Samsung 1080p Owner's Thread --- HLRxxx8W DLP Models - Page 3

I am also waiting on Dolby Digital + and DTS-HD although this could
be as far as two years until we receivers with such decoders. Upgrading
for HDMI switching just doesn't make sense to me.

Until the receivers are upgraded is it likely that we can use the analog
inputs from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD DVD playes to take advantage of
the better sound formats.

Instead of waiting how about simply doing what I did. I went ahead & purchased the Onkyo TXNR1000, it the industry 1st with a modular circuit board for sliding in/out new PC-Like cards from the back, making it future proof.

Has I believe 10-12 slots.

Just posted by me on the other HLRXXX8 thread:

Anyone living close to Anaheim, CA can have a look right now at an HLR6168W. The Fry's just off the 91 freeway on La Palma has one on display. Amazingly, it was being fed the local HD channel 28 (KCET) via the ATSC tuner hooked up to a rabbit ear antenna. I have to assume that that there was some sort of transmitter or antenna-antenna connection inside the store but who knows. I believe this was a live feed and not a .ts file running off a computer somewhere but there was really no way to tell for sure. OTOH, when I came home and tuned into KCET with my MyHD MD-130 (fed from an outside antenna) it was running what I saw at Fry's so I'm pretty sure that it was a direct over-the-air feed.

As far as the picture goes - it was stunning. The blacks are very black and the color depth just seemed to me to be outstanding. The contrast ratio is higher than what I am used to seeing. There was no way to compare it to any of the other sets in the store without walking 100 feet but it looked like it was better than the 50" Sony and Panny plasmas that Fry's had on display.

The one big negative was that there was very consistent macroblocking on scene transitions that lasted maybe a quarter second. I took a look at the plasmas and they were suffering really severe macroblocking (much worse than the 6168) but it was random and not on scene tranitions. This would indicate low or marginal S/N to me and that could be what was giving the 6168 problems. The picture that I am looking at right now at home via my MD-130 also shows the macroblocking for scene transitions but it is much less noticeable than it was on the 6168.

I would be interested in what others have to say about the macroblocking issue. But other than that it was as advertised even with a rabbit ear antenna feed.

InterceptPoint,

As much as I know about these things (nothing!), I believe that part of the problem is with Channel 28 itself: I had a Philips HDTV and the macroblocking scene transitions were prominent then, as well. I did not see macroblocking on other HDTV stations. Perhaps the Samsung is better at showing this problem due to its good electronics(?).

It looks like his experience was better than mine. The store I was at wasn't set up for OTA. And if it was the picture would have probably still been butchered since they were feeding so many TVs. I'll just have to wait until my TV shows up from TVA in 2 or 3 weeks.

Re KCET (PBS) HD: majority of their programs are widescreen only, not HD. They also multicast a SD subchannel, which may explain the macroblocking. Of course the weak signal (set top antenna) may cause some break ups too.

I had a nice 60 mile round trip drive to the Fry's Electonic store in Anaheim.
The condition is pretty much as described - they have a set of rabbit ears
connected to an antenna input on the back of the TV. No HD feed or DVD
player was hooked up.

The OTA HD on 28.1 PBS looked extremely pixelated and I don't believe this was
macroblocking. The pixelation was in the nature of rectangular blocks anytime
there was movement. It also kept breaking up as it lost signal and this was
observed as "shifts" in the picture. I don't believe this had anything to do with
the 6168 but was a problem with the source being rabbit ears in a building with
a great deal of metal acting as shielding.

As I changed the channels 2.1, 4.1 etc I noticed that this set by far has the best
SD picture I have seen on a rear projection TV. Far better than Dish network SD on
my JVC 52 in. D-ILA. SD on my JVC D-ILA looks washed out and the SD via
rabbit ears on the 6168 had deep color that "popped".

