) A complete review by next weekend, hopefully. If someone is kind, I'd appreciate someone letting me know how to get into the service menu (PM, please). My service manual has no expected ship date from Samsung.

Hell, it was news to me. It's a brick and mortar store AND they have the 46 incher? Uh oh. :cool:

Ok. So I've had my s4095d for about two weeks now so I'll follow up with my earlier post in this thread.

OTA HDTV:
Leno and Conan look awesome in HD. From my apartment, I can get CBS, NBC, WB, KCAL9, FOX, and a couple PBS channels. Fox is 720p while the rest seem to be 1080i. I think the 1080i channels look a lot nicer.

Basically, for regular HDTV viewing, the 4095 looks awesome.

SDTV:
Doesn't look very good, but it's watchable... I need everything in HD now.

PC Input:
My system is an Athlon x2 4200+, 2GB of RAM, and GeForce 7900GT. I'm using a DVI-VGA adapter and I'm running 1920x1080@60hz.

I've played Oblivion and Counter-Strike: Source at 1920x1080 and they both look gorgeous. Playing FPS games from 6 feet away is somewhat awkward though.

Playing downloaded divx and HD demo videos is still problematic for me. This TV really makes compression artifacts really stand out. Some of the Microsoft HD demos seem to have a lot banding, but I can't really tell if it's because of the TV or the source. Can anyone else confirm? I no longer have a CRT to compare with.

I created a 1920x1080 gradient image using Photoshop and I can definitely see banding on the 4095. The gradient looked perfectly smooth on my Dell 1800FP. This banding is noticeable in some HD demo videos too. I'm still not sure if this problem exists only when using PC input though.

I also noticed that some of my desktop icons cause a flickering horizontal line to go horizontally across the screen. The line starts from whereever the icon is positioned and goes all the way across the screen to the right.

HDMI Input through Oppo 970HD:
DVDs look GREAT through this player, especially cartoons/CGI. Monsters Inc. looked really good.
When you're up close, you can see compression artifacts, especially on the poorly encoded DVDs. If you're sitting about 6 or 7 feet away, it looks beautful and makes you wonder why you even need BR or HD-DVD.

Playstation 2 via component cables:
I first tried out Gran Turismo 4 because it supports 1080i. The image was definitely sharper, but the interlacing was pretty noticeable. The models still looked pixelated and the textures looked blurry, but I expected that from the PS2. Next, I tried We <3 Katamari. The image looked like a strong SD TV signal.

To be honest, I'd rather play 480i/480p games on my old 32" Toshiba CRT.

Other stuff:
The TV menu and channel changing is SLLLLOOOOWWW. I really hate how long it takes to go through the TV menu. Changing channels is also pain.

The speakers on this TV sound really weak, especially compared to my 32" Toshiba CRT speakers. If I want to get nicer speakers, I would have to get a receiver too. No thanks.

The remote control is insanely long. I can probably reach about a third of the buttons with my thumb. The button for "5" doesn't have a bump or indent on it so I can't feel for the number pad. The remote also isn't backlit.

Conclusion:
HD and upscaled DVDs look great on this TV. The colors are vibrant and the darks are dark. Compression artifacts are pretty noticeable when you're up close, but there's nothing we can really do about that except to stand back a few feet.

The viewing angles aren't that great when you're up close. Everything gets a little faded and artifacts/banding is even more noticeable from an angle. As long as you're several feet back though, everything looks good.

The PC Input doesn't seem to be all that great. HTPC support is important to me so I'm still considering returning the s4095d for the Sharp 37d90u.

The speakers are weak and the remote sucks, but you can upgrade those if you want to spend the extra money.

The TV interface is ungodly slow and unresponsive. You get used to it, but it's still annoying when you want to quickly change channels or change a menu setting.

Couple of questions for you. Do you have satellite? How bad does the SD look? If you didn't have HD would you get the tv still?

So I assume with the above review, you would give this tv an 7.5-8/10?

I'm holding off on providing a full review until I've at least had the TV for two weeks, but after only having the TV for about 3-4 days, I think I can pretty much agree with everything that igowerf has said about the TV and it sounds like we will have a very similar setup once my OPPO 970HD arrives.

I can also confirm that there are some occasional scan lines that appear on the 4095 when passing it a computer connection over the VGA input. It's not usually noticible, but when you're looking for, it's easy to see. I'll try hooking up my Windows PC which is using a Nvidia 6600GT and running Vista today to see if I can recreate the banding issue.

I just checked Samsung's site for the 4695D since Datavis on eBay has it. Sure enough, they added the "local store locator" link under "buy from online retailer".

I don't know if I should wait for the 96 series now. The known differences between the 2 so far I do not think are worth the extra money and extra wait. As for the scaler, I think that they will be the same because Samsung just announced the release of the 95s like a month ago, way after the 96 series was announced...remember that shock of seeing the 95 series on the Sammy site? What the heck was that, right? Anyway, I think they just added the 95 series quickly so that they would have something on which to showcase their blu-ray player (They could not use the 96 because of the DCR issues). And if they wanted something quick, I doubt that the time they had would have been enough to develop new technology apart from the 96 series.

And now that they have released the 95 series, they cannot release the 96 with it or just right after it. They need to turn some sort of profit on the 95s. So, that is why I think there is a delay in the 96. BLAME BLU-RAY. Of course it's all speculation, but this it how I like to think of it - I always like to blame something.

Couple of questions for you. Do you have satellite? How bad does the SD look? If you didn't have HD would you get the tv still?
I don't have satellite, just OTA HD. SD doesn't look terrible, but it's very noticeably fuzzy and grainy. Colors are inconsistent from channel to channel and show to show with SD also.

This TV may be worth it if you watch a lot of movies or if you have an Xbox 360. I definitely wouldn't buy it for just SD content.

So I assume with the above review, you would give this tv an 7.5-8/10?
Probably a 7/10. PC input is very important to me and it's been disappointing so far.

I'm holding off on providing a full review until I've at least had the TV for two weeks, but after only having the TV for about 3-4 days, I think I can pretty much agree with everything that igowerf has said about the TV and it sounds like we will have a very similar setup once my OPPO 970HD arrives.

I can also confirm that there are some occasional scan lines that appear on the 4095 when passing it a computer connection over the VGA input. It's not usually noticible, but when you're looking for, it's easy to see. I'll try hooking up my Windows PC which is using a Nvidia 6600GT and running Vista today to see if I can recreate the banding issue.
I'd very much appreciate it if you could try to recreate the banding issue. If you have Photoshop, just create a 1920x1080 image and do a gradient fill using your favorite colors. If you'd like, I can also send you the file that I created. It's just a big PNG file with a blue to orange gradient.

Also, I have a question for other 4095d owners. Does your TV make sporadic clicks for a few minutes after you turn it on? The clicks seem to go away once the TV warms up.

A few more observations:

I noticed a disturbing thing when playing with powerstrip and my computer over the VGA connection today. When you open the Quick Setup and click on the button to change the "Attached Monitor Settingsæ, a window appears that contains a color characteristics plot in the top right corner. The color plot seems to generate a some kind of ghosted scan lines that begin at the plot and continue all the way to the right of the screen. This was before and after I had attemtpted to make some changes within Powerstrip so it should not be the result of anything I had done. Can anyone confirm this on their 4095?

igowerf,
I created a gradient in Photoshop that is probably very similar to what you have and displayed it on my 4095. Sure enough, there was some VERY minor banding, but it was still there. However, I believe that the banding could simply be the result of the limited bit depth of LCDs since my laptop LCD also displayed some minor banding on the same image... of course this laptop is something like 4-5 years old. As for any clicks, I only noticed the one click that occurs when I turn the TV on, but I'll try to pay more attention and listen for it.

I too hear some clicking sounds just as the set is turned on. They do seem to subside after a short amount of time, but I can certainly hear them at first. The picture seems to remain the same and unaffected by whatever is going on, so it doesn't really bother me and I am glad to know that I am not the only one hearing things :)

wyvern130, I know exactly what you're talking about with those "ghost" lines. Certain icons on my desktop cause those lines too. I think it's just certain colors will create them because only the red icons on my desktop cause them. My background is a blurry, abstract looking photograph and I think that the red icons on top of it makes the ghost lines occur.

