The Official HP Pavilion 1080P DLP Owner's Thread - Page 5

Here's my whole (future) home theater set up: HP md6580n, 5.1 receiver w/ optical & co-ax in, cable w/ HD-DVR (component), x-box 360 (component), OPPO DVD (DVI to HDMI), PS3 (HDMI). I will try to connect the HP to my receiver via co-ax & hope that all the components will play back in 5.1. Or else, I'll have to switch the optical cable between all the components as I only have 1 optical input.

Again, do you know if sound quality is worse through the co-ax compared to the optical?

Sound quality should be the same between optical and coax - both provide digital sound.

I *finally* got what may be an undamaged stand this morning (the FedEx guy came at 10:26, delivering a package that was to arrive between 8:00 and 10:30... utterly typical), and the box looked to be in better shape but I didn't have time to inspect it fully before I had to rush off to work 4 hours late. HP and FedEx have absolutely no mercy for anyone who is unable to be home during business hours, by the way. There are no exceptions to their policy of only scheduling deliveries for their timeframe.

All in all, I would rate my post-sales experience with a letter grade of D+. The only reason it isn't a D- is because they overnighted the replacement stand. I'll reconsider the grade if the (second) stand is indeed completely undamaged AND the TV is in pristine, immaculate condition when it is delivered tomorrow morning.

I suggested that when someone orders both a TV and a stand, HP should have the stand prefabricated and white-glove-deliver both the stand and the TV, but apparently their contract with FedEx won't let them do that.

Here are some tips when dealing with HP and FedEx. Hark unto me, young padawan Jedi:

1. HPShopping keeps exceptionally late customer service hours. They are open until 2:00am EST.

2. It *is* in fact possible to call 1-800-GO-FEDEX and speak with a flesh-and-blood entity, for what good it will do you. The answering machine does not tell you this, but if you press '0' you will be connected to an operator. According to my wife, this is something that works with many large companies.

3. HPShopping customer service staff has the ability to give you access to print out FedEx package labels that you can use on returned items. This means that your FedEx delivery person *should* be able to pick up your damaged stand at the same time they drop the (hopefully) undamaged one off.

4. HPShopping customer service staff will say just about anything to get you off of the phone if you're having problems with FedEx. Especially when they tell you things like "I guarantee you that FedEx will arrive by 10:30pm". Also, I have had two appointments with FedEx that HPShpping says they "scheduled" that Fedex missed.

5. If FedEx actually is scheduled to show up at your doorstep, expect (but don't count on) it to be at the very end, or 1-2 hours after, your delivery window.

6. Important: If you are normally not home during business hours, you may want to take a vacation day in order to wait for your stand to be delivered. The stand is way too heavy for the box that it is in; I think that that is their main problem. For every time they load or unload the stand from a truck, your chances of receiving a damaged stand are approximately doubled.

7. If you're in an apartment complex, be sure to tell your HPShopping salesperson/customer service person to tell FedEx to deliver your package to the apartment complex office if you cannot make it home. Since I could not move it by myself and didn't have a furniture dolly, I had to open the box up in the middle of their office and cart all the pieces out to my car one by one, and then up my stairs one by one (by this time I knew the stand was damaged and I was pretty irritated).

8. Attempting to repair a damaged stand (with wood glue, for example) will void your warranty on the stand, according to HPShopping.

9. Be nice to the HPShopping representatives, for yea, they hath the power of life and death over thy return and replacement. However, be ye firm with them so that they shalt not take advantage of thee.

Hey guys,

I am currently an owner of the Samsung 5688 1080p DLP. I've had it since late Aug, everything is fine, PQ varies from broadcast to broadcast. I haven't had the TV calibrated yet, but was planning to do so within the next 2 months. TV performs great so far, but the lack of 1080p via HDMI sort of bothers me.

I was reading through the Nov issue of "SOUND & VISION" & came across the review article they did on the HP 65inch 1080p & the reveiw was short of perfect.

I like the fact it can accept 1080p via HDMI, which is an important future proof feature, also like the ability to access the connections through the front panel, as oppose to the back like the majority of TVs have.

I feel tempted to trade in my Samsung for the HP 1080p 58 inch version. I got my TV through the TVA Powerbuy, I wonder if they would take back my Samsung & allow me to upgrade to the HP?

Those of you who've had the HP, have any had it calibated by a Professional ISF yet? What is the cost for the 58 inch HP? Are they available now?

Thanks.

DANABW- you're not gonna like this but I had this happen w/analog cable turned set off, when turned back on sound but no picture. Picture didn't appear until pushing channel up button? Have found no way to make PIP side by side mode come even close to filling screen. Stinks because this sometimes only way to keep family in same room happy. You watch a lot of SD I believe so this may be of some help. Have been using a Motorola HDTV broadband booster($70) for 3yrs on Samsung DLP. Brought SD PQ to near DVD. Now have 5880 rigged little differently so this may account for what I consider a not as good PQ on HP(at least for time being). Want to repeat that big plus is that can now stretch HD(or at least higher quality digital) 4:3 programming. Also answer another members question bars are black-no adj.

