Samsung 1080p Owner's Thread --- HLSxx87W/HLSxx88W DLP Models - Page 429

The HD DVD add-on is only needed if you want to watch HD DVDs. The base unit will still upscale DVDs to 1080p w/o the add-on over VGA. Provided your unit has the fall update, the Xbox 360 handles sources per output as indiated below:

VGA:

HD DVD - 1080p resolution and all others
DVD - Upscaled as high as 1080p resolution and all others
Games - 720p games upscaled to 1080p, also supports native-1080p games in the future

Component:

HD DVD - 1080i resolution maximum, limited by AACS
DVD - Upscaled to 480p maximum, limited by CSS
Games - 720p games upscaled to 1080p, also supports native-1080p games in the future

Well, I may not be 1000% correct... but with the HD-DVD add-on for the 360 and you use the VGA connection... you get a 1080p (as indicated with the Info button of the xx87's remote). This is the same with an HD-DVD and a standard DVD (I tested this with the "Cars" DVD last night). If you connect the 360 with component to the xx87 and repeat the same, you get 1080p to the TV if you use an HD-DVD, but if you put a standard DVD in the HD-DVD drive (I used the "Cars" DVD again), per the Info button, it's sending 480p. Considering that a decent up-converting DVD player like the Sony 75H or an Oppo will run you at least $115, then spending ~ $199 or less for the 360 HD-DVD add-on is not that big of a deal. YES, you can see a difference. At least I can. Maybe this makes it a little clearer. You won't be disappointed with the 360 HD-DVD or a decent up-converting DVD player if you have a xx87/xx88... and of course it will be great with a stand-along HD-DVD or BR player too. BTW, the "Cars" DVD is a great one to show off with.... it also has a THX Optimizer on it that gives you some video test patterns for tweaking your set. The scenes in that movie where they're racing and the cars are all shiny makes this set really shine! (no pun intended)

I've searched the forum without any luck, but is it possible to display what the resolution of the signal coming into the TV is over the component lines? If so, how?

OK, I guess I didn't test a standard DVD in the main 360 drive to see if it showed up as 1080p too... I'll have to check that tonight. Plus I'll see if it looks as good. But I swear I did this once and it didn't look as good... but we'll see. I could have sworn I read some posts over on the XBOX forum about the console drive not doing as well with the upconvert over VGA as the HD-DVD add-on. But since I'm not in front of it to test now... I'll leave the jury hanging.

the 360 will upconvert dvds 1080p through vga with or without the hd-dvd addon drive.

The addon really only adds HD-DVD capabliites and the peace of mind to know you are putting less traffic on the the 360's internal drive.


edit. to sum up vga is the way to go with or without the addon drive if you have a display that accepts 1080p via vga and you watch movies.
if all you do is play games - it doesn't matter either way. you can get 1080p over component for games.

I'm bidding on one on Ebay now so that I can free up a Component port... I suppose that's the other advantage.

Only adjustments I had to make was for screen position and size. My game mode is off as well.

How do you like your sony 7.1?

Side not for xbox 360 owners. Radio Shak has Monster Gamelink VGA Xbox 360 cables for 29.99 down from 59.99 for in store only. Just got one on Wednesday. Called one store, had them look at inventory, and went to the store that had the most (just in case inventory was wrong.) A couple stores were already out. Act now. Look at their website.

10-Ft. Monster® GameLink VGA Cable for Xbox 360 $29.97 Model: VGA-10 Catalog #: 26-1302

Kevin
_____________________
HL-S5687
Sony 5.1 Recvr
Polk Surround
Xbox 360 - w/ HD-DVD
Xbox - XBMC Dashboard
PureAV Power Conditioning

What an impatient world we've become when we worry about waiting an extra 10 seconds for our program to get bright. Usually I'm just settling into the couch during these long 10 seconds

The 360 V2 with HDMI will be out soon enough, now that it's official. Pretty soon there will be a lot of 360 VGA cables on Ebay.

While I love my HL-S5087W the 10 or 20 seconds for full brightness is a bit long. But for some, including myself, instant gratifcation, takes too long.

What version HDMI does the HL-S6187W support? Would it exploit the benefits of HDMI 1.3.?

