Is fan noise cooling the bulb present on all current DLP, LCD & LCoS rear-projection TV's?

I love the new 46" Samsung HL-S4676S (only 10.6" deep, can be wall-mounted), but I'm going to have to replace it w/ a more costly LCD flat panel if the noise can't be minimized. It sounds like a fish-tank air-pump motor is in the room. No mention of the noise (till my post) in a 3-page long thread on the this TV.

RibbonSpeakers: I developed a home-made noise reduction system for my rear projection TV. You can read the details of the method if you search for the "Brillian 6580iFB 1080p Owner's Thread" in this "Rear Projection Units" section; go to the last page and view post #585; it contains two pictures that may help you visualize my description. It worked wonderfully for me; hope it is helpful for you. G. L. Dybwad, Albuquerque, NM

Is fan noise cooling the bulb present on all current DLP, LCD & LCoS rear-projection TV's?

I love the new 46" Samsung HL-S4676S (only 10.6" deep, can be wall-mounted), but I'm going to have to replace it w/ a more costly LCD flat panel if the noise can't be minimized. It sounds like a fish-tank air-pump motor is in the room. No mention of the noise (till my post) in a 3-page long thread on the this TV.

If no one else is complaining, it sounds like you may have a defective fan or motor. Computer fans which are similar sometimes fail.

I know the fan in my year-old JVC is only audible if the sound is off, and even then not bothersome. I presume you don't have the set touching the wall in the back, and the mounting is solid.

I have heard of some owners of earlier sets which were apparently noisier mounting cork or ceiling tiles on the wall behind them to prevent noise being bounced back into the room.

I believe that all DLP units have at least 1 fan cooling the lamp.
Some models may be louder than others.

If yours is really loud (as you described), then I think it is defective.

Return it to your dealer and get a new one (same or diff model).

The only way i can hear my fan (in my Samsung DLP) is if i put my ear right up to it in back of the set. Since i don't actually watch TV this way it isn't an issue. Sounds like you might have a problem.

This forum is great. Thanks for the advice.

At first I though no, this is just normal fan noise & I'm just an overly sensitive audio nut. But the fact that one member posted damping techniques is consistent w/ my complaint. How do I tell if it's NORMAL or I'm just too sensitive? I have an RS meter & can measure at a pre-determined distance if that will help. For your life you couldn't detect jet fan noise at CC where it was purchased.

The color & clarity of Sense & Sensibility last night was just plain shockingly good! But the fan noise during pauses was intolerable. (BTW, are those seemingly strange color swatches in face close-ups just makeup or TV artifacts or indications that further adjustments are required?)

It's absolutly mounted flat on a solid mission-style sofa table I built myself, & touching nothing else. Putting audio-component vibration-absorption synthetic spheres on pedestal mounts seemed ineffective (the spheres should minimize vibration transference to the table; points are contraindicated because they would increase the vibration transference).

BTW, most of the problem noise bandwidth would experience very little if any attenuation from cork & ceiling tiles.

How do I tell if it's NORMAL or I'm just too sensitive?

If you have an XBox 360, and it's not as loud as the TV, then the TV is too loud ;)

Seriously, mine is somewhere between my 40gb Tivo and 360 in loudness, closer to the Tivo but still noticeable in exactly the same way as you describe. I'm going to first try putting some sort of audio dampening padding between my glass TV table and the set (I've already positioned it for manufacturer-recommended ventilation distances) then see about any of the more exotic muffling rigs.

Best of luck!

I just purchased a Samsung HLR5066W and having the same noise problem. I disconnected all equipment from the unit and simply plugged the TV into the wall. With the mute on it still has a large fan sound.

I contacted Samsung and they suggested returning the unit where I purchased it and get an exchange as it has been under 30 days.

I contacted Leons and they were sold out over the holidays and were going to order me a new one.

I returned to CC. I turned off the sound at every source I could access. Still the ambient noise level in the store is quite high. Standing next to the TV I could hear what seemed like the same fan noise come & go with the TV power turned on & off. But of course the higher ambient noise level caused the TV noise to seem lower vs. at home in a very quiet room. I listened to the TV w/ my ear against it. The noise seemed the same vs. at home.

IMO the sound we are both discussing is normal for the TV. IMO the rather noisy cooling fan noise is the manufacturer's response toward the goal of increasing the lifespan of the bulbs, which seems to be the only Achillees heel of this technology. (The PQ seems great.) It seems the primary enemy against bulb life is a warmed bulb turned off for a period too short to allow the bulb to sufficiently cool, then turned on again. At that moment the filaments are still warm, which causes a lower resistance to the power surge resulting from the power-up, which tends to take hours of life off the bulb.

So to combat the above problem the manufacturer's decided to take affirmative steps to lower the bulb temperature in normal use.

Hence a high-flow fan, causing high volume air flow, causing our posts.

The only sollution IMO is probably going to be a flat panel or a CRT-RP, neither of which need air cooling. Plasmas burn-in (not my words but plastered all over the owner's manual of a TV; it also had a terrible 4:3 to 16:9 conversion process), flat panel are more costly, & RP's are so huge & heavy I'm not even considering them.

We're stuck. There really isn't any free lunch.



BTW,