As for the banding, I don't see anything on my 3 year old 18" Dell LCD monitor, but I do see them on my 4 year old laptop. Thanks for confirming this for me.

Regarding the clicks, they mostly occur on a "cold boot" when the TV has been off for several hours. They go away once it warms up. Sometimes the clicks coincide with interaction like volume changes or channel changes on a cold boot. As pyrahnaWesty pointed out, they don't seem to affect anything so I'm not too concerned. Thanks for confirming that pyrahnaWesty. I'm also glad that I'm not the only one. :)

Interestingly enough, I was playing with SwitchrezX this evening and when I mirror my laptop monitor at a resolution of 1280x854 or 1152x768 to the 4095 over an HDMI connection, it appears that the entire image is displayed 1:1 as there are black borders on all sides and the entire screen of my laptop is displayed, including the menu bar. However, the TV still reports that a 1920x1080p@60Hz signal is being sent. I'm still not sure how to interpret this yet, but thought I'd report it.

Interestingly enough, I was playing with SwitchrezX this evening and when I mirror my laptop monitor at a resolution of 1280x854 or 1152x768 to the 4095 over an HDMI connection, it appears that the entire image is displayed 1:1 as there are black borders on all sides and the entire screen of my laptop is displayed, including the menu bar. However, the TV still reports that a 1920x1080p@60Hz signal is being sent. I'm still not sure how to interpret this yet, but thought I'd report it.

It'd be great if we could get a 1:1 display over HDMI. Maybe that will fix the banding issues over VGA? I don't see any banding on my 970HD.

For me, using a DVI-HDMI cable causes the image to look oversharpened with very noticeable, hard edges on the image. It looks like someone used the sharpen filter too many times in Photoshop. It's also overscanned by a decent amount, which most people are reporting also.

For me, using a DVI-HDMI cable causes the image to look oversharpened with very noticeable, hard edges on the image. It looks like someone used the sharpen filter too many times in Photoshop. It's also overscanned by a decent amount, which most people are reporting also.

The overscan does seem rather odd... it's almost as if every standard TV resolution (480, 720, 1080, etc) all get the overscan applied while anything nonstandard is mapped 1:1 or is out of range. :confused: I only wish I could interpret the service menu better and had a better grasp of how the various settings in Powerstrip and SwitchRezX affect the signal.

The overscan does seem rather odd... it's almost as if every standard TV resolution (480, 720, 1080, etc) all get the overscan applied while anything nonstandard is mapped 1:1 or is out of range. :confused: I only wish I could interpret the service menu better and had a better grasp of how the various settings in Powerstrip and SwitchRezX affect the signal.


wyvern, could you give me all the settings for your custom resolution of 1280x854 or 1152x768 ( such as front porch back porch etc.) so that i can try to recreate this in windows via powerstrip?

sjmueller, I just took a screeshot of what I believe the timings are for the video mirroring and attached it to this message. Good luck!

Also, I have a question for other 4095d owners. Does your TV make sporadic clicks for a few minutes after you turn it on? The clicks seem to go away once the TV warms up.



No! I have no awkward clicking like you are describing --- I think I would probably call your source (of the TV) and look at exchanging it out -- I don't know that there is any long term worry, but I don't know that (personally) I would want to take that chance.

Only 1 left for the 4695D on eBay.

Only 1 left for the 4695D on eBay.
I wonder if the people getting them are on this thread?

QUOTE=Bear5k]I wonder if the people getting them are on this thread?[/QUOTE]

According to the purchase history for the Datavision 4695's on ebay, two were purchased yesterday afternoon and evening pst, and one remains. It lists the purchases under the ebay name of the people who bought one. Very likely, they were from this thread. I believe one of our members posted yesterday that two were left after they purchased one. Datavision is brick and mortar, and you can exchange a defective unit within 14 days if you cover shipping both ways. I don't know if their ebay policies differ.

Interestingly enough, I was playing with SwitchrezX this evening and when I mirror my laptop monitor at a resolution of 1280x854 or 1152x768 to the 4095 over an HDMI connection, it appears that the entire image is displayed 1:1 as there are black borders on all sides and the entire screen of my laptop is displayed, including the menu bar. However, the TV still reports that a 1920x1080p@60Hz signal is being sent. I'm still not sure how to interpret this yet, but thought I'd report it.

I tried the settings you posted in both powerstrip in windows and switchresx, and i could not get the lcd to accept or display this resolution. But i noticed, however, that you said there were black borders on all sides of the screen. I have achieved this effect as well with other resolutions and settings, and this is *not*, IMO, 1 to 1 pixel mapping from what i've observed.... I believe it to be scaled down, or underscanned.

I have a desktop wallpaper that may aid in testing. It is located at:

http://pictures.shiftpc.com/4095/1080p.gif

This image is exactly 1920x1080 pixels, with a 1 pixel white border. Also, there is a 1, 4, and 16 pixel legend towards the middle that will help you immediately identify whether your mapping is actually 1 to 1.

I'll keep trying different settings, but this is getting hopeless. Every custom resolution created with these programs requires a restart, and there are infinite possibilities of custom resolutions to try, and I haven't found a single custom resoution that works. The odds are rediculously in favor of failing, especially without any guide as to which resolutions are supported. The 4095 EDID only gives 3 supported resolutions, which are useless. Trying to adjust 1920x1080x60 to reduce the overscan isnt possible with the programs i've tried, as i've only been able to achieve vertical *moving* (no scaling). I'm contemplating just waiting for a possible firmware update, but I don't know what Samsung's history is regarding such updates, and i am not hopeful.

No offense intended (especially those attempting so vigilantly to achieve 1:1 on the 95's), but in the remote possibility that these extraordinary means achieve true pixel mapping the successes would be quite individualized if not anecdotal. For someone like me who lacks the technical expertise or connections to achieve the results for myself, the 95 has no pixel mappinng and never will.

...in the remote possibility that these extraordinary means achieve true pixel mapping the successes would be quite individualized if not anecdotall.That's the same sentiment I expressed before I learned how to program my VCR ;)

I wonder if the people getting them are on this thread?

According to the purchase history for the Datavision 4695's on ebay, two were purchased yesterday afternoon and evening pst, and one remains. It lists the purchases under the ebay name of the people who bought one. Very likely, they were from this thread. I believe one of our members posted yesterday that two were left after they purchased one. Datavision is brick and mortar, and you can exchange a defective unit within 14 days if you cover shipping both ways. I don't know if their ebay policies differ.
I was mostly curious whether the "other guy" might out himself since one of them is mine. ;) They also showed 15 of the 40" in stock as well.

That's the same sentiment I expressed before I learned how to program my VCR ;)

Hope your vcr and your 1:1 work well.

sjmueller,
I tried the background image you provided and you're right, it's not 1:1. I think there are alot of people who are starting to get frustrated at the lack of proper 1:1 and the very little progress being made towards it, myself included. I keep hoping that someone will find a service manual that could shed some light on this or be lucky enough to stumble on a solution but every time I connect one of my computers to this TV, I'm one step closer to the realization that I'll have to return it and pick up a 37d90u or wait for the XBR2. :(

Apologize in advance. I am reading that while TV viewing in HD is excellent, the viewing on this set of SD material is not so good. My question is whether the higher resolution via the 1080p makes viewing SD worse then on, for example, a 720p set? Like I said, it's probably a dumb question.

While I'm at it, what is the ideal set up for best PQ vis-a-vis wiring, cable, and cable or satelite provider?

Thanks all. I swear I'm not this worthless day-to-day. :cool:

I really should get the antenna shouldn't I.
You should. I hate paying cable company/satellite company for tech that the USA government mandated its taxpayers should get for free!

Is there a web site that tells me what, if any, extra shows I might pickup?

antennaweb (an org site, I can't post links yet) estimates what stations are available in your area, what angle and distance, and recommends antenna type accordingly.

I had Arden DeMoss of Antenna Pro's install an OTA antenna for HDTV. I won't get NBC11 thanks to hills and neighbor's tall house :( , but other local stations should be fine.

I'm waiting to plug the antenna into the Samsung LN-S4696D, Sony KDL-46XBR2/3, or something else. This thread is fascinating, thanks igowerf for the killer summary so far.

