Samsung 1080p Owner's Thread --- HLSxx87W/HLSxx88W DLP Models - Page 430

I was only implying that as time goes on, the blu ray player (not HD-DVD) of the PS3 would be a better deal and more future proof than an SD DVD player. Plus it does play regular DVD's and will upscale those to 1080p.

It sounded like he just needed a push to get the PS3.

Only if you use something like a Harmony remote.

I recently swapped out an HLR series for an HLS series. I am noticing that in between programs and commercials, I occasionally receive the Weak Signal error message on the screen. Is the HLS series more sensitive than the HLR series as far as these weak signal messages? Are there any adjustments in the Service Menu that might be able to improve the QAM / OTA Tuner sensitivity? With the HLR series I rarely saw these messages. When I look at signal strength when this weak signal occurs, it appear to have full signal strength. I am wondering if there is some sort of issue in the transition from one program to another with the QAM and OTA tuners.

The tuner might be too sensitive and the signal might be too strong. You might need to attenuate the signal.

This is a little long winded so apologies in advance.

HLS5087 owner since October and have been pleased with it for the most part. 3 issues for me are:
1) SSE (note tv is at foot of bed so viewing distance is pretty close at 83").
2) Flesh tones weren't always accurate and just a general nagging feeling regarding the overall picture quality of "Is that all there is?"
3) Geometry (primarily with 4:3 material, sometimes notice bowing in vertical lines such as doors, etc) I wish Samsung would offer a low gain screen as an option.

Signal sources are Comcast cable via SA 8300DVR & Toshiba A2 HD DVD (both connected via HDMI).

Calibration doesn't really address items 1 & 3. Using Eliab's settings, the picture was already pretty good and sometimes great, but item 2 bugged me like a low grade headache. I was a little skeptical, but decided to go for it anyway.

UMR calibrated a couple of nights ago and I'm happy as a clam. Specific improvements included more natural fleshtones, better color saturation in some instances & more shadow detail. Many scenes (check out the munchkin scene in the "Wizard of Oz") jumped from being three to THREE dimensional. I'm not a video geek and not into all of the analyticals. I'm more of a threshhold guy in the sense that pre-calibration I was a little under the bar of being happy with the set. The cumulative effect of the calibration improvements puts me over the bar with clearance.

Is a professional calibration necessary? It's a struggle to not oversell / undersell the benefits. It's not a night and day difference. It's more like the improvement in a car's appearance after it's detailed, a meal prepared by a good cook rather than an average one, finding the perfect outfit rather than settling for something close, etc. The above have in common the fact that a given individual's interest could range from very high to zero.

So, the answer in my opinion is "No" for the vast majority of folks who "just" want to buy a set at a reasonable price with a good picture and watch tv / movies. But, for those whose interest is more towards the "high" part of the range regarding their set's picture, a pro calibration (& UMR in particular) is highly recommended. It takes you up to the next level which is a good thing (would also put a high def and / or good upscaling DVD player into that category as well).

Oh sorry. I was referring to the performance of SD content (i have some 500 dvds or so).

Bluray is nice, but availability isn't there yet.

I've seen the 360 have solid DVD performance compared to the oppos, so I'm guessing its conceivable that the PS3 can come close to the same level.

That's sort of my argument for the PS3: Spend $300 more now and enjoy bluray movies, get (possibly?) solid SDDVD performance, and even if the format dies I still have a gaming console.

The PS3 is considered a solid bluray player....so if they could get that right they should be able to do SDDVDs.

Unfortunately I haven't seen many reviews/resources on the quality of PS3 SDDVD playback.

Amazon.com presently has 211 HD-DVD titles available.

What device would you need to perform this? Thanks.

You can buy an 'in line' attenuator to connect into the coax to the TV. If you have a plain ole splitter you can use that as a test... a 4way splitter will attenuate the signal by around 7 db. If it fixes your problem you can get a 'proper' attenuator.

http://www.smarthome.com/7800.html

You can also get one at Radio Shack. I have a 6db attenuator and it works great for me.

Mark

For me the question is irrelevant until Blockbuster and other rental outlets have a wide selection of one or the other available. I have not been interested in buying SD DVDs and I am not interested in buying HD or Blu-Ray DVDs.

When one or the other becomes widely and economically available at LOCAL rental outlets and the players drop in price then perhaps....

Thanks for the report. I've added it to the owner's list that is linked at the bottom of my post.

Enjoy.

Thanks for the latest. I'm sure that number for both formats will be changing rapidly. I used HD-DVD information from my head because that was where the easist access was.

I've revised my post to make it a bit clearer. For anyone who already owns a PS3 why not use it for HD and SD DVD. For anyone who owns the Xbox, why not add the HD-DVD drive for the same reason. I can't speak to the PQ of either one.

Anyone else having a problem with the TV not responding to the remote or the hard buttons. It has happened twice since October, where the TV won't respond to any commands. Pressing the large button doesn't help either, nor does it respond to my Harmony or the supplied remote. The only way to "fix" it is to unplug the set which is not a very good solution for obvious reasons. Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue. Thanks.

I had the LE problem that others here have mentioned as well -- where you start to see a transparent vertical bar on the side of the screen, that gradually grows over time. I understand it happens because of a mirror slipping into the light path due to glue failure.