I think the main purpose of 1.3 was for 7.1 audio. Since the TV itself isn't 7.1, and the only audio-out is the SPDIF which is only 5.1, there's no need for the HDMI port to be 1.3 compliant. It is 1.1 compliant, meaning that it can take in a 1080p source.

Couldn't have said it better myself !

It takes just as long for any of the components hooked up to it to power up to a useable state (PS3/Wii/360/HTPC in my case). I just hit an activity on my Harmony 880 and go grab a beer.

Actually, I do have a quick question about that...

When I programmed my Harmony, the default "startup" time that it gives is a full 25 seconds! This is the time it waits before it changes the input to the correct one. I haven't experimented with this too much yet, but has anyone been able to find the "ideal" startup time for this? I am certain that, while it may take 25 seconds for the TV to be at full brightness (which I have no problem with), it shouldn't take 25 seconds before it can change input. I'm thinking of trying to change it to maybe 5 seconds, but just thought I'd see what other people are doing here first. =)

Also, I'll renew my call for a "Game Mode Toggle" button. Anyone know if it exists?

Yep, I saw that and posted in another forum where people were waiting for it. Depending on the deals, not sure if I'd upgrade or not. It would also mean I'd have to figure out a way to get the sound to pipe from my TV to my receiver, which I know is possible, but I also know people have had issues with it (not sure if you could pipe sound coming in from HDMI through the digital out on the back of the TV or not).

Either way, it's a moot point right now until the updated 360 comes out. Also, I'm not entirely certain on the timeline for that 360... Assuming they're also going to the new fab, those 360s could still be at least 4-5 months away. I'll stick to my crappy $10 VGA cables until then.

This is a PM exchange that I've just had with a newcomer to AVS and HLS 1080p TV sets. I think it might be helpful to others so I'm posting it here.

During Avical's December '06 Northwest Calibration tour, David Abrams stopped by and calibrated my new Samsung HL-S6188 DLP display.
Although I had owned my set for only a couple of months and was pleased with its overall performance, the possible enhanced viewing experience resulting from a professional calibration intrigued me. After all was said and done, I'm glad I took the plunge and had my display calibrated. My 6188 performs better then ever.

Out of the box, my HL-S6188 looked fine to me. However, after the first few days of viewing, I did start to notice some minor annoyances. Various colors seemed a bit unrealistic, the brightness of the display was overpowering at times, and SD broadcasts looked slightly blurry.

Once David completed his calibration, I immediately noticed a number of positive display changes.
First off, the blacks were noticeably blacker. Shadow detail was much improved.
Secondly, the accuracy of the colors was far more realistic. No more cartoonish images.
Thirdly, the picture quality of standard definition (SD) broadcasts increased nicely. The blurry SD images I use to see during my local evening news broadcasts are now mostly gone.
Another post-calibration benefit I've noticed is a 3-D effect on some HD broadcasts. The images seem to have more depth due to the improved contrast and color rendition.
Also, HD-DVDs never looked so good when played through my Toshiba HD-A1. Nice.

Summing things up, the professional calibration of my display was money well spent. I enjoy the results every time I turn my HL-S6188 on.
I would recommend David Abrams' services to anyone.

Mark

Yes and no. I have posted on this before but no one was able to address it with an explanation.

In theory the resolution of the input signal will be displayed by pressing the INFO button on the TV's remote.

You should see the INPUT SOURCE/INPUT DESCRIPTOR and the RESOLUTION.

This works on both the HDMI input and the COMP1/2 input on mine.

HOWEVER, as best as I can determine, if my input source is being "stretched" by the source device the resolution is not displayed.

In example. For a true HD channel from my Moto 6200 STB the resolution is displayed - 1920x1080i@60hz. But with the STB setup with its "480i" bypass mode, 480 SD sources are automatically converted to 1080i and stretched by the STB to fill the 16x9 screen (as best I can tell from the documentation). In which case the input resolution is NOT displayed using the TV's INFO button.

The same holds true for my DVD player (an older SONY DVP-NS400D) which is set to output to a 16x9 screen size. Again the input resolution is not displayed with the TV's INFO button.

I have no explanation for this behavior, only observation.

Anyone????