--
=S

P.S. For the adventurous, Firefox 2 beta is out with spell checking in text boxes. No more spealling misteaks!

Hi i been saving up some money for the past 2 months and trying to decide if I should buy this tv or not. I came on here before with the same questiong but not a lot of people had this tv at the time. I was wondering if this tv actually worth it from a scale from 1 though 10 what do everybody rate this TV? From the black level, colors and the quality of the picture. The only thing I am going to use this tv for is just for the xbox 360 ps3 and the hd-dvd or blu-ray. I really don't plan on using this tv for a monitor because I have a 32'' samsung that just brought last year which i don't have any problems with.

... I was wondering if this tv actually worth it from a scale from 1 though 10 what do everybody rate this TV? From the black level, colors and the quality of the picture. The only thing I am going to use this tv for is just for the xbox 360 ps3 and the hd-dvd or blu-ray...I don't have the 4095 but I am leaning toward the buying 4096. From what I've read people rate the HD picture quality of the 4095 as nearly excellent with only a slight push toward the red when viewing pure blacks. HD-DVD viewing should be stellar. SD viewing is only average but no LCD that I know excels at displaying SD. The only 1080p LCD that promises to do well with SD is the Syntax 742i that's due out next month. It has the Silicon Optix video processor which should help SD viewing considerably:
http://www.audioholics.com/ces/CEStechnology/SiliconOptixRealta.php

is the samsung lns4692 d 1080p?

is the samsung lns4692 d 1080p?
768p

I just saw the new post over in the westinghouse forums and those pics of riddick made my jaw drop like for the first time seeing hd. Can someone please confirm that hd-dvd will look better on the s4095d than that westinghouse 1080p lcd?

If these sammys can't look as good as them riddick pics then I'm buying a westinghouse tomorrow at bb. If it rivals it, then i'm gonna buy the 4095d from that ebay guy.

Thanks!!!

The page of the westy pics are here....

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=689997&page=49&pp=30&highlight=westinghouse+1080p

I know you can't really judge PQ due to the fact that pc monitors vary and I need to literally see them but I just need someone to roughly tell me that these Sammys are capable of that detail.

The page of the westy pics are here....

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=689997&page=49&pp=30&highlight=westinghouse+1080p

I know you can't really judge PQ due to the fact that pc monitors vary and I need to literally see them but I just need someone to roughly tell me that these Sammys are capable of that detail.
It is tough to compare LCDs unless you see them side-by-side. I took my wife's teenage cousin to Fry's over the weekend, and I spent some time in their horrid TV display while he shopped for video games.

What did this tell me?

1) The 4095D was on an end-cap, and OMFG, UniversalHD looked mediocre up-close (3'). You could see all of the Edge Enhancement (EE) they used to artificially sharpen the image. Yikes! (DNIe was "off", btw - I checked). However, the set was beautiful. In other words, this seems to be a very "clean" display, perhaps a bit too revealing if not fed properly.

2) The 4092D was in the middle of a bank of other ~40" LCDs, and there was simply no contest. The Samsung was clearly the best of the bunch. It had better color, without the desaturation that is common with LCDs that lack enough contrast to keep the white backlight from killing the image. This is with brightness being equal on the Sammy, or maybe even a touch in its favor. I could not imagine buying anything else on that shelf.

I went back through and checked contrast/brightness settings to make sure that the Samsung was not "cheating" by not being in torch mode OOB. However, there was no unfair advantage here, since all of the displays had the contrast and brightness maximized, just like everything else.

So, does it beat a Westy? I do not know. But it sure as heck beat a few Sharps, Toshibas, and a half-dozen generic brands (the Sony LCDs were on a different aisle) to my eye. I will be very curious to measure mine when it comes. Since the plasma "dithering" bothers me for some reason (more than DLPs), LCD is basically my best choice for a flat panel to absorb some daylight hours from my FP.

Later,
Bill

The page of the westy pics are here....

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=689997&page=49&pp=30&highlight=westinghouse+1080p

I know you can't really judge PQ due to the fact that pc monitors vary and I need to literally see them but I just need someone to roughly tell me that these Sammys are capable of that detail.



I have every faith that the 4095 will look just as good as that -- some of the shots in [OTA] CSI:miami looked that good too. The westy does look great. I'm totally confident I got the best bang for the buck when I got my 4095.


Side note -- another price drop on the 4095 over at BB -- check the site

Couple of questions for you. Do you have satellite? How bad does the SD look? If you didn't have HD would you get the tv still?

The SD is fine, it just lok bad compared to the HD signals

The page of the westy pics are here....

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=689997&page=49&pp=30&highlight=westinghouse+1080p

I know you can't really judge PQ due to the fact that pc monitors vary and I need to literally see them but I just need someone to roughly tell me that these Sammys are capable of that detail.

C'mon, the Westy? If you are a HTPC freak that wants the DVI in maybe that it the one for you, but otherwise, I think the 4095 dominates.

Hi i been saving up some money for the past 2 months and trying to decide if I should buy this tv or not. I came on here before with the same questiong but not a lot of people had this tv at the time. I was wondering if this tv actually worth it from a scale from 1 though 10 what do everybody rate this TV? From the black level, colors and the quality of the picture. The only thing I am going to use this tv for is just for the xbox 360 ps3 and the hd-dvd or blu-ray. I really don't plan on using this tv for a monitor because I have a 32'' samsung that just brought last year which i don't have any problems with.
I'm using it for HD & SD cable, Xbox 360, and in the future, HD DVD and PS3. I have no complaints - in fact, I'm thrilled. I got my notebook to connect at 1080p over VGA easily, so that was icing on the cake, as I'm not an HTPC guy. If you are looking for a 40" 1080p LCD, this is the best thing out there right now.

Ok first of all i want to thank everyone on this thread for all the great info, screens, tests, etc.

I finally took the plunge and ordered the 4095 from datavision on ebay (great price!)

So as a side story, i went to BB to check out this TV and I started haggling with the salesman, he offered me a GREAT price on the 4095, almost rivaling net prices, then told me they were out of stock and wouldnt give me a raincheck. Hmm... I guess the point is i thought you couldnt haggle at BB but i guess you can.

So... now i just have to wait...

Question. If the pc connection (d-sub?) does 1080p fairly reliably, why is everyone trying to get it to work through dvi-hdmi? I assume 1080p is 1080p d-sub or hdmi, is there something im missing?

Digital to Analog Conversion, through cable to TV, then Analog back to Digital.

Two unnessisary conversions.

...Question. If the pc connection (d-sub?) does 1080p fairly reliably, why is everyone trying to get it to work through dvi-hdmi? I assume 1080p is 1080p d-sub or hdmi, is there something im missing?The PC connection over the VGA (d-sub) connector is an analog connection whereas the dvi-hdmi connection is digital. The digital connection produces an image that has greater clarity than the analog. One person referred to the analog connection as producing text from the PC that was good but slightly blurry.

The PC connection over the VGA (d-sub) connector is an analog connection whereas the dvi-hdmi connection is digital. The digital connection produces an image that has greater clarity than the analog. One person referred to the analog connection as producing text from the PC that was good but slightly blurry.


Fortunately for me, when I'm playing Battlefield2 I don't care about text! heheheheh

Apologize in advance. I am reading that while TV viewing in HD is excellent, the viewing on this set of SD material is not so good. My question is whether the higher resolution via the 1080p makes viewing SD worse then on, for example, a 720p set? Like I said, it's probably a dumb question.

While I'm at it, what is the ideal set up for best PQ vis-a-vis wiring, cable, and cable or satelite provider?

Thanks all. I swear I'm not this worthless day-to-day. :cool:

The PQ in SD is fine. It's better than my old plasma, but people who expected a real pick-up were wrong to expect it. The 1920 X 1080 pixel quality doesn't help SD much, it's that old garbage-in addage.

The only was SD will pick-up is with an expensive video processor, and those things are buggy and cost more than the set itself. :eek:

The optimal wiring is HDMI, though some seem to like the Component wiring.

Sorry to all interested in the 4695S, looks like the last one was taken. I hope is was by someone here (other than Bear5k) so we can get some more great reviews like from Ryu and others :).

