Samsung 1080p Owner's Thread --- HLSxx87W/HLSxx88W DLP Models - Page 595

Understanding, that you reset the service menu to factory after seeing your issue... you might have made more problems for yourself in the process... I have read and talk to numberous people, that reseting the service menu to factory ... is a big Big BIG no no. You might want to have it serviced for you primary dimming issue, and then also to fix any issues you might have cause doing a reset.

Just out of curiousity, if you are looking for experts in this forum, why would you even attempt to touch the service menu??

It just occurred to me that you could also just be noticing the lamp "settling down" after the break-in period. The break-in period is felt to be about 100 hrs in which the lamp is actually too bright.

Is the fact that it's dimmer just bothering you because you've noticed it is different, or is there actually some degradation in picture quality?

@bnelson

I have a 6187W with firmware date of 9/6/2006, so my overscan setting resets to "OFF" after every power cycle. It's more annoying for me in the HTPC and gaming environment than when watching a video source. However, it's still noticeable to anyone in the room if I slap on an HD DVD and toggle overscan while the disc is playing.

I've set up macros on my remote to disable Overscan without a power cycle, however doing so (regardless of power cycling) will revert your UM picture settings to their defaults (i.e. Dynamic mode, blown out contrast, oversharpened, DNIe ON, NR ON). As I understand it, those defaults can also be changed in the SM, however I've had no luck finding matching #s for those settings and have not had the gumption to start going through the entire SM to systematically determine where those settings are. Maybe I should order a service manual.

Another note - the SM appears to be context sensitive. What I mean is, some options on the main SM are greyed out while others are selectable, and the number of options before getting to the Overscan sub-menu may either be 6 or 7. I haven't been able to determine why this is the case.

Regarding build dates - cricks and I posted a few pages back about differences between build dates and what Overscan on/off really does. Turning overscan off on my pre 12/12//2006 build yields both more horizontal and vertical resolution. cricks' experience has been that toggling overscan only affects horizontal resolution, plus he's had issues with Overscan reading "off" in the SM while in reality it is on. It's always a challenge reconciling user reports like ours to your reality, but the bottom line is people have seen inconsistencies in the 6187W and it's overscan toggling capabilities. If that's a deal breaker for you, you may want to seek another model (88?) or hold off until there are some consistent findings with the 2007 models.

FWIW, I've had my 6187W for about the same amount of time. My lamp has around 500 hours on it, and is still blindingly bright during those PC/Mac commercials.

You can't change the user menu value defaults in the SM. What you can do is calibrate in the SM so that the UM defaults are the calibrated values. Doing so is beyond the scope of this forum and you'll need a professional calibrator to do it for you. I also recommend against using macros to manipulate the SM. You can easily inadvertently change a value and you'll have no idea you did so.


The SM is context sensitive, depending on what resolution/input] you're in.

I had this exact same problem after attempting to re-configure my cablecard. I don't know what button got hit on the original TV remote, but I also have a Harmony 880. When I scrolled through the 4 pages of soft buttons associated with the TV device on the 880 LCD, one was listed as "Display". I hit this button and everything immediately worked - input names were displayed, channel numbers were displayed, etc.

I don't remember seeing a "Display" button on the original TV remote, but the Harmony saved the day.

Good luck!

Thanks for the tip! I will try that. Does it tell you if its in shop mode or not? Thanks!

I can set my dvd player to convert to 1080, but doesn't the S6187 TV scale to 1080 by itself when watching a dvd? If so, how can you change this?

I have the S6187 model and I am pretty new at bigscreen tv's. My first question is if there is any way to make the SD cable channels look any better. I have tried to look on this thread but there is a lot to look through, so forgive me if this has been answered before. My next question: I have an upconverting DVD player and I can change the settings on my DVD player from 720P to 1080, but is there a way to change that setting on the TV itself? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I've set up macros on my remote to disable Overscan without a power cycle, however doing so (regardless of power cycling) will revert your UM picture settings to their defaults (i.e. Dynamic mode, blown out contrast, oversharpened, DNIe ON, NR ON). As I understand it, those defaults can also be changed in the SM, however I've had no luck finding matching #s for those settings and have not had the gumption to start going through the entire SM to systematically determine where those settings are. Maybe I should order a service manual.


How do you turn the overscan on or off?

That's a complicated question. A professional calibration usually will give you better results with SD, however that requires an additional cost.

You don't say what cable box you have or what resolution you have it outputting to, but I have Dish Network's ViP622 and I find that changing the output on the box to 480p for SD channels (letting the TV to the upscaling) helps a bit. You could try that on yours and see if it makes a difference. If you already have it there you can try the opposite and set the box to 1080i (assuming you have an HD box) to see if your cable box does a better job at upscaling the image.

If you really have a bunch of money to throw at it you could get a video processor, such as the ones from DVDO, that do a great job at upscaling the image but are more expensive than most people want to spend on SD.


You can't change this setting in the TV. The very simplified answer is that the TV has 1080 lines of vertical resolution and therefore everything that it displays MUST also have 1080 lines. Depending on your DVD player, try changing the settings there from 480p to 1080i to see what looks best. At 480p you're essentially letting the TV to the upconversion and at 1080 you're having the DVD player do it. It just depends on which device does a better job.