...Which might be the case or might not be. Looks like the V2 will make some folks get a new receiver with HDMI switching.(unless you like silent games and movies because the Lord knows you wouldnt want to use the Sammy set speakers.) Make sure it is a receiver that can handle it.

As for me, 1080p is already pushing the envelope for the ole' human eyeball. I am OK with the VGA from 360 (after all, as I get older my eyes are going to get worse.)

My take. M$ has to compete. PS tree has HDMI 1.3, M$ has to do something. Side note, others are hoping for console HD-DVD drive in V2. My take, M$ will learn from the s0ny blunder that nobody wants to be forced into any camp or isnt interested in being in a camp in the first place. Save the money if HD movies dont do it for you.

I can see it now, an interview with some mom, "I love that we were able to spend so much money on the P$ III. Our little son tommy who is 9 years old really likes to game in 1080p and loves to sneak his dad's b-ray movies to see those high def boobies."

For me, it's not totally about the picture though. True, HDMI will leave the picture on a digital path to the screen and it may be a teence more crisp, however I am thinking more along the lines of the audio half of the equation. Right now the 360 only has SPDIF out for digital audio. That limits you to 5.1 sound. I have a 7.1 receiver with HDMI in. The 360 V2 would allow me to play 7.1 compatible HD movies and games in true 7.1 (not matrixed rear surround for those that are in the know). If the V2 has an integrated HD-DVD drive, that'd be another selling point for me as I haven't yet dropped the money on the external drive. I could care less about the rest of the V2 offerings, as I don't even download movies so the extra large HD is useless to me.

As for audio pass-through on the HLS, I'm not positive about HDMI. I know all of the other inputs do indeed pass through the SPDIF to the receiver. I have my PS3 go through my Onkyo 804 first before going to my tv, and discard the sound to the tv since I have the internal speakers on mute anyway. My Onkyo does have 1 free HDMI port if I do decide to go with the 360 V2 (my HTPC is connected directly to the second HDMI on the TV since it's no audio-out anyway).

I have changed my delay to 11 seconds using the harmony web interface. You might be able to cheat it down even further but I based the 11 seconds from the first point I can see the screen and can tell which input is being selected. I also changed all of the delay settings to "0" which seemed to speed things up a little bit as well.

Just thought I'd post this little saga I've had with my first HLS-5688W. I bought the TV on 7/30/06. It was working fine under normal to little usage until 10/10/06. At this point I started getting a garbage disposal type noise (posted here but someone said it was probably normal). The noise continued, it happened when I turned the TV on, when I turned it off, and after 2 days happened off and on while watching TV. There's also some weird moisture and a scratch mark or something on the screens.

At this point I called up Samsung and they had a tech from TK Electronics come out on 10/16 and they replaced the entire light engine in one big go. He says he'll have to talk to Samsung about the screen getting replaced.

Now I'm not one to judge but the guy just replaced the light engine and adjusted no settings in the service menu. I also signed nothing and was left with 0 paperwork showing what was done. He also only tested the TV by turning it on and off and only saw a blue picture. After he left I actually tuned to a HD channel and the picture was not only upside down the colors were all off. So I call TK up and he comes back the next day. He goes into the SM and fixes a couple things, still nothing regarding the screens.

I keep calling TK and get nothing, so I call Samsung and get nothing on two tries since they just keep calling TK. Then I finally get someone at Samsung who sorts everything and sets up for a screen replacement on 10/20. The screen is replaced by the same TK tech and still no paperwork or anything. I'm also a bit miffed because of the way he's installed the screens they're not taped together like the original and he installs them separately so there's actually some dirst/dust in between the screens. He says that they'll fall out after some usage in a couple days.

Now on 12/31/2006 I go to turn on the TV, it starts to warm up and I switch from component to TV. At this point the TV turns off and the front 3 LED's flash. I turn the TV back on and it starts to warm up but then shuts down and makes that garbage disposal noise before shutting off and flashing the 3 LED's. I just unplug the set, call up Samsung, explain things and ask if at this point they'll replace the TV since it's pretty clear it's the light engine again and they've already been out 3 times. She says they've only been out twice (since I didn't call Samsung to arrange for the SM fixes). So she tries calling TK, says she's left a message and that they'll get back to me in 48 hours. I say fine and thanks. Now I know TK will be like any company and will most likely be closed for NYE and NY and all that. So I figure they'll reopen on Tuesday. Really I'm surprised Samsung is even open. That being said she should've just said that they were closed since when I called the same 866 number they didn't even have a voicemail system on.

