Samsung 1080p Owner's Thread --- HLSxx87W/HLSxx88W DLP Models - Page 5

I just bought one of four HL-S5687s from Circuit City tonight and it will be delivered tomorrow. My current TV is a Toshiba TW40X81 old school RP CRT HDTV from 2000 that only supports 480p and 1080i. This will be my first digital TV. I'll be looking for video game console latency and all that and let you guys know.

First impressions at store:
They told me the sets were arriving today and should be on display by 18:00. I get there about an hour after that and don't see any. However, the HL-S pricetag is displayed next to the HL-R price tag for the 56" model. I stare at the HL-R for a while, and its picture quality is pretty good. Lots of detail seems to be lost in blacks, especially compared to the Sony 60" SXRD that's nearby. I also saw rainbows when I was only a couple feet away from the TV, but I didn't see them at all when I was at 7-10 feet. At this point, the SXRD had a much better looking image. Better detail, contrast, etc.

When the HL-S finally arrived, they plugged it into their cable distribution system running Discovery HD, with component cables. As the lamp warmed up, the picture got brighter and brighter and brighter (much brighter than the HL-R which I thought looked a little dim). The sales guys were impressed. One of them said he didn't like Samsung DLP until now (he preferred plasma), and "so much for the SXRD." I was able to play with the "mode" setting. The default is dynamic, which is clearly only for showroom floor use, for comparison with the Sony. It has ridiculous over-saturated colors. The standard and movie modes were very nice though, and the overall image quality was really fantastic straight out of the box. It was definitely on par with the Sony.

The set measured about 15" deep, and it has a "foot" or pedestal that is about 40" wide, so it fits on a fairly small stand.

I'll provide some photos tomorrow night. I can't wait!

Ace, where are you and your CC located?

Seattle... weird I thought I had that in my profile. I'll fix it now.

BTW, the only model they got was the 56. I probably would have got the 61 otherwise. There are Magnolia Audio Video stores here also, and they said they wouldn't be getting any HL-Ses until mid May.

That's a good point I hadn't considered. Also, I just realized the HL-R on display was the HL-R5667. This being 720p, so no wonder there was such a difference between it , the Sony, and the HL-S5687.

So how was the detail in the blacks, etc on the new 56"?

Evil,
Can you tell us how good SD content looks on this TV? Since most channels are still SD, this is important.

He has has already answered this questions. He only watches DVD's right now and plays PS2. so his connections are directly from DVD to reciever and DVD to TV(video).

Seems like a full time job to answer questions if your the first owner in a thread like this :-P !!!!

Man... we just put up our 5687 on Tuesday night after closing, and I have to agree, this set is quite, quite good. The dynamic setting out of the box is indeed ridiculous. In my opinion, not even showroom floor worthy, as anyone with any sort of discerning eye would not be pleased. However, after going in and 'customizing' it myself, including the fine detail color control, which is in awesome feature I might add, the picture is astounding. All of my associates have commented "that's sick" and "holy sh_t". It's currently next to the 50" sxrd and the older HLR6768w, and man o man can you see the difference. The blacks look fantastic, there is no visible pixel structure at all, (compared the the 6768 where you can still make out the little diamond pattern) and the resolution is great.

I would definitely recommend playing with the 'detail' section of the 'my color control', because that really makes it shine. I used to work printing professional photos (weddings, graduations etc) so I'm pretty familiar with color accuracy and density. Anyway, I'd be happy to share my settings if anyone is interested. I can't wait until the Samsung Blu-ray player comes in and I can pair it with this thing. 1080p bliss...

I currently own an HLN507W1, but this baby is calling my name...really loudly....

do tell

justin.

For the HL-S6187W......Has it been confirmed that the HDMI inputs can/cannot accept a 1080p source? I'm asking because the manual states that the only way to input 1080p is via VGA.

Evil, I see you have a PS2... any chance of getting your hands on a 360 to test on the TV? I'm curious about the lag issues with the 360 on the new HL-Sxxx series.

This is verbatim from the HL-S6187W spec sheet :

2 HDMI inputs (High Definition Multimedia Interface) accepts 1080p format.

So, which one is right and which one is wrong. The manual or the spec sheet?

Edit: Nevermind.....I guess I misunderstood the wording on page 127 of the manual. It is merely stating that the BEST picture possible is via computer/VGA. The specs and the end of the manual also suggest that the TV accepts 1080p via HDMI and component.

What flavor of 1080p? 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p30, 1080p50, 1080p60?

Chocolate.

