Gaming/PC use on Samsung HLP5063W  

Unless any of those games support progessive scan, the answer is yes. Will you notice? Probably not. The lag is on the order of a split second. The only GameCube game I play that I've noticed is Super Monkey Ball because the mini-games have meters.

Some people are reporting no lag on March 2005 builds of HLPs, so you may be in the clear.

Typically for a PC connection, VGA is less hassle, but DVI is a better picture. You don't say what kind of video card you have, but you should be able to run the HLP5063 without any special software. I have an nVidia GeForce 4 Ti4800SE and run it at 1280x720 with 3% underscan to fit the screen best.

Cush

Funny thing about DDR and lag is that if you go with the beat instead of the screen, you won't notice the lag. Yes I know you said you don't play it. You should. We could all stand to lose some weight. :)

Uh yeah, in order to be any good at DDR, you need to time your steps uh, audibly as opposed to visibly. But when you're watching your "Perfects", "Greats", etc., flash a split second late, it throws you off. I'd never know if I got off beat, because visually I'm playing off beat. It's enough to drive me nuts.

OK, to answer your questions:

- Yes, you would experience the lag, but probably not notice. It's all on how sensitive you are to it. I play plenty of fast paced action games on my DLP, but DDR, Hot Shots Golf, etc., are not worth playing to me.

- A lot of people think some games (PS2 in particular) look worse on a DLP (or HDTV in general) because you have such a clear signal, you don't get fuzz or analog noise to distort the picture. "Jaggies" and other inherant flaws in the picture are noticeable. This is your HDTV telling you the "truth" as opposed to an inferior signal hiding the imperfections. Personally, it doesn't bother me; it looks great in my opinion.

- Your card's hardware power won't have anything to do with it, it's just a matter of driver support. I don't know how ATI cards handle it, but 1280x720 on an nVidia card is "overscanned" where the desktop is bigger than your screen, thus I had to "underscan" it to compensate. Powerstrip should not be needed at all.

- Overscan is where your picture is bigger than your screen and underscan is vice-versa.

- I think this DLP is superb as well. My sole complaint is the lag issue. No word whether or not the newly released HLR models resolve this lag. I use DVI for my PC (as I post this in fact), VGA for my Dreamcast, and the component connectors for games. I watch SDTV and DVDs on it, so it gets a fair workout. Even though there are DLPs out there that don't have the lag this model (and others) has, I couldn't find an acceptable alternative in features and picture quality. I share your opinion that DLP is more pleasing to my eyes than other technologies and this particular DLP tends to stand out above the rest.

Had it since Labor Day weekend and aside from spearheading the lag effort, I've been simply enjoying the set. Except for Hot Shots Golf and DDR which I still have my 27" hooked up for...:)

Cush

You do know that the new Samsung models just came out this month right? The HLR series does have some improvements over your HLP model, but if you got a great deal it might be worth it. Just thought it was worth noting, considering you could still return the set if you were not aware of this.

I've got an April '04 build of the set, and I get lag on 480i signals. I really notice it on my non-progressive DVD player and Tivo. Like has been mentioned, it really only affects twitch games. I've talked to Samsung about the lag, and they say they're "aware" of the issue, whatever that means.

They are aware, as they have been informed about the problem but they aren't doing jack about it.
I guess I don't play twitch games because I have never really noticed any lag that has been spoken of or a lot of the other problems people claimed about these sets on this very forum.

I've had this tv for the past seven months, it's been a joy to own. I do have a question concerning pc resolution though. Does this tv support 1024x768? The manual says it does through xga mode but I can't seem to get it to work. I wouldn't be so concerned if it wasn't for the fact that I already purchased silent hunter 3 and it has a set resolution of 1024x768. My video card is an ati 9600xt with the latest omega drivers. thanks

Yeah, well the idea is to have 1:1 pixel mapping to fill up as much of the screen as possible. Running the desktop at 1280x720 does "overfill" the screen, so if you take that desktop resolution and underscan it (nVidia has support in the drivers; ATI probably has something) about 3%, you end up with an odd resolution (mine's 1241x698) that fits nicely and looks sharp (1:1).

I never had a problem with PS2 graphics on my TV, but some people are pickier than us.

I got a decent price at the time, but oh well, these things get cheaper. I got about 20% off the MSRP in September. I've read on another forum (actually I think he posted here too) that the XRGB-2 from Micomsoft eliminates the lag, but who knows? You can get one for around $100 I think if you shop around. I may try it.

I'm not entirely sure if the monitor support 1024x768. If I recall, I had better luck with 800x600 when running full screen applications.

Cush

isn't 1024x768 a 4:3 resolution?
The Samsung is 1280x720. I think ultimately is you did not want the game stretched you could set it at 800 x 600 and just run it at normal pc mode.

Some games only run at 1024x768.

any have some sample pictures of what their PC looks like on a DLP tv?