I had my LE assembly replaced under CC warranty. The technician had replaced many LEs in the area in recent weeks, but he didn't know the reason for the problems. And he didn't know if the NEW light engine was free of the defect.

So my first question is:

Does anyone know if the new LEs that Samsung is supplying recently are free of the problem?

My second questions is:

Is this problem brought on by keeping the TV on for extended periods of time? Most days I have my TV on for 6 or more hours straight. I guess the theory would be extended usage creates heat which starts to weaken the glue, causing the slippage. But I have no idea if that is even likely at all.

But I recently started cutting back on that to help the lamp last longer. Anyone have any idea if the LE failure is at all related to how the TV is used?

I kno whtis is srarting to branch off topic but - from everything I have read the ps3 does NOT upscale sd-dvds. As it doesn't have scaling capablities at all. I guess this has been an issue with some tv sets - but I'n no expert on the issue.

so that being said I wouldn't rely on the PS3 for sd=dvd playback if you have the option to go for the oppo or xbox360.

most on this thread who have boht the 360 and the oppo say the 360 has a clear PQ advantage over the oppo when upscaling over the vga.

Not to mention - if you watch a lot of dvds - it wouldn't be a bad idea to sanction out the disc traffic. that is if you plan on playing a lot of games with your console.

So i just had a guy comeover from bestbuy to see what wrong with my tv, and he said that the source is not in full 1080p format. Is this true. I am using xbox 360 via vga to play hd dvd version of king kong. And i complained since i saw snow in a few sences. So is this true.

When playing the movie, push the info button on the remote, what does it say for resolution?

Did you get the 1080p fall update for the Xbox 360? Is the correct resolution selected in the menu?

Would this still be an issue if the regular standard def channels have no weak signal issues. It only seems to be the High Definition Broadcasts that have the weak signal issues. The other thing I notice that some times the reception of the High Definition Broadcasts sometime pixelates into square blocks.

The same thing happened to my set. It occured around 4 times in two weeks or so. I exchanged it for a new one.

I had an issue with the left side of the screen having a vertical black bar which was gradually getting wider on an HLR series - this happened with the set being a little over a year old. The Light Engine had to be replaced. After trying 4 light engines, the company I bought it from swapped the TV out for an HLS series. The light engines being replaced had issues such as noisier fans, and flaws in the picture (weird shapes appearing on the screen that were not there on the original light engine). Hopefully the HLS series light engines are QA'd a little better then the HLR series light engine parts.

I'm really excited about possibly picking one of these sets tomorrow morning. I'm still torn between the 5087 and the 5687!! I sit about 10-10.5 feet back and hate to have too much TV and it looks bad but at the same time - not enough TV, esp when only a $200 is between the two models.......

CC is offering me a pretty fair deal I believe and I hopefully will be able to get some more back right after the super bowl when prices drop a bit, we'll see though - I'm not banking on it.

Any opinions or things I should take into concideration before I blindly flip a coin and head in one direction over the other??

As one who was recently in your predicament, I chose the 5687w. Now I'm thinking I could have gone for the 6187. Definately go for the 5687 IMO.

PLEASE NOTE!! The PS3 HAS NO INTERNAL SCALER!!!

It cannot upconvert SDDVD. It also cannot upconvert 720p games to 1080i/or/p.

The other problems are no BTB or WTW. This could be fixed with a software update, but the scaler issue would be a tougher fix. I would not use the PS3 as an SDDVD player

I say this owning a PS3, and even with the issues about, it is the bet deal for BD. I also own an XA1....I can say from experience that HD DVD looks better than BD on every title I have seen so far.

get the 56...or even the 61/

I have a s6187w. When I plug my Dell (doesn't even have to be turned on) into the strip close to the Samsung my cable reception on some channels gets fuzzy. While viewing the said channel I can pull the plug on the Dell and the picture clears up instantly. I have tried plugging the 87 and the Dell into a outlet farther down the line but it doesn't get better. Need help on this. When I want use the MCE box I have to plug it in each time. PLease need help. OBTW the Dell is connected to the 87 through a nice vga cable I purchased from Monoprice thinking the cheap one I had before was the problem.

Does anyone know why the xbox 360 over vga doesn't fill the screen with my samsung 6187? Picture looks good, but there is an inch border around the outside. I've looked in the user menu on both, and didn't see any thing else to set up, and I have set the 360 menu for 1920X1080 resolution.

I've tried the search function here, but the threads are too long to sort through to find the info. thank you for your help.
Rob

Hey guys,

I got a new Sam 6188 set-up and already scanned for OTA channels. I've had trouble with the FOX HD channel in the past but my 5688 DID pick it up but this 6188 scan did not. I will say that sometimes the Fox HD channel signal just "isn't there" at times which pisses me off. I get really good reception for most of the HD channels. It also missed another HD channel for 38 out of Boston. I only picked up analog.

I have a rotary roof top antenna. I want to try and scan again. Maybe tweak the direction of my antenna a bit beforehand.

I picked up the analog channel for Fox so I have that, but when I go into the channel menu now, the option to scan doesn't seem to be there.

I'm guilty of not reading manual cover to cover, but I did see you can add or delete channels????

Isn't there a way to just do the whole scan of OTA channels again?

Bigger is better. I've got a 61" at that viewing distance, sometimes I think it could be bigger. Does dominate the room though, that's the tradeoff.