I asked to hook up a DVD player but they would not do so. The sales people
told me that this really shined on 1080p content which they saw via a DVR during
training. I did not inform that the TV does accept a 1080p input other than the
vga input.

The black levels were inky black but I was not able to observe any source
material with dark scenes in order to report on the shadow detail. But if
the 6168 displays DVD 480i anything the Mitsubishi 52in. 1080p DLP I saw
at Ken Krane's in West LA then we are in for a real treat here too.

I wish I had more source's to examine other than rabbit ears but at least I know
I will enjoy SD content on the 6168.

I was unable to observe any screen door effect even at 2 feet away. I did not
see any rainbows ( but have never seen one so I am not the best judge for
this )

Fry's in Anaheim has the 6168 in stock and if you want to buy one you can pull your
truck up to the store tonight and drive away with one. Or they will provide free
delivery in the area this week on Monday or Tuesday. They were also willing
to knock a few hundred dollars off the M.S.R.P.

If anyone else makes it out to Anaheim later this week hopefull they will have a
DVD player hooked up...

Thanks Tony.

I might wait until Wednesday to drop by. Hopefully they will have a DVD player hooked up to it by then.

Then again, I really want to see what the set looks like physically too (I am considering the 6768), so I might not be able to hold out until Wednesday!

Don't count on it. I'm here at the Fry's source, and from my experience they are constantly finding new ways to show any big wide screen TV at it's worst.

I went over to Magnolia in San Jose, yesterday, to look at the 50" 1080p Sammy. It actually was a very interesting test, as it turned out that the TV did not have a label on it to identify the model number. But as I went into the back where all the DLP's are located it only took one look around the room to know which one was the 1080p set. The contrast is so much better, the colors are so much deeper that you just know that this one has to be the 1080p set. The sales guy came by 5min. later and confirmed that indeed it was the new 5078.

The blacks are true blacks, and any other DLP next to it can only show shades of grey, where it should really show black.

Again, the color depth is amazing. The contrast just blows you away. I was hesitant about getting a 1080p set and was thinking about just getting the 720p. But now, I am in serious debates with my wife to see if we can spend the extra 1K that it will cost us to get the 1080p set.

I will wait for some of you brand new owners to answer the un-answered questions on page 1 first, before I pull the trigger. Looking forward to all of your posts. Make sure you find time for the forum and don't just watch TV all day long.

Tony thanks a bunch...Hopefully yourself and other forum members will be getting their sets before next weekend...Really looking forward to the reviews to start coming in!

I hope so too Joe but I wasn't in the first batch of 30 - I am number 60 ( or I
guess that is now number 30 on the new list ). It is probably more likely
sometime the following week...

My wife and I will be flying out to the L.A. / San Diego area on Tuesday. I could always "get lost" in Anaheim, and pull into a friendly store to ask for directions

I DO hope to seperate. The reason is, I've read here on the forum that the pedestal tv's (capt Kirk's) seemed to have different/better circuitry than the other Samsung DLP's, as least from observations from ISF technicians. Therefore there may be some settings than can be applied to the pedestals tv's, in the service menu, that can't be applied to the others.

A lot of people think the "720p" pedestal models have the best PQ because they are the only Samsung models that combine a seven element color wheel, and the HD2++ chip.

I haven't read anything indicating that there was better circuitry in them for things like scaling, color or de-interlacing.

The 1080p pedestal models will not have a chip/wheel advantage. There will be minor differences in performance and that difference could even be negative due to the vertical light engine.

I expect that the questions that come up in any owners thread will apply to all the Samsung 1080p sets because there is no information indicating that there will be internal differences.

my first post...

i made the jump today and just ordered the 5668...can't wait to get it! the preliminary reviews sound like the new 1080p's are stunning.

quick question...
will i be able to watch tv and use the tv as a computer monitor at the same time? either split screen or pip? originally, i was told i could...but i just read a post on another thread that indicated i couldn't. any help???