On a side note, I was reading through the 4095D manual, and came across this line:
"This is a special remote control for the visually impaired, and has Braille points on the Power, Channel and Volume buttons."

I showed (I mean read) this to a coworker who is blind and she cracked up. First, she asked what visually impaired person is able to read that on the computer screen. Then, and more importantly, she asked what visually impaired person is spending $3K+ on a TV? I couldn't stop laughing.

[QUOTE

So as a side story, i went to BB to check out this TV and I started haggling with the salesman, he offered me a GREAT price on the 4095, almost rivaling net prices, then told me they were out of stock and wouldnt give me a raincheck. Hmm... I guess the point is i thought you couldnt haggle at BB but i guess you can. -- QUOTE)

They only haggle when they are out of stock? :D

Roy

Sorry to all interested in the 4695S, looks like the last one was taken. I hope is was by someone here (other than Bear5k) so we can get some more great reviews like from Ryu and others :).
I'm...not...sure...how...to...take...this... :confused:

You're correct about digital cables, so spending $100 for monster HDMIs would be a waste IMO. I recommend monoprice (http://monoprice.com) for buying any type of cables. I've bought my HDMI, DVI, digital coaxial, optical toslink, stereo miniplug, etc. all from there and they are cheap and good quality too.
Good call on that one. I ordered 2 6 ft. HDMI cables from monoprice on a thursday night and got them on saturday, with just the USPS priority shipping option. They look impressive and work great. Easy ordering too. I think HD cable television does look better with HDMI than component. Obviously HDMI cables will be a must for HD DVD.

Im getting a Samsung Ln-s4096D, my local retailer has just confirmed to me that these units are arriving this week. Notice that its the 96 not the 95....!!!!! :D :D :D I also got a great deal on it!!!

Cool, can you hint at who the retailer is without mentioning price or web site info?

mmmm its called the Tv store here in L.A. I always get great deals from them...they have a webpage, but since its not permited to put it here.....

Great thanks, I'm beginning to think that the 4096 is the way to go. After giving it a lot of thought I think that the 95/96 series is "good enough" and I love the piano black finish on the 96.

I'm...not...sure...how...to...take...this... :confused:

Hahaha

Sorry...that sounded bad (especially since you were kind enough to let me in on the HDMI cable info :)) What I meant was that since I already knew you were one owner, so I was hoping that someone else on this thread was one of the other 2 that bought from Datavis. That way, we could have more reviewers on the set on this thread. I def did NOT mean it like, "Bear stinks so we need another reviewer." It's like, "The more the merrier." Sorry for the confusion and if I sounded like a jerk.

Jared

Also, I think the members of this thread have formed a cult on this TV, so I would hate to have a non-member get the TV first :)

Jared - There is a quality difference between cables. How this is manifest for digital signals is how well it is capable of carrying signals a) over length and b) resolution. Thus, for low resolution and short length runs, most any cable should work. However, as the frequency gets higher (more bits being pushed at once), you want a better constructed cable. Also, as the length increases, you want a better quality cable (less attenuation of signals over distance).

When a cable is not up to the task, it is not a binary works/not works proposition. Instead, you can get something called "sparklies" and/or banding in your image. The cheapest place I have found for HDMI cables is Monoprice (forum sponsor above) who posts the actual wire gauge used in their HDMI cables. Since 1080p is right at the limit of the single link spec, I personally would not screw around with trying to save $10 on cables, when you paid $3k for a TV.

Bill

Thanks for the information. I was thinking about monoprice, as I have heard good things about them (Thank to you, too, impetigo.) About WG, do you recommend any specific value?

Thanks,
Jared

I have read through many of the ~50 pages on this thread, but I have not seen a concise account of the differences between the 4x95 and the 4x96? Would someone mind breifly running through the key differences? Thanks a bunch!

1. The 96 series has cable card/QAM tuner.
2. The 96 series has Firewire and USB ports.
3. The 96 has a slightly different design, the base and glass reflector.
4. The 96 series has a RS232C port for connecting MP3 players.
We do not yet know if it will contain a different scaler from the 95.

I have read through many of the ~50 pages on this thread, but I have not seen a concise account of the differences between the 4x95 and the 4x96? Would someone mind breifly running through the key differences? Thanks a bunch!

In addition to what lionelhuts said you can also go to samsungs website and see the specs yourself on either tv.... I tried posting the links but got my hand slapped because I haven't posted 5 messages yet....

Jerz

Many thanks... I did try Samsung site prior to posting, but the "comparison" page did not really reveal any differences. It also says the 4096 is 12.8" deep, so I was skeptical of the realiability of these stats.

Just for fun, I was comparing the two PDF specs sheets for the 4696D - the old one and the new one. If you don't remember, then perhaps it will help if I remind you that the original specs PDF did not have the dimensions of the panel where the second one did/does. The second one was release a few weeks ago.

Lucky for me, I saved the old one to my computer. So, I was able to do a comparison of what Samsung changed on specs sheet from the old one to the new one.

1. Dimensions were added.
2. 1080p over component was added (as necrolop guessed right in post #879 page 30)
3. 6000:1 instead of 7000:1 contrast ratio.

Now, for the ones you don't know:
4. Side AV inputs was added under "Features"
5. The picture shown on the TV was sharpened up.
6. "Clock On/Off Timer" was added.
7. The energy star efficiency spec was eliminated which used to say, "reduced energy by up to 25% compared with standard TVs." The energy star EPA thing was also removed from the fine print at the end.
8. "Coaxial Antenna Input" was eliminated in 2 places for some reason.

Now for some Bigger ones:
9. There is nothing to be found on the new spec sheet for an RS232C port. They eliminated it from the "connections" section and eliminated it from the "Features" section as well. It is also no longer in the right hand column of features on the first page. Why would they go out of their way to delete it twice? "MP3 connectivity" is no longer listed under "features" as well. I think that feature over the 95 series is gone.

10. D.A.C.S. IS NOT TO BE FOUND ANYWHERE. They deleted it in all 3 places it appeared in the first spec sheet. They deleted it from the main paragraph, they deleted it from the specifications section, and they deleted it from the right hand column of features on the first page. I looked at the 4695 sheet, and DACS is not there either (perhaps this is why people are saying the sound stinks?).
-----------------
It is still to be noted that DACS and RS232C support is still listed on the product's web page. I just wonder why they went out of their way to delete these features if the TV still has them.

Attached are the 2 PDFs

What i find most interesting is the lack of a DNie logo. The 95 has it, but the 96 does not.

Many thanks... I did try Samsung site prior to posting, but the "comparison" page did not really reveal any differences. It also says the 4096 is 12.8" deep, so I was skeptical of the realiability of these stats.

That includes total depth of the stand, which is of course wider than the set itself.

Thanks for the information. I was thinking about monoprice, as I have heard good things about them (Thank to you, too, impetigo.) About WG, do you recommend any specific value?

Thanks,
Jared
If you are running more than 25', spring for the 22 ga. wire. Personally, I spring for the 22ga. wire whenever I do not need to bend the cable radically, anyway. The 24ga. is fine for short runs, but my time is worth more than the price difference should the 24ga. prove inadequate for some reason.

Thanks for clarifying, by the way. Since I write calibration software on the side, I would have thought some people might actually be interested in what I find! :eek:

Later,
Bill

[QUOTE=lionelhuts

Now for some Bigger ones:
9. There is nothing to be found on the new spec sheet for an RS232C port. They eliminated it from the "connections" section and eliminated it from the "Features" section as well. It is also no longer in the right hand column of features on the first page. Why would they go out of their way to delete it twice? "MP3 connectivity" is no longer listed under "features" as well. I think that feature over the 95 series is gone.

10. D.A.C.S. IS NOT TO BE FOUND ANYWHERE. They deleted it in all 3 places it appeared in the first spec sheet. They deleted it from the main paragraph, they deleted it from the specifications section, and they deleted it from the right hand column of features on the first page. I looked at the 4695 sheet, and DACS is not there either (perhaps this is why people are saying the sound stinks?).
-----------------
It is still to be noted that DACS and RS232C support is still listed on the product's web page. I just wonder why they went out of their way to delete these features if the TV still has them.