Overscan is a service menu adjustment for the 2006 models. The details should be in Docrings' Tech Links HERE. However, you have a 6187 so the overscan adjustment won't stay switched for you anyway. See earlier posts on this very page and the one previous for more details.

Frankly, if you're just starting out in the HDTV world, and this thread, you probably shouldn't be messing around in the service menu yet. Give it some time and then decide if you want to venture in there.

I disabled the overscan on my 5688 and the already nice picture looks better. I notice the most difference in more lines of resolution while watching ESPN and having the ticker across the bottom. Also, the colors seem clearer when watching solid colors, such as ocean scenes on Planet Earth. I can't think of any real drawbacks to disabling it. Thanks for all of your help!

Thanks, I'll check to see what kind of HD box I have from Time Warner and get back to you. I'm not sure how I would change the setting on the HD box though

Thanks, that was great!

Once you figure out which box you have you'll need to either find the user manual or look it up online at Time Warner's site. There should be a menu item in there for setup and then one to change aspect ratio and output resolution. There are also threads here at AVS specifically for cable boxes and I'd bet there's one for whatever model you have. The HD cable box thread is right HERE.

What is the deal with doing a Factory reset? How can that be a big no, no??? Makes no sense to me - do you have anything I can read about why not to do a reset?

Second, I am by no means an idiot - I am very comfortable around all electronics, so making changes in the Service menu is not a big deal to me. I didn't mess with anything I didn't understand, I only changed a few settings (that I read about here) to see if it made a difference in PQ.

I'm still really confused on how a Factory reset can be a bad thing... please help me understand. Like I said I've only had the set for about 2.5 months so I can get it repaired under warranty.

Thanks haylo75 - thats the kind of info I was looking for - I think I may have a faulty lamp as someone suggested earlier.

Good question - I just don't want to have a faulty lamp and it just dies all together in the next few months. From what I've read, they should last at least a couple of years at best. It wouldn't bother me as much except that it "dimmed" enought that it was a pretty noticeable difference. As far as I can tell I don't really notice any PQ difference. Although I don't mind the picture being a little dimmer, I do want to replace the lamp (if it's faulty) while I'm under warranty.

On some programs, like Leno in HD, the picture actually does need to be brighter and things aren't as crisp as they use to be. Ex: when the lamp was nice and bright - I had a good result watching a lot of things in Movie mode, now Movie mode just looks very dull and lifeless.

I guess I should make a call to Samsung - it seems 'most' folks have had a decent experience with Samsund customer service.

Any other adive is welcome!

Thanks

I just received my 6167w and she's beautiful. I'll admit bright and I did set up the user settings for eliab but eyes are very fatigued after about 20 min of watching. Any suggestions on setups or just go through avia to get it right.

Hdmi is really amazing and takes out the sse that componet has on hd. Picture does look great. SD doesn't look bad at all and was surprised based on comments. I'm using a panansonic xp30 dvd progressive scan player and just popped in a dvd Eragon to see what it looked like with some of the blacks and have to say not bad at all. That was before the settings too.

No lag with xbox 360 either and picture looked great no lag playing gears of war. I'm about 9 ft from screen and boy 61 is big. I thought about the 71 but gee whiz 61 is plenty large.

Thanks for help on the brightness as I'm a bit concerned on the eye fatigue issue and could use your help if any out there.

Great TV

This is definetly a sign of a dying lamp.

can you use the firewire input for video? I was thinking of buying a hd camcorder before my baby is born so I can record the birth and so on.

Thanks 120inna55 - I think I'll be calling Samsung soon.

Why is it 90% of the time I have something minor fixed it causes larger problems?

The technician came out to replace the digital board to fix my issue. Replaced and all visual items again showed on the screen when selected (inputs, status, etc). Signed the papers and off he went. (20 minutes pass)

I go back over to the tv to shut it off and the picture looks very strange. Lines all over things, lines outlining things, some red lines, some black. All over on all inputs, with the exception of Wiselink (tested to see if it was only input and not imbedded stuff). So my oringal problem is fixed and the Picture looks like SH*%.

Any ideas? I called the repair shop to see if I could get ahold of the guy prior to getting out of town (75miles) with no luck. Called Samsung to update file and get moving on a new digital board., but here we go again...

Ted

We'll see what you say in a month or two.

Just kidding, congrats on your purchase! I have the 5087W and thought "Man, how could this ever get any better?!?" Two months later I want the 56 or 61 inch version.

i have a HL-S5087W and my friend let me borrow his ps3. i hooked it through HDMI but i could not get it to work it just said weak signal, i tried unplugging hdmi turning tv off turning ps3 off and still nothing. so i decide to try componet and it works but theirs a whole bunch of horizontal red lines ,again i unplugged cables turned things off and nothing and also the tv speakers hum i cant figure this out i tired searching but couldent find anything any ideas?

NVM i fixed it

You may be right but I'm done for at least a few years just like to get this tuned right.

any thoughts on the brightness? I will say this the intial settings are nice and was wondering if there are links to other settings and possible SM settings. I've been reading posts about 150 so far but haven't seen any more detailed settings but I'm sure buried there may be but if someone knows I'd be grateful...Boy what a TV!!

Plenty of info here

good luck

thanks im sure this will come in hand but yea i suddenly got the bright idea to put the componet cables in the number 2 ports and all better.

sorry, that link was for wburdett - but hope it helps you down the road