Our HLM507W was 5 years old the other day, and it still works fine.

It has been close to 4 years since I went into the SM to check the hours, so I thought at the 5 year mark I would have a look at it. I was somewhat surprised to see that it is only at 1654 hours. I would have guessed higher since we put about 500 hours on it the first year.

I have a spare lamp on hand, as well as a color wheel. Since we are pleased with the PQ, I plan to keep this set until it dies. :)

Well congrats!! Mine just Died! Need any spare parts :o)
Starts up for about 20 seconds fine then 3 blinking lights.
Replaced the bulb, ballast, color wheel, same thing. Not the door switch...

I give up :o(

Steve

I sold mine about 8 months ago to a friend. It is still going strong.
But it is a good thing I bought the extended warranty on it. It needed two separate repairs which would have been over $1000 between the two.

Other than that, it served me well!
I've since upgraded to the 56" LED Samsung DLP, and am thinking about upgrading to a 61" now.

hjw,
I got one of the earliest deliveries of an HLM617 (Sammy's first 61" set) back in 2003, so was a bit surprised to read that yours was 5 years old. I didn't think Samsung was even shipping DLPs back in 2002? I bought mine through Tweeter (the only store that even offered the Samsung DLP at the time), and had to wait over two months until the first sets actually started trickling in from Samsung.

Anyway, like yours, mine has been a total delight. I have not had a single problem (knock on wood!), and am still going strong on the original bulb. I'm sure the newer sets offer better picture quality, but this one still looks awesome so I'm in no hurry to replace it. The only sad thing, of course, are the prices: This thing cost almost $5k just four years ago (no big discounts, either) -- and that didn't even include the matching steel stand for another $400 or so, IIRC. Now you can get both a better 61" TV and the stand somewhere about $2k... sigh..

Rob

We bought our HLM507 in Oct '02 so its over 5 years old. Paid a little over $4K for it w/stand. Color wheel was replaced a couple of years later. Still going strong. Replaced bulb @ 6000 hours in Feb '05. Current bulb is coming up on 5000 hours. A few years ago I thought it had a great picture but by today's standards, having had an SXRD for 3 years, its not that great.

Yep, I am still going strong too from the original powerbuy in Nov 2002. No issues but bought a spare lamp on ebay a year ago for $150 as backup.

Great TV - in fact, was happy to finally buy the new Samsung HD tuner last week for $150 instead of the hundreds more it went for when we got our sets.

Glad to hear about other first generation Samsung DLP's that are still in service!

Steve, I don't know what else you might try to repair your set. You have already done all the things that I would have tried.

Well Thanks HJW, I'm going out and get me a new one, Yup a Sammy, I still think the picture is fantastic, even if it's all BLACK!! Don't know what I'll do without the 3bl's. Figured the service man bill alone would put me over the edge.
Anyone need parts??

Steve

Ha ha, lotta old members on this thread.

My powerbuy HLM has been retired to my sister's, its limping along. Bulb was changed about a year ago, color wheel whines like crazy.
Im about to send my hl-r over to her now. That set's been through a left shadow problem and is now shutting off intermittently. I love samsungs but I just ordered a 60a3000 to replace it. Not that sony is free of defects, my gw3 is at my other sister's house, on its 3rd osram bulb.

Anywho, go HLM!!

Mine is still running, it currently has about 22,000 hours on it and on it's 3rd bulb. A year ago the color wheel blew up(last repair done under the Tweeter 5yr warranty). I recently put in the new bulb and do not plan on doing anything else to it, once the bulb dies or anything else happens, it gets scrapped because I WANT SPLIT SCREEN PIP with a HD input :) and a bigger screen :)

Thought I would put this post from another thread here. Good info for our aging beasts:

The lamp in my HLN507W died (3 blinking leds) last week (after 7865h). The lamp was a BP96-00224A(T). My guy at my local TV shop didn't have the A (T) model in stock but had a BP96-00224J and was positive that it was compatible. The lamp looked identical but for the screws.

After installing the new lamp, the TV would turn on, image would come up but the TV would then auto-shutdown after 10 seconds, and go back to the 3 blinking leds.

Check with a Samsung shop who asked to me check the ballast by removing the lamp altogether and turning the TV on. If the ballast is making a small clickety sound, it is likely working fine. It was making that noise so I ordered a 00224A online, installed it and everything got back to normal. Returned the 224J model.

Good info and another small piece to the puzzle that might save someone a buck.

Steve

I forget the exact details because its so long since I read about it but there are two types of bulb for the HLM507. One of them requires you to change the ballast as well as the bulb.

I still have my HLN, with the original bulb.

Has anyone figured out how to get VGA or DVI out from your PC working with the HLM507W? I cannot get it with 1x1 pixel mapping, and no overscan/underscan. I have an ATI Radeon 9550 and Powerstrip. Thanks.