The spec sheet for the 4096d has not been updated and still lists DACS and RS232C, although I am certain that these weren't stripped on the 46 only to be left intact on the 40. When it comes to the accuracy of their website Samsung stinks. I guess I shouldn't speak too harshly, since Samsung will be supplying the glass for my 40xbr3.

If you are running more than 25', spring for the 22 ga. wire. Personally, I spring for the 22ga. wire whenever I do not need to bend the cable radically, anyway. The 24ga. is fine for short runs, but my time is worth more than the price difference should the 24ga. prove inadequate for some reason.

Later,
Bill

Thanks for the response, Bill. I plan on having the cable being run a bit less than 6ft (4 probably - I'll measure again today). Here is a link on monoprice where a guy tested all the cables (and found that 28 AWG worked pretty well from 6ft):
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024004&p_id=2412&style=&seq=1&format=4#feedback

Usually, I would spring for the best cable possible, but I need only a small cable and I am breaking the bank on this TV set - I need all the help I can get. :cool: Anyway, I hope that this review can help some people find a good cable. :)


The Google Master,
Jared

What i find most interesting is the lack of a DNie logo. The 95 has it, but the 96 does not.

Forgot to copy that one down from my paper :), thanks. (and of course it was a big one too that I missed). I don't know if that's good or bad. It seems bad since the 95 can turn it off, so you have at least an option on the 95 series. On the good side, could this perhaps mean that the 96 is going to use a better image enhancement processor?

DNIe is really more of a branding thing. Samsung could include a Realta or Gennum in their displays for image processing, and they would probably just increase the revision level (Now with DNIe 11.0)!! or some such. However, Samsung has done some fairly egregious things under the DNIe banner in the past, which is why I did not buy the 4692D. I want my Lumagen video processor to do everything, and not have the TV mess it up downstream.

Later,
Bill

Since the 4096 is beginning to trickle into some retail stores I was wondering has anyone has checked with BB to ask what their computer system shows as a release date of the 4096?

So, I got bad news from my dealer. Apparently he could not cancel my original order for the 4095D. I had to cancel the 46", so looks like one more will be up on FleaBay shortly. Great folks for letting me greenmail them to get out of the deal.

So, it looks like I'll be doing a review of the 40", instead.

Great thanks, I'm beginning to think that the 4096 is the way to go. After giving it a lot of thought I think that the 95/96 series is "good enough" and I love the piano black finish on the 96.

I thought that both the 4095 and 4096 have a piano black finish?

Can any of the 4095 owners tell us the distance between the front of the stand and the panel?

I am trying to figure out how far back the 4095 would sit in my entertainment cabinet. The photos on the Samsung site make the stand look pretty thin from front to back, but the specs say the stand is 12" deep.

I tried looking at Worst Buy, but the 4095 wasn't on its stand, it was on an end cap showing some grainy Blu Ray stuff.

I thought that both the 4095 and 4096 have a piano black finish?They're both black and each has some degree of reflectivity however the 4096 is more glossy than the 4095. Have a look at the 4092 at BB you'll see the same glossy black as the 4096.

I want to thank everyone on this board for all the excellent help they provided me. I have decided on my tv and I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a Pioneer 4270hd.

After my visit to Tweeter yesterday, I bought the toshiba hd-dvd player for the sole purpose to hook it up to the Samsung 4095 in the store. I brought my some of my best dvds with me and tried everything with the settings to get a satisfactory dvd picture but couldn't. I haven't tested an hd-dvd on it but after testing my fifth element superbit dvd there was too much artifacting. I even turned off Dnie. This 1080p might be the best for hd content but I simply have too many dvds for this lcd to be having these issues.

The Pio on the other hand that I bought, out-of-the-box settings were 100% night and day difference compared to the Samsung (even calibrated). It makes my dvds with the hd-dvd player look almost hd. For someone in the market for a plasma, give this combo a try before you settle on anything else (if you have the funds).

Anyhow, the point of this post isn't meant to inform you of the Pio.... it's meant to thank everyone with all my nit-picky questions. If it wasn't for the lack of sd/dvd picture...I'de have bought this set in a heartbeat. Should be a phenominal set and only get better over time I'm sure.

*a big thanks goes to Ryu and Cocteau for their commitment to the boards as of lately with this panel.

Thanks!!

You should. I hate paying cable company/satellite company for tech that the USA government mandated its taxpayers should get for free!



antennaweb (an org site, I can't post links yet) estimates what stations are available in your area, what angle and distance, and recommends antenna type accordingly.



I checked out that site, thanks. It seemed to recommend 3 antenna types, or at least there were 3 color codes. Is that right?

None said "HD", just the uhf code.

Also, does the 4095D just go ahead and play the signal, or do I need a decoding card or something? (gosh, that sounds noon, I know) ;)

I thought that both the 4095 and 4096 have a piano black finish?

Can any of the 4095 owners tell us the distance between the front of the stand and the panel?

I am trying to figure out how far back the 4095 would sit in my entertainment cabinet. The photos on the Samsung site make the stand look pretty thin from front to back, but the specs say the stand is 12" deep.

I tried looking at Worst Buy, but the 4095 wasn't on its stand, it was on an end cap showing some grainy Blu Ray stuff.


I wasn't blown away by the blu-ray setup. The black crowes segment looked like crap, the watch segment looked like crap. The "chicken little" looked ok; but I wasn't blown away. I'm not sure what the "thinking" is behind showing the blu-ray with VERY mediocre sources at BB. But I had read (in this thread?) that HD-DVD hooked to this monitor was spectacular.


But I got the TV anyway because I read that Microsoft uses this TV to display the xbox 360 at exhibitions - and because I read that Sony and Samsung share panel technology. Plus I was little impatient and didn't want to wait for an XBR equivalent that will be MUCH more money, too.

I guess I could have waited and saved some money. But I guess I am very fortunate to be able to say "it's only money!"

Plus it is gorgeous mounted on my wall.
:)

What i find most interesting is the lack of a DNie logo. The 95 has it, but the 96 does not.

It does?

My 4095D just has a tiny "1080p" in the upper right corner of the bezel.

The shots from the CES show were different. They has that big DNIe logo on everything.

Suffice to say, the DNIe turns on and off really easily. In fact, the controls are so easy I find I adjust the picture more frequently than ever before.

But I had read (in this thread?) that HD-DVD hooked to this monitor was spectacular.




I have the Toshiba HD-DVD on the 4095D, and it is terrific.

It scales up old discs to your liking. You toggle up from 420, to 720, to 1080i.

Somes discs look like they are strained to make 1080, so I back it off to 720.

Superbit discs or newer movies look fine fully scaled up.

Enjoy the set, and yes, keep remembering how lucky and grateful you are every day.

...does the 4095D just go ahead and play the signal, or do I need a decoding card or something? (gosh, that sounds noon, I know) ;)Your 4095's tuner will receive and display OTA signals as soon as you connect the UHF antenna. Nothing else is needed.

I checked out that site, thanks. It seemed to recommend 3 antenna types, or at least there were 3 color codes. Is that right?

None said "HD", just the uhf code.

Also, does the 4095D just go ahead and play the signal, or do I need a decoding card or something? (gosh, that sounds noon, I know) ;)

There are multiple color codes overall, but you will probably find that you have only a few color codes that are relevant to you. This is primarily based on distance to the transmission tower, but I believe they also do factor in elevation and some sight angle issues by asking about your building and surroundings.

How to decode the Antennaweb output:
- Look at the list of stations and find the ones that are most relevant to you. Figure out what color codes they relate to, and then look for an antenna that meets the most stringent requirement. For example, if ABC, NBC and Fox are all "Red", but CBS is "Violet", then you need to shop for a "Violet" rated antenna.

- Do not worry about "HD". Most HD channels are carried in the traditional "UHF" spectrum. Some are also located in the "High VHF" spectrum, so the mix of "UHF" and "High VHF" will influence which model you get.

- Direction is important for digital TV, so also pay attention to the bearings provided by the site. If you have six stations that are "must haves" an each one is separated by 40 degrees, then you need six antennae. In Houston, most of the local stations are clustered together, so you can generally get all of them with one antenna unless you are right underneath them (less than a few miles).