Has anyone gotten a definitive response from Samsung as to whether or not the 68/78/88 series will accept a 1080p signal over some of its inputs? I apologize if this was definitively answered elsewhere -- I have been searching, honest! as befits a first-time poster...

I did make a call to Samsung tech support today and they gave me an affirmative response, but after thinking it over, I'm wondering if the particular rep I spoke to was confused about my question. I know the TV always *displays* in 1080p format but the question is whether it can *accept* a 1080p signal from outside, and, if so, over what inputs.

I may have to call them back and reask the question. I feel like an idiot for doing so, but I'd rather do that than spend a lot of money on a 1080p set that couldn't actually take a 1080p signal.

Yes, it will accept 1080p60fps on the vga input. Component and HDMI are
limited to 1080i60fps.

OTA SD (given a reasonable signal level) will always look better than Dish. E* and D* both compress their SD to the extent that it is very visible on a large screen.

So, don't assume you will get better SD from the this TV until you compare it using the same signal.

SteveTiilikainen, the xxx8 series accept a 1080P signal through the vga input (this is the only certain 1080P 60 Hz input). This however is an analog input. With regard to the digital inputs - as far as anyone knows the HDMI ports will only accept 1080i (I'm sure there will be some testing but 1080P seems unlikely), it appears that the 1394 ports will accept 1080P but no one has tried this yet, and finally if someone should decide to broadcast (extremely unlikely) in 1080P it looks like the set will accept this.

All of the above is subject to people actually receiving the sets and trying things out.

Good point - I have never used rabbit ears or antennae for SD on an
HDTV but the locals did look very acceptable to be.

To me, that just seems odd. Why build a high-def digital TV capable of displaying 1080p and then not give it the ability to receive 1080p transmission over a digital input? Looks like I'm going to give Samsung another call. =)


Isn't that the maddening thing. We just won't know until the early adopters here (all praise the early adopters!!) get their sets and do some testing.

does anyone actually own one of these sets ?

This horse has been beaten to a pulp already. It isn't going to happen over digital inputs. At least not this year. The only people who are going to be able to test 1080p input content are HTPC folks or folks with scalers that can push out a 1080p signal. I surely won't be able to test out any of the 1080p input abilities. I look forward to reading about their results but to me it doesn't matter at all.

We have (2) Fry's in San Diego. I'll be dropping by the San Marcos store after work today for some other items. While I'm there, I'll check to see if they have any of the 1080P's on the floor yet.

I have not yet heard of anyone getting one of these sets into their home, mine is on its way via FedEx, no tracking # yet , many others are still waiting for shipping and others have actually seen these sets at stores (but no one has bought one). I will post as soon as I get my set, and follow up as I test different features. I will not be alone.

Just got an update from SEKO from their website tracking and then gave them a call. With any luck I should have my set in my hot little hands on Wednesday.

Hello all,

Many good questions have been posed that need to be answered once these displays become more readily available. I actually have a number of people that have already booked tentative dates to have me calibrate their new xx68/78/88 models so I'll make sure to report my findings from a calibrator's point of view.

The one thing that I can say is that I've found inconsistencies within the service menus of displays even when the specifications say that they should be the same. Such has been the case with Samsung's 720p displays. For example, on some the CCA is always on instead of being switchable resulting in a more difficult and slightly less accurate calibration. On one HLP6163 that I calibrated a few months ago, I found their to be unique grayscale settings for composite, component, and digital inputs but haven't found those capabilities on another one. I've also found that the destination points for the secondaries (yellow, magenta, cyan) can be adjusted on some models while being absent on another like display.

So I'm very curious to see what options are available within the service menu and how consistent they are between the newer models.

Expect a report as soon as I get the opportunity to work on one (probably within 2-3 weeks).

Eliab

Did you find the same differences when the model and the firmware version were the same?

It sounds like Samsung is doing multi-path field testing.

Eliab, sounds a bit scarry! Is Samsung reading owner's posts here and making changes as they go along?