I originally had ordered a Samsung 5078 but cancelled it for that exact reason.


Did you mean "nothing short of perfect"?


It never hurts to call TVA and find out.

Speaking of which, a coworker told me that Costco allows you to put the purchase price of your old TV toward a new one (provided the old TV you also bought at Costco). That doesn't make a lot of business sense. Can anyone verify this?


They are and they aren't. The TV lists for $3999 on HPShopping (it's more expensive than the 5820, which is their 720p model). Some of us have been getting between 10-20% off. If you have any relatives who work for the government and are willing to wait a few weeks, you will be able to get 20% off of the list price, which is currently better than any other deal I've seen. However, they've put a temporary hold on selling discounted 1080p TVs due to the high demand; if you're willing to buy one at list, you could be watching it in a week.

I just got my DVI->HDMI cable and will hook up my PC now. I have the ATI 9800 All-in-Wonder which will output 1920x1280. I'm shutting down my system now and will report back real quick.

My set is still sitting in the bottom of the box-- so I can give you exact length and depth but I'll have to estimate height from memory as I had the deliverers remove the top of the box to check for internal damage:

Carton Dimensions: 72" Length (exact)
29" Deep (exact)
55" Height (estimate from memory-- + or - 2 inches)

I would go with the 65" screen even with short dimensions. According to the tables your eye would just be able to resolve all the detail at about 8-9 feet. Beyond that, the human eye would not see it. With the "SMOOTHPICTURE" and wobbulation-- you should be fine to sit that close and not see individual pixels. I plan to sit 8-9 feet from the screen. But don't forget to consider the depth of the set in your calculations-- its nearly 2 feet in thickness-- it looks thicker than I thought it would be.

Darrell-- yes that's true but does anyone know where you get service on the AMEX extended portion? I would love to know if they do IN-HOME service or do we have to ship the set somewhere?? You can never assume logic when it comes to those "free" credit card benefits!

BTW-- the Vantage-HD can be set to output 1080P for ALL video sources. So if you tuck everything into the Vantage-HD-- you wont have to work about slow responses by the HP when changing source material as it will only ever get 1080P on HDMI input. (Cable card users are out of luck on this one-- but if you buy a video processor-- you certainly don't want to bypass it for the cable card input).

I talked to some experts from a local custom installer and they said they have never noticed any quality difference between the co-ax digital and the optical digital. Keep in mind that for both--there are limits to the length of run you can use with out a digital repeater. But as long as you use a high grade, shielded cable designed for digital coax audio (and not your cheap F-type cable company cable) you should be fine.

Photos are coming...

you can call HP support and ask if there any discreet codes for the input. If they're no help then just call Harmony support and explain to them how the input option works with the tv and they'll program your remote correctly for you. They've always been great help for me at Harmony

DarrellH - Can you please add "lack of an electronic program guide" as a feature that we would like to see rectified via USB firmware upgrades (if possible)?

Apparently HP decided NOT to pack the special USB offer in the small cardboard box with the remote, manual, and power cord.

My offer probably would have gotten thrown out with the packing material if I hadn't know to go back and look for one thanks to you guys. There was a sheet sitting on the bottom of the box just behind the tv with the detachable offer.

We send it in and 6-8 weeks from now we get a 128MB USB drive-- what I like to call a keychain datakey-- to stick in the set and wonderously improve it. Why does this bother me after running many of Microsoft's patches......

BTW-- I scanned the blank card (both sides) before filling it and mailing it. And have put it in a PDF file. If any of you can't find your card/sheet, let me know in a private email and I'll send you the PDF file. (And to those who want to get one without a tv-- take note-- you have to enter your Serial Number, Date and Location of purchase.)

there is no discernable difference in PQ over VGA compared to DVI and if this TV can function as a PC monitor it should be able to accept 1080p 1:1 over VGA.

If you've already received your tv (and have the serial number), you
should register it online at HP:

https://register.hp.com/?gwCountry=US&language=en

Click off to send yourselves alerts/bulletins/upgrades on the set.

Thank you for posting this. I will definitely scour the box before I let North American take the packing materials away.

You are a very considerate person. You've done your good deed for the day. =)

Cheers,
Steve

can anybody test the VGA port and find out if it works like on the Samsung sets ?

Oh-- sorry of the extra post but here's the link if any of you want to buy the 3 yr. in-home warranty from HP. You need to get the set first (need serial number):

http://www.hp.com/home/ownerservices

The "Info" does display the 1080P input

if i was you, i would turn it on and test it for an hour just to make sure everything works

Is this a generally agreed upon opinion? Have you compared?

If this is the case, then from a PC connection viewpoint only, the Samsung is just as good as the HP? (of course, you *may* be future proofing with the HP, but I'm looking at today's results in getting 1080p from PC to DLP).