- Mounting in the attic will generally cost you about 20dB of signal loss vs. mounting outside. This was measured when the chief engineer from the local CW affiliate came over to my house to test antennae, and it was consistent with his other findings. TekShield or other radiant barriers will detrimentally impact this number. That being said, for those with decent size attics, an outdoor antenna mounted here is generally much better than an "indoor" antenna.

- My basic recommendation for most urban types is to get either a 4-bay or 8-bay bowtie antenna, which can be had relatively cheaply. While these are notionally UHF antennae, they perform much better than Yagi antennae in getting "high VHF" channels (they are actually fairly good for this). They also have good front-to-back ratios (eliminate multipath) and have wider reception angles than Yagis. I bought my 4-bay bowtie for less than $30 shipped.

For more, check the "master antenna" thread in the HDTV Local Reception forum.

Back to the Samsung...

Later,
Bill

They're both black and each has some degree of reflectivity however the 4096 is more glossy than the 4095. Have a look at the 4092 at BB you'll see the same glossy black as the 4096.

I did look at the 4092 and I thought it had the same finish as the 4095.

Now the 4051 did have a piano finish. :)

10. D.A.C.S. IS NOT TO BE FOUND ANYWHERE. They deleted it in all 3 places it appeared in the first spec sheet. They deleted it from the main paragraph, they deleted it from the specifications section, and they deleted it from the right hand column of features on the first page. I looked at the 4695 sheet, and DACS is not there either (perhaps this is why people are saying the sound stinks?).
-----------------
It is still to be noted that DACS and RS232C support is still listed on the product's web page. I just wonder why they went out of their way to delete these features if the TV still has them.



What is/are "D.A.C.S." ? Should I care?

By the way, I think the TV's signal processing on sound is good. The speakers are about what you'd expect for a 40" very slim TV - not good. If you want the big sound, use a HDMI switching receiver or it can pass thru via optical out if you have an older receiver.

It does?

My 4095D just has a tiny "1080p" in the upper right corner of the bezel.

The shots from the CES show were different. They has that big DNIe logo on everything.

Suffice to say, the DNIe turns on and off really easily. In fact, the controls are so easy I find I adjust the picture more frequently than ever before.


I meant on the spec sheet, not the TV itself.

Thanks for the response, Bill. I plan on having the cable being run a bit less than 6ft (4 probably - I'll measure again today). Here is a link on monoprice where a guy tested all the cables (and found that 28 AWG worked pretty well from 6ft):
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024004&p_id=2412&style=&seq=1&format=4#feedback

Usually, I would spring for the best cable possible, but I need only a small cable and I am breaking the bank on this TV set - I need all the help I can get. :cool: Anyway, I hope that this review can help some people find a good cable. :)


The Google Master,
Jared

6ft 24 AWG from our forum sponsors over there at monoprice is working great for me. cheap too.

Since I write calibration software on the side, I would have thought some people might actually be interested in what I find! :eek:

Later,
Bill
I'm looking forward to seeing your preferences for picture settings on the 40", that is for sure. Following Amir's initial recommendations, I have power saving/backlight medium. Then I set picture mode to normal, set contrast at 95, brightness ranges from 55-70, depending on what I'm watching. I'm constantly messing with it but I'd like to hear some more owner opinions. I always have DNIe off, but I haven't really experimented with that option very much.

Plus I was little impatient and didn't want to wait for an XBR equivalent that will be MUCH more money, too.

I spent several hours this weekend and previously at BB talking to a DM who is assigned to this new store. He showed me the Sony and the Samsung are the same price as of then on the BB system. I'm sure Samsung will be lowering their price to beat Sony. He also said they sold 2 46XBR2's on Saturday. Their system allows them to sell the XBRs but they won't be in until around August 6. Check my posts in the XBR thread.

I spent lots of time viewing the 4095 but it just didn't overwhelm me. I really liked it but something was just missing. I actually thought parts of the demo DVD looked pretty damn good. I also looked at the Samsung 5797. It was nice too but out of my price range---even with the generous discount he offered.

I'll wait to see the XBR3 in person then make a decision. If I can scrape together some extra coins I would love to get the 52" XBR3.

Any idea on the price of the 52" XBR?

Any idea on the price of the 52" XBR?

Not really. The 46" is $1000 more than the 40". So one would assume it will be at least $1000 more than the 46". Pricey! But still cheaper than the 57"$9,999 Samsung!

I want to thank everyone on this board for all the excellent help they provided me. I have decided on my tv and I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a Pioneer 4270hd.

After my visit to Tweeter yesterday, I bought the toshiba hd-dvd player for the sole purpose to hook it up to the Samsung 4095 in the store. I brought my some of my best dvds with me and tried everything with the settings to get a satisfactory dvd picture but couldn't. I haven't tested an hd-dvd on it but after testing my fifth element superbit dvd there was too much artifacting. I even turned off Dnie. This 1080p might be the best for hd content but I simply have too many dvds for this lcd to be having these issues.

The Pio on the other hand that I bought, out-of-the-box settings were 100% night and day difference compared to the Samsung (even calibrated). It makes my dvds with the hd-dvd player look almost hd. For someone in the market for a plasma, give this combo a try before you settle on anything else (if you have the funds).

Anyhow, the point of this post isn't meant to inform you of the Pio.... it's meant to thank everyone with all my nit-picky questions. If it wasn't for the lack of sd/dvd picture...I'de have bought this set in a heartbeat. Should be a phenominal set and only get better over time I'm sure.

*a big thanks goes to Ryu and Cocteau for their commitment to the boards as of lately with this panel.

Thanks!!
I agree. The DNie has a high wow factor but does emphasize noise just as much as the fine detail.
I too own the A1 player along with last years Panasonic plasma 50u. Even regular look superior with little noise. One heck of a combination!:)

I spent several hours this weekend and previously at BB talking to a DM who is assigned to this new store. He showed me the Sony and the Samsung are the same price as of then on the BB system. I'm sure Samsung will be lowering their price to beat Sony. He also said they sold 2 46XBR2's on Saturday. Their system allows them to sell the XBRs but they won't be in until around August 6. Check my posts in the XBR thread.

I spent lots of time viewing the 4095 but it just didn't overwhelm me. I really liked it but something was just missing. I actually thought parts of the demo DVD looked pretty damn good. I also looked at the Samsung 5797. It was nice too but out of my price range---even with the generous discount he offered.

I'll wait to see the XBR3 in person then make a decision. If I can scrape together some extra coins I would love to get the 52" XBR3.

Sounds like you and I are on the opposite ends of the spectrum; I wasn't "wow"ed by the DVD but the OTA from the house is spectacular. Letterman, Leno and CSI: Miami -- even Law and Order just jump off the screen to me.

I'm sure Sony will have an amazing product. It's just that it seems like I saw some MSRPs that were substantially more than this TV was.. What's the smallest screen in the XBR3 series?

the sammys are out of my price range, I just pulled the trigger on the 47" westinghouse. good luck to all with the sammys. you cant go wrong with these sets.

I did look at the 4092 and I thought it had the same finish as the 4095. Now the 4051 did have a piano finish. :)Well now I'm confused. The picture for the 4096's bezel on the plasmacity site is piano black but the Samsung web site says that it's grey. Perhaps grey and satin black are synonymous?

the sammys are out of my price range, I just pulled the trigger on the 47" westinghouse. good luck to all with the sammys. you cant go wrong with these sets.
hey, we're all in the 1080p LCD club now. those 47" westys are a lot of 1080p screen real estate for the buck. have fun with it.

dont get me wrong, once i move i wil prob put the westy and bedroom, and once again eye the sammys and new sonys out. for now. the price on the westy is very attractive so have been the reviews.

I am tired of drooling everything I go to best buy either samys or westy. coming in from a 27" crt, I am in for a treat. I even waited all this time to get an xbox 360.

Bear5k

Are you planning on trying to achieve 1 to 1 pixel mapping over hdmi/dvi when you get your 4095? You sound as if you have the knowledge and expertise to possibly succeed where all else have failed (including myself).

Does anybody know if the Samsung LN-S4696D will support HDMI 1.3?

I want to get a PS3 which will use HDMI 1.3. If the Sammy 4696 can't do the job, I will not buy it.

Does anybody know if the Samsung LN-S4696D will support HDMI 1.3?

