Is anyone running the Samsung 5000 with HDMI to an Optoma HD80? With that combination the video has a massive purple tint on my machines (think looking through purple window tint).

I've tried multiple HDMI cables, bypassing my Onkyo 805 and going HDMI-direct to the HD80, and tried the different HDMI inputs on the Onkyo and HD80 to no avail. Component and composite video does not have the purple tint.

I first called Samsung and they told me the player was defective so I returned it and got another. This one is doing the same thing. One thing I hadn't tried with the first player was trying it on my other TVs (duh!), so I've tried this second player on a Toshiba LCD HDTV and a Pioneer Plasma HDTV and it looks fine (outstanding actually) over HDMI to those sets. So it's something unique to the HD80.

Has anyone else seen this, or has anyone had success with an HD80?

Thanks.

cable maybe?

I have one connected to an HD70 and it looks stellar!

I've tried two 6' HDMI cables from RAM Electronics ("High End" certified 1.3a), a 30' HDMI cable from RAM Electronics ("High End" certified 1.3a), and a 6' Acoustic Research cable (HDMI 1.x unknown). These same RAM cables produce a great looking picture from my DirecTV H-21 HDTV satellite receiver on the HD80.

Over the Acoustic Research cable to the Toshiba and Pioneer TVs it looked great. Using the same cable into the HD80 gives me purple video.

So I don't think it's a cable issue.

Even selecting a lower quality output on the Samsung 5000 (720p, 480p, 480i) I still get purple video.

My next step unless someone has a better idea is to try and borrow a friend's BluRay or HD-DVD standalone player and see what it looks like. On Monday I'll call Optoma's tech support, but I have a feeling I know what they're gonna say - it's the DVD player. I say this because there's a FAQ on their site that talks about a similar problem over component or composite video and they say its the DVD player not selecting the right output.

This is an HD80 issue. It did the same thing with the TiVoHD until Optoma released a firmware update. Some how the colors space gets messed up via the EDID between the two devices.

With the TiVoHD the boot screens would display fine and then go nuts as it began displaying HD. If you don't have the latest firmware it couldn't hurt to get it a try.

http://www.optomausa.com/Product_detail.asp?productsubcat=3&productcategory=Home+Theater&product_id=331

Charles,

You hit the nail on the head. Did a firmware update and it solved the problem!

Many thanks for the link - I had gone to the Support link on Optoma's site prior to my original post figuring if there were firmware updates they'd be listed there. When there wasn't any mention of firmware, I figured it wasn't user-flashable and I never would have thought to go to their Product Description Page for the HD80 to find the firmware update link there.

Jim

I had a similar issue with the 5000 connected to the HD80 and I posted it here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12717055#post12717055

On some boot-ups, the lines mentioned in the above post are not there. But in those cases there are small horizontal ticks in images (typically visible in colored text on a black background).

I'll do the firmware update tonight and see if that fixes the problem. Since my HD80 is new (bought it from Projector People a couple days ago) I had assumed that the firmware was the latest. But there's no version number on the menu screen, so that's a clue that I have an older unit.

Scott

PS thanks go to robbroy for pointing me to this thread.

Thank you. I reported the same problem here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/search.php?searchid=8705763

Just to confirm - Upgrading the HD80's firmware solves this problem?

Crutchfield is scheduled to ship me a replacement, and I've been using the component cables in the interim. I guess I can cancel the return.

The firmware at the link Charles provided above fixed the purple (magenta) problem. I never saw the hoizontal lines like Scott's post talks about.

I don't know what the original firmware version was that my HD80 had (never had a need to pay attention to it), and Optoma's site doesn't list a version number for the firmware download that I used. What comes up on my Setup menu now is "C.05", and that jives with what's in the binsum.txt file that's part of the zipped firmware download:

HI-LO checksum = HD80_C05_USA_1012_Checksum_3502

Good luck.

Jim

BTW, the date on the latest firmware for the HD80 is 10/12/07.

I upgraded the firmware to C.05 and now the horizontal lines are gone.

With the C.05 firmware, everything looks fine. Since the projector is only 5 days old, I had assumed that it came with the latest firmware. But that is not the case.

So be sure that you see "C.05" on the HD80's menu (upper right corner, in the blue bar). If not, then you have the old firmware.

Thanks to all,

Scott