Does anyone know if the 87 series is confirmed at 10 bit? I'm trying to determine whether the 87 and 88 series are the same internally with the 88's having a couple of extra features.

Are the new HLS 1080p samsungs still using wobulation?

All 1080p DLP sets in the market, now and for the foreseeable feature, us wobulation.

My HL-S5687W arrived today and I got to play with it a bit before going to work. It was hooked up to my HD cable box via component, and fed a 1080i signal. First thing I noticed was how the picture looked way worse than it did in the store. Yikes! But then I turned off DNIe and it looked like I expected. Is DNIe supposed to do something positive? All it does for this video source is make it look like crap.

I changed the picture mode to Movie and set the color mode to Normal. I tried turning the noise reduction on and off, but I didn't notice a difference. Without changing any other settings or doing any calibration, it looked fantastic. Blacks are black and not gray. White text on black is very sharp with no blooming like I saw on the HL-R5667W. In case this is your first digital TV like it is for me, you'll be happy to know there are NO GRAY BARS. When you set the image to 4:3, you just get black bars, regardless of video source.

I tried a couple DVDs in a Philips progressive scan DVD player. It uses the Faroudja DCDi line doubler and outputs 480p over component cables. It's old enough that it doesn't have HDMI outs. The picture quality from this source was also fantastic. I thought DVDs looked almost as good as they do when broadcast in HD over cable or satellite. There was definitely more detail here than I saw using the same DVD player hooked up to my old Toshiba 40" RP CRT HDTV.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a problem with the fan. After about 5 or 10 minutes, it sounded like someone was drilling outside my apartment. It was a horrible loud buzzing sound. I powered off the TV and opened the panel that gives you access to the lamp. I could see the fan mounted above a heat sink and I didn't see anything wrong with it, so it's probably just a bad bearing. It was a bit quieter next time I turned the thing on, but after another 30-40 minutes, it got really loud again. I called the sales guy at CC and he said he would replace the set or send out a tech. I'm waiting on a call back.

After I get a chance to try out my consoles (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube) with it, I'll post results here.

Thanks Ace for that very detailed first look. You'd think with these inflated prices for a TV, you'd get better quality control. In the 2005 thread, there are lots of problems where returns are needed.

Can any of the lucky HLS**87 owners tell us if they accept QAM signals?

BTW, QAM is where the HDTV can receive HDTV channels via the Coax cable input on the back of your HDTV hooked up to your basic cable provider, no need for an Antenna.

The system is setup as follows:

The PS2, Japanese PS2, and XBox are all connected to a Pelican System Selector Pro via Component video cables and toslink optical audio connectors. The system selector is then connected via component and optical to my denon AVR-3806. The 3806 has component out to the TV.

In addition, I have a Denon 3910 Upconverting DVD player hooked up via HDMI directly to my TV, with the audio from the DVD player being passed via DenonLink.

All of this stuff is plugged into a Monster PowerCenter HTS 3500.

So, the video game consoles are going through a system selector first, then to the receiver, then to the TV. Considering all the devices the signal has to travel through, the nonexistence of lag is certainly admirable. I'll do a test later on with Game Mode off to see how well the lag is then, but I remember messing with it when I first set it up, and it didn't seem to impact it enough for me to be dissatisfied. In fact, one might not even need to turn Game Mode on unless they're extremely sensitive to the timings (like anyone who frame-counts in some fighting games), but IMO it doesn't impact the picture quality of games as much as it does movies.

Evil-Rage

Evil-Rage,
Is it possible to take the base off so the TV can be flush with the top of the stand and seem to flow into it instead of looking like it is floating above it? I think no gap would look nicer.

Nope, the 'base' part is actually directly connected to and a part of the REST of the TV.

Evil-Rage

I hate to ask this but, I've read all the post on this new thread and I'm still trying to find out if the 87's have either PIP or twin picture. I need this so I can watch ball games while other shows are on. Keeps the wife happy

Thanks

No mention of it in the manual, and no button on the remote or anything of that kind. If this TV has PIP, Samsung is doing a wonderful job hiding it from the world.

Evil-Rage

They don't. The 88 series has PIP, CC, and firewire.

How is the pincushion effect on these new sets for 4:3 material? That's the one thing I don't care for on my hlp6163.

will the 88 series have QAM or whatever that is? I'm not familiar with it really, just a few vague things i've read in this huge thread.

Does this mean with the 88 series i won't even need to rent a cable box or use a CableCard to get the local channels in HD? Man, that would be sweet.

btw, I have Comcast Cable, in Metro Detroit area.

please answer somebody. thx.