I want to get a PS3 which will use HDMI 1.3. If the Sammy 4696 can't do the job, I will not buy it.
The specifications standards identify HDMI as legacy compliant and as such backwards compatible - otherwise PS3 would not work properly on 99.99% of the TV's it'll be hooked up to. As the 1080P panel displays it's billions of colors without the help of 1.3 it's not an issue visually as the human eye cannot differentiate beyond 10 million anyways according to scientists that have tested it. Someday 1.3 will in essence provide a bigger data path but having 1.1 or 1.2 HDMI isn't going to make the PQ inferior a true 1080(i)(p) is what it is - kick ass beautiful even without 1.3.

One of the primary benefits of 1.3 is audio and for those with existing sound systems like 5.1 and 7.1(2) who cares if you get another format like True HD Sound and for those without SS it won't matter since the TV on it's own can only present 2.1 sound anyways those formats won't mean diddly without a matching AVR anyways so you wait 9 - 12 months (or longer) to get everything - that's a personal decision but an anal expensive one and a waste of HT HD viewing time IMO.

As no TV or AVR exists in the marketplace with 1.3 and people are viewing 1080i(p) without the help of 1.3 who cares, the chicken littles of the world can sit on their thumbs until the next best thing arrives and buy everything new while the rest are enjoying 1080i and p without the help of HDMI 1.3. Those obsessed will have to wait and to many of the other persuasion the sky is falling and their missing the what 2 million pixels can do without 1.3. ;)

Your 4095's tuner will receive and display OTA signals as soon as you connect the UHF antenna. Nothing else is needed.

That does it, I'm getting involved...

Bear5k

Are you planning on trying to achieve 1 to 1 pixel mapping over hdmi/dvi when you get your 4095? You sound as if you have the knowledge and expertise to possibly succeed where all else have failed (including myself).
I will certainly give it a shot. Fortunately my video processor has fairly extensive controls over its output resolutions, so I should be able to translate that into powerstrip or equivalent timings. My thought going in, though, is how could a TV that is designed to include gaming as one of its major uses NOT use default VESA timings for 1080p60? This mystifies me.

I do also have the service manual on order, but I doubt that this will help much in this particular area. Oh, yeah, it hasn't shipped yet, and I also have a sneaking suspicion it has not even been written yet...

Later,
Bill

The specifications standards identify HDMI as legacy compliant and as such backwards compatible - otherwise PS3 would not work properly on 99.99% of the TV's it'll be hooked up to. As the 1080P panel displays it's billions of colors without the help of 1.3 it's not an issue visually as the human eye cannot differentiate beyond 10 million anyways according to scientists that have tested it. Someday 1.3 will in essence provide a bigger data path but having 1.1 or 1.2 HDMI isn't going to make the PQ inferior a true 1080(i)(p) is what it is - kick ass beautiful even without 1.3.

One of the primary benefits of 1.3 is audio and for those with existing sound systems like 5.1 and 7.1(2) who cares if you get another format like True HD Sound and for those without SS it won't matter since the TV on it's own can only present 2.1 sound anyways those formats won't mean diddly without a matching AVR anyways so you wait 9 - 12 months (or longer) to get everything - that's a personal decision but an anal expensive one and a waste of HT HD viewing time IMO.

As no TV or AVR exists in the marketplace with 1.3 and people are viewing 1080i(p) without the help of 1.3 who cares, the chicken littles of the world can sit on their thumbs until the next best thing arrives and buy everything new while the rest are enjoying 1080i and p without the help of HDMI 1.3. Those obsessed will have to wait and to many of the other persuasion the sky is falling and their missing the what 2 million pixels can do without 1.3. ;)

Way to lay the smack down on HDMI 1.3. It seems like this question comes up at least once a week in the thread. Unless you want to wait a year, why bother to worry about it? Noobs must think, "Oh, they just announced the HDMI 1.3 spec, so I'm sure the panels that come out 6 weeks later will have HDMI 1.3." Duh.

By the way Westa6969, thanks for leading me out the batcave known as the plasma threads and into the light that is 1080p LCD. I was starting to get convinced that 720p plasma was the way to go before I started to read your posts challenging the plasma ideological hegemony. You have the courage to speak the truth based on real experience to those plasma fanboys and I am better off because of it, loving the 4095.

Those obsessed will have to wait and to many of the other persuasion the sky is falling and their missing the what 2 million pixels can do without 1.3. ;)

LOL!

Thanks for providing a cool hand during my decision to buy the 4095D. :)

Sure enough, the set really performs!


Now I'm on to the more permanent installation process.


http://bearleton.smugmug.com/gallery/1681695

***more to follow :D

Well now I'm confused. The picture for the 4096's bezel on the plasmacity site is piano black but the Samsung web site says that it's grey. Perhaps grey and satin black are synonymous?

Dunno, but I can tell you this.... the bezel on the 4095D is definately high shine.

Becuase I have such a bright apartment, I wish it was satin.

However, as long as the viewing area of the TV kills reflection so effectively, I'm okay with it.

http://bearleton.smugmug.com/gallery/1681695

You see this stupidity? ;)

Actually, I'm psyched to see if I can pull it off. I've always wanted a living room that's completely free of all electronics, nothing in sight.

Meanwhile, I've got the Klipsch in-the-wall speakers, the 4095D paired with the Toshiba HDA1 and cable DVR, and the PS3 on the way soon. :)

I'd like to have a room that just for conversation: no phone, no TV or anything in sight. However, the same room converts into the home entertainment and gaming room.

LOL! I imagine hiring a babysitter,.... and after the kids fall asleep, seeing her on her cell phone saying "This gig stinks. There's no TV, nothing. What nerds."

Then after a little snooping around.....

"Hey, you gotta get over here! This dude is totally cool! I found this big ass TV hidden in the wall, get this.... there's all this equiptment and Playstation 3 too. You gotta show me how it works d00d!"

LOL!

Samsung, Sony bet on new LCD panel
Tue Jul 18, 2006 7:09 AM BST

SEOUL (Reuters) - A new joint flat-screen production line by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. <005930.KS> and Sony Corp. <6758.T> is expected to generate $2.3 billion in annual sales by 2008, producing 50-inch class TV panels, Samsung said on Tuesday.

Samsung and Sony on Friday signed a final agreement for a $1.9 billion expansion of their joint liquid crystal display (LCD) plant, S-LCD Corp., to build a next-generation TV panel line.

The production line, which uses the "eighth-generation" motherglass measuring approximately 2.2 by 2.5 meters, will begin production in the autumn of 2007, with a capacity of 50,000 panels a month.

Sales from the line would reach 2.2 trillion won ($2.3 billion) by 2008, Samsung, the world's second-biggest maker of large LCD last year, said in a statement.

Samsung's entire LCD division posted 9.7 trillion won in sales last year.

South Korea's Tangjeong-based S-LCD has helped Samsung to use Sony's brand power to expand the market for larger television panels, while letting Sony benefit from a stable panel supply.

Samsung's home rival, LG.Philips LCD Co. Ltd. <034220.KS>, said last week it had delayed plans to build a similar new TV panel line on its own, after posting a record quarterly loss on falling panel prices.

The larger motherglass yields more panels, boosting productivity. The eighth-generation motherglass produces either six panels for 50-inch class TVs or eight for 46-inch TVs. It compares with the current "seventh-generation" line at S-LCD, which makes six panels for 46-inch TVs per motherglass.

Dunno, but I can tell you this.... the bezel on the 4095D is definately high shine. Becuase I have such a bright apartment, I wish it was satin.It's been 3 weeks since I saw the 4095 so I guess it's time to look at it again. What I remember is the glossiness of the 4051. I'm still thinking that the 4095 is less glossy than that. The 4096 is supposed to arrive at some retail outlets this week so perhaps we'll have a few photos that reveal the true reflectivity of the bezel.http://bearleton.smugmug.com/gallery/1681695
You see this stupidity? ;) Actually, I'm psyched to see if I can pull it off. I've always wanted a living room that's completely free of all electronics, nothing in sight.LOL!That will look really nice. I'm always taking flak for exposing too many wires in my electronic creations. My plan to manage the wires is to use a Salamander TV stand as a mobile platform. When I'm not using the LCD it will be positioned against a wall of an 11' x 12' room and look like a piece of furniture. When the time comes to view the panel I'll roll it out to the center of the room about 5 or 6 feet in front of my sofa so that it's close enough to see all 1080 lines of the LCD.
http://www.salamanderdesigns.com/archetype/gal_video.jsp?image=gal_tv35chry2
The cables will be wrapped inside an umbilical cord to manage their appearance. The 55 pound weight of the LCD should make it fairly easy to roll the panel back and forth once or twice a day.