I call them Tuesday, they schedule the service for next Monday. Meanwhile I call Samsung back after that and explain the tech there says I need a new light engine as he's had me pull the bulb and it's brand new with no visual signs of failure. She has me fax over my invoice for the Executive Customer Relations. I call back yesterday and talk to someone in ECR and after she calls TK they finally decide to just replace the lemon of a HLS-5688.

Now I now that was a bit of a long story but I figure it'll help anyone who might be having similar issues. Plus I'm wondering about the entire adjusting of the TV after the light engine was replaced. Plus why on Earth would the entire thing break after only 2 months and a new light engine?

That being said I'm pleased with Samsung thus far since it's only right that they replace the set and it's nice to see they seem to have a liberal policy of 3 full service requests before replacement. I'll let everyone know how the new set turns out.

Elkay, I think you hit the nail on the head. It will be about audio. 7.1 early adopters would love to get on that pony if they have the surrounds. I read a lot of engadget posts on people being all PO'd. It doesnt make sense to me that poeple are mad. What you are saying is completely right on. In the absence of proper audio gear, HDMI is a big bust out of V2 and the picture is a fraction of the whole equation.

V2 with built in HD-DVD??? Sure, it might be appealing but is it smart.


-----------------Gamer ------vs---- Gamer and Movie Buff
PSIII ------------600.00 -----vs---- 600.00
Xbox360 --------400.00 ----vs---- 600.00

Great, thanks. Do you know if a optical cable can be hooked to it?

Yeah, I was looking into this...

Apparently you need to get a Mini-jack to TOSLINK adapter (or cable). It's slightly unclear to me whether it comes in the package or not. I just spoke to a radioshack around here to get the cable, and at the same time just ordered the adapter off of Amazon (can do slightly better in price from a few Amazon sellers, but I trust Amazon's reputation and shipping times much better for just a couple bucks). I believe Microsoft's makes you do the same thing, and only comes with an mini to RCA adapter.

I own a 6187.

Given the choice between the following:

A. Buying an oppo 981 and feeding 1080p
B. Buying a PS3 and feeding ? (I'd guess 480p over 480i for now, and later the PS3 probably will get 1080p upconvertability)


My questions are:
1. If I buy a PS3, what should I feed the television? How good are the scalers/interlacers on these models?
2. How much better will the oppo quality be than the PS3?

I have other reasons to buy a PS3 (tons of WorstBuy giftcards, bluray, occasional gaming, internet content), so if the quality would be comparable, I'd go that route.

The oppo is taking 480i content and upscaling to 1080p.

The PS3 is taking up to (depending on content) 1080p content and outputing at 1080p.

Somebody correct me if I am wrong???

I would do the PS3 with HDMI. 480i content upscaled is still 480i content.

You seem to imply that 1080p content is widely available in HD-DVD format, but there are only about 211 titles (as of 01/05/20007) presently available. BluRay probably offers about the same number. Netflix now advertises 70,000 SD 480i titles.

The performance of either the PS3 and the OPPO, for SD DVD material, may be different.

Eliab has made the point that buying the Toshiba HD-DVD player makes sense to him because you have a HD-DVD player, and an outstanding upscaling SD player for about twice the cost of a SD player like the OPPO. I haven't read a comparable review of the SP3/BluRay, but I don't doubt that it will be similar. If HD-DVD, or BluRay dies in a couple of years you still have a very good SD DVD player.

I don't know if it's true that the PS3 with the upgrade is an outstanding upscaling DVD player, but if you already own a PS3, the upgrade is priced right.

I've been searching various keywords for this 12,000 post thread to no avail- help!

Is there a way to disable the "DTV/Air" input source on the 6187. I have Comcast hooked to HDMI 1 and DVD thru component. And I have a single RCA video cable going in just to get the On Screen Display for my AV Receiver, although I generally unplug that now that the receiver is set up.

I would prefer to just be able to toggle between Comcast and DVD, and not have it cycle thru DTV/Air channels.

Is there a way to tell it to stop looking for Air TV channels?

Thanks in advance