IF anyone has a bad set and a known good used bulb give me a shout. this is for a HLM 507. Still trying to revive the dead.

Thanks,
Steve

Glad to hear there are others still out there. I'm still using my HLM507W that was about $3,100 in September 2002. I had one service call on the wheel about 8 months in but nothing since then. I have am using my spare bulb only because the other appeared to be getting dimmer but still saved it as a backup. I occasionally still see the bulbs on ebay for good prices. I also got the HD Tuner for about $125 and think it is great.

Only drawback for me is the lack of HDMI and not having 1080P but I am glad to keep going with this one until it crashes. Great product and I will be looking at Samsung again next time.

I found this in a Samsung FAQ on their website, so I guess it is DVI-D.

All current Samsung TVs that have DVI jacks have DVI-D (Digital) Single Link input jacks. You can use either a DVI-D Single Link cable or a DVI-D Dual Link cable to connect your TV to a video source. The video source you attach to your TV must have a DVI-D Single Link output port.
All Samsung TVs that have DVI jacks are also HDCP compliant. Any device you connect to a Samsung TV using DVI must also be HDCP compliant or the TV will not display the picture or will display it severely distorted.
Finally, a DVI cable carries video only. If you connect a video source to your TV using a DVI cable, you also must connect separate Left and Right channel audio cables to the appropriate input jacks.
Note: Many 2005 and 2006 model Samsung TVs have a combined HDMI/DVI jack. To connect this jack to a device that has a DVI jack, you need a cable that has an HDMI connector on one end and a DVI connector on the other. You will also have to connect the audio using separate audio cables.

I was just browsing thru some old HLN507W threads to see if anyone else still has one up and running. I bought mine as an open box special in May 2003 and it has around 3800 hours on it now. It's never needed any repairs or bulbs, although last year it was making a high-pitched whining noise every now and again. I figured the color wheel was going and I'd get a new TV for the holidays, but it was not to be.

We bought our HLM507 in Oct '02 so its over 5 years old. Paid a little over $4K for it w/stand. Color wheel was replaced a couple of years later. Still going strong. Replaced bulb @ 6000 hours in Feb '05. Current bulb is coming up on 5000 hours. A few years ago I thought it had a great picture but by today's standards, having had an SXRD for 3 years, its not that great.Our old HLM507 is now over 8 years old and still going strong with 15,000 hours on it and on its third bulb.

These old Sammys really are amazing sets. I posted in this thread back in Dec 2007 about my very early first-generation HLM617. Another three years have now passed, and this TV is still going strong on its original bulb and without a single repair. It seems to take about a minute now for the picture to develop full brightness, but at that point it still looks just as awesome as it did the first day I got it.

It may not have all the fancy technology of the new TVs, but as long as this 8-year-old TV is delivering a picture this good, I have no desire to replace it.

Yes, my picture still looks fine, but I'd love to upgrade to a set with HDMI inputs so I could run everything through my receiver and get rid of the rats nest of cables I have back there at the moment.

My only other issue is (and it may be a setting on the cable box causing this) I can't watch HD content and SD content on the same input. SD can only be viewed on one of the Video inputs. No big deal for me, considering I watch TV on it maybe once a year, but it drives my wife crazy.

Oh well, by the time it dies I should be able to pick up a nice 65" set at a good price.

Yes, my picture still looks fine, but I'd love to upgrade to a set with HDMI inputs so I could run everything through my receiver and get rid of the rats nest of cables I have back there at the moment.

My only other issue is (and it may be a setting on the cable box causing this) I can't watch HD content and SD content on the same input. SD can only be viewed on one of the Video inputs. No big deal for me, considering I watch TV on it maybe once a year, but it drives my wife crazy.

Oh well, by the time it dies I should be able to pick up a nice 65" set at a good price.If you are using the component inputs, the problem is because component input #1 only accepts 480i and 480p and component inputs 2 & 3 accept 480p, 720p and 1080i but not 480i. So set your cable box to output at 720p or 1080i and connect it to component #2 or #3 and you should be OK.

Wow... I was surprised to see this thread active again.

Our HLM507W is still working fine, in fact we're watching the football game on it now, OTA through the old SIRT165.

The set is over 8 years old now. :)

If you are using the component inputs, the problem is because component input #1 only accepts 480i and 480p and component inputs 2 & 3 accept 480p, 720p and 1080i but not 480i. So set your cable box to output at 720p or 1080i and connect it to component #2 or #3 and you should be OK.

I must have missed this back in January, and now that you mention it, that makes perfect sense, and is something I had completely forgotten since reading about it in the owner's manual back in 2003!

I replaced the Samsung DVD player a while back with a Blu-ray player, and I remember having to adjust the output so that I could see a picture. I don't think I can change the cable box settings (Verizon FiOS) but I should be able to get both working properly with the Component 2 & 3 inputs.

Thanks for the help.