I know that I want a 46” 1080p LCD and have been following this forum carefully. At the outset I planned on purchasing the 4696 and that is still my 1st choice. However, I am intrigued by Sony’s KDL-46XBR3 which is scheduled to be released in September. While there has been some griping in this forum about Samsung’s pre-release information I can assure you that there is way more information coming from Samsung than from Sony. In comparing the Sammy with the Sony I started to ask myself several questions:

Q: Why do I want 1080p?
Background: I am not a gamer and will use this set for watching TV (cable SD and HDTV) and DVD’s. In the near term there is not much content designed for 1080p.
A: Because intuitively 1080p has to produce a better PQ than 720p even with signals used today. SD 1080p might produce a crumbier picture than SD 720p because it is less forgiving. In a year or two when there is more 1080p content I’ll be pleased with my foresight.

Q: Is the PC input on the Sony a big plus?
Background: People in the forum seem to have trouble interfacing their PC with the Sammy. Will I ever have the need to interface my PC with a 46” LCD? My PC is in my den and my 46” LCD will be in the living room. This is truly thought provoking. I have a real neat marine aquarium screen saver on my PC that would absolutely kick @#$ on a 46” LCD. It actually would look like an aquarium in my living room and I wouldn’t have any aquarium maintenance or smell. However, I’d either have to purchase another PC or string cables (I’m assuming DVI and audio cables) from my den computer to my PC.
A: I convinced myself that having a PC input on the 46” LCD is positive.

Q: Is having cable card slot necessary? What is QUAM?
Background: I am a TWC customer and have always resisted a cable box. My reasoning was that since I have a cable ready TV why should I pay for a cable box. However, I recently fell in love with TiVo and love DVR capabilities. My TiVo is not HD and so I am reluctantly going to rent a HD-DVR/cable box from TWC. If I have this HD-DVR/cable box then why do I need the cable card?
A: I’m married and my wife isn’t the best at adapting to electronic change. She is used to switching channels on the TV. Therefore, I’d split the coax cable and have one signal go to the cable card and the other signal go to the HD-DVR. My wife would be happy that she could change channels on the TV and I assume that I’d be happy because it would be easy for me to get TV-PIP (one TV channel from the cable card signal and the other from the tuner in the HD-DVR). Is this assumption correct? I can’t imagine that I could play two TV channels at once in PIP any other way. Therefore, Cable Card is important. I still don’t know what Quam is and why some folks said Quam is more important than cable card.

Q: Is the Sony going to be worth the estimated $500 more than the Sammy?
A1: Sony with 1 more HDMI input and a PC input is a positive.
A2: Sammy with the cable card slot is a positive for my wife so I guess that’s a positive for me.
A3: Sony costs $500 more is not a positive but it sounds like the Sony might have a better scaler so will the PQ be better?

Conclusion: I am glad that Sammy delayed their release of the 4696 until August. Hopefully I’ll have time to try to figure out these questions before it’s time to purchase. Any insight to these questions would be helpful.

P.S. I know that some of you are saying to yourself “get rid of the wife”. After 32 years of marriage that would be more costly than the Sony so that is not an option. Besides, she’s cute.

...my wife isn’t the best at adapting to electronic change. She is used to switching channels on the TV. .

You let her touch the TV and/or remote!?!?!

She must be REALLY cute.

Seriously though, I have been debating between these 2 sets for weeks now and am currently in a cooling off period until they show up in the real world.

Q: Why do I want 1080p?
Background: I am not a gamer and will use this set for watching TV (cable SD and HDTV) and DVD’s. In the near term there is not much content designed for 1080p.
A: Because intuitively 1080p has to produce a better PQ than 720p even with signals used today. SD 1080p might produce a crumbier picture than SD 720p because it is less forgiving. In a year or two when there is more 1080p content I’ll be pleased with my foresight.

You will want HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray. Trust me.

Q: Is the PC input on the Sony a big plus?
My service manual shipped today, my 4095D will be here tomorrow or Friday, and I may find something out about this when I merge these two facts. However, it mystifies me why a gaming-oriented LCD would not work out of the chute at 1080p. We'll have to what's going on here.

Q: Is having cable card slot necessary? What is QUAM?
QAM is quadrature amplitude modulation, and it is the encoding scheme for how digital cable is sent down the wire. A QAM tuner allows you to tune unencrypted digital cable. A CableCard is required to allow a QAM tuner to unencrypt the encrypted channels. On many systems, this is almost everything that is not available OTA.

Note1: a CableCard is not technically a tuner, it is merely a form of smart card to aid the decryption process.
Note2: All current CableCard slots will most likely be v1.0 compliant. This means no video-on-demand from your remote. CableCard 2.0 is in the process of being finalized.
Note3: Switched Digital Video (SDV) will make 1.0 CableCards obsolete. This is just being rolled out, but TWC will theoretically put it into all of its major markets in the next 3 - 5 years.

Recommendation: While the SA8300HD sucks, it is the best deal going for TWC subscribers, especially ones with HD sets. Depending upon how Sony's functionality works, you may not get two "digital" signals using PiP.

Q: Is the Sony going to be worth the estimated $500 more than the Sammy?
Absolutely up to you. To me, the 4695D is the best deal going, but I could not cancel the 4095D in time. The features of the 4696D are not worthwhile to me, as you can tell by my answers above (CableCard will do me little good when I move). Since I am also looking to upgrade my projector this Fall/Winter, I am not too worried about lacking in size for long. Other people have other needs.

Later,
Bill

Q: Why do I want 1080p?



A: People talk about Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, but they forget to mention that many stations including CBS, NBC, PBS and Discovery amongst others broadcast in 1080i. If you get a 720p set it has to downconvert the 1080i into 720p. This is why westa6969 keeps writing about how good CSI Miami looks on his 1080p set. CSI Miami is broadcast in 1080i on CBS.


Q: Is the PC input on the Sony a big plus?



A: I can't asnwer this, but I do have my own questions for the board. This whole line of HTPC questions is a bit puzzling to me. Does the 1:1 pixel mapping issue affect only current DVI video cards or will it affect upcoming HDMI video cards as well? I guess I don't understand how a TV would know the difference between a regular HD DVD player and a HTPC if BOTH are outputting HDMI(not DVI to HDMI).


Q: Is having cable card slot necessary? What is QUAM?



I am a TWC customer as well and a QAM tuner will enable you to see almost all digital channels. Here in Charlotte, TWC has a HD Tier that includes ESPN HD, InHD, InHD2 and HDNet. I would be able to see every channel(including all of of locals in HD) except those 5 with only a QAM tuner. I would need a cablecard to see the 5 mentioned above.

I also have a TiVo and am reluctant to exchange it for a TWC SA 8300. I had hoped to get a Series 3 TiVo to record HD, but TWC is implementing a technology called switched digital video(SDV) that renders CableCards obsolete. TWC in Colmubia, SC has already implemented SDV and their marketing director is a frequent poster here at AVS forums. I actually wrote her a message two weeks ago about this very topic that I have linked below. Unfortunately she has yet to respond.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7956765&&#post7956765

My wife is cute as well and I am reluctant to give up our current SD with TiVo combination, but the prospect of not seeing my beloved Hokies in HD this fall may force my hand. :)

BTW using the Samsung with the aquarium screen saver is a great idea! I might have to PM you to see where you got it.

...This whole line of HTPC questions is a bit puzzling to me. Does the 1:1 pixel mapping issue affect only current DVI video cards or will it affect upcoming HDMI video cards as well? I guess I don't understand how a TV would know the difference between a regular HD DVD player and a HTPC if BOTH are outputting HDMI(not DVI to HDMI).That's a good question. Isn't the Toshiba HD-DVD player essentially a PC with an HDMI ouput?