Samsung 1080p Owner's Thread --- HLSxx87W/HLSxx88W DLP Models - Page 84

In an open room less than 4" isn't going to hurt anything unless there is a source of hot air near the cool air intake. It's just a recommendation that can't possibly get anyone into trouble.

Thank you for the quick reply!

Additional notes on my 5088:

I hooked a cable box and watched "Sin City" on Starz In Demand. It was rainbow city. Seriously, I couldn't stop noticing them, and every time my eyes moved from one side of the screen to another part, rainbows! I couldn't bear it, and left the room for a half hour. Came back, and was noticing them less. I forced my eyes on one part of the screen and focused, didn't see any. Obviously you can't enjoy yourself doing this, but I kind of just relaxed and tried not to notice them/ignore them. I started to see them less and less, and was able to enjoy the movie. If this is the movie that everyone says is the de facto standard for noticing them, I think it won't be too much of a problem. I dived into the 'rainbows' willingly and intentionally to notice them. I now notice them but am adjusted for the most part.

On geometry, I still haven't tested but I do believe there is a slight issue of geometry problems on this set. Didn't notice it on 'fullscreen' material but instead on 4:3 material where the top and bottom of the screen is black also..like 'letterbox' movies in 4:3 mode. I don't have Avia or DVE (though I do have 'A Video Standard' LD somewhere..) and I'm trying to find the THX test patterns on T2: Ultimate Edition DVD but can't find them in the menus anywhere. ??. I'm guessing it's similar to what everyone else has posted...there probably is a slight drop from left to right, and the picture gradually becomes slightly wider at the bottom.

On the white bars on the borders for 4:3 material. This is either a source or input issue. I played an NES video game connected through composite inputs on the side of the set and there were no white lines on the edges of the 4:3 picture. I played my DVD player through component video 1 and there were. Very thin. Doesn't bother me.

Vertical viewing angle? Pretty d*mn good! I have my set elevated to where my viewing point is probably only 1 or 2 inches from the bottom of the screen at about 7 feet away. I am guessing I'm looking up at an 8 degree angle to center. Don't notice any drop in brightness. Horizontal viewing angle is sufficient also.

Has anyone figured out discretes for this set? I think the product PDF stated discretes but the remote doesn't allow you to change to any input in which something isn't connected. Devices can be off, but a connector has to be physically inserted into the set for you to be able to access that particular input. I don't know if this is the same as the HDMI and Toshiba HD-DVD issue.


For now, I'd just like to find something with a test pattern to see geometry on the set as well as figure out why the audio on digital stations only is shrill and makes everyone sound as if they have a lisp.

BTW, I believe there MIGHT be a very slight video lag. I was having more trouble than usual with a kickoff meter in Tecmo Super Bowl. I tried with 'game mode' on and didn't have problems. I then went back to playing with 'game mode' off and was doing fine. Maybe it is all in my head.. PQ is better w/o 'game mode' on (game mode makes things blurry).

You're welcome. Try out the "Quote" button associated with each message. That will set off the other person's text from your reply. If you learn how to mess with the [...] parts of the quote then you can control which part of a message is included in a quote.

I am now a member of this thread ^.^ I got circuit city to match TVAs price and thus they dropped it over $400 from their own price and it will be delivered monday. I am calling Time Warner to get a new HD TV box and ordering HD Service after I speak to their retention department which will give you better deals if you say you want to cancel.

Does anybody have any information on using the RS232 control?

I am willing to write a small control app (command line interface, scriptable/girderable) that we can all use if somebody can provide me with the data on the interface.

I've scanned the various manuals and can't find anything.

EDIT: Actually it says "service only". Hmm...for some reason I was thinking these things had RS232 for actual control function. Well, that sucks...

so how does it look?...just trying to justify spending more money. i'm waiting for the ps3. why spend $1000 now, and $600 later. really the ps3 is a bargain considering it does both, but that might not be till april.

So what is the verdict with gaming lag with the xbox360 with the s5087, i read some people say its perfect and other say there is lag. This is the deal breaker for me. I really hope it doesn't, I saw the tv in person today and really really liked it.

Video Game systems don't play DVDs as well as a nice DVD player now, why should we expect a PS3 to play Blue Ray HD DVDs as well as a real Blue Ray HD DVD player will?

Now that we have had our 6187 for almost two weeks, and the gee-whiz wow factor having mostly to do with its size has worn off a little (previously our biggest tv was a 27"), we have become more particular about what is a good picture and what is not. We have also adjusted the various picture settings (contrast, brightness, etc) looking for the best settings for us, but except for a couple tv programs, we found that the factory settings were as good or better (love that reset button). Always come back to DNIE "on"as well.

So far, all DVDs look great. However many HD programs leave a lot to be desired. We have TW cable via a SA 8300 DVR (set on pass-thru) and component cables direct to the 6187. Today, we just couldn't watch NASCAR HD - - it looked like the whole picture was shimmering - especially when they panned the stands. Any text on the screen looked worse than the quality we see on most SD programs. Distant shots showing lots of race cars going around the track were terrible - - could hardly tell what tye of cars they were. It seems that the problem of poor picture quality is more of a function of the programming itself. Sometimes programming on any given channel looks great, sometimes it's unwatchable as NASCAR was today.

Is HD picture quality a function of the programming versus the station? Is "live" a bigger challenge? Why does baseball look so good and NASCAR so bad (more close-ups and less movement)? Why do some HD movies look good and some not? Our non-HD Showtime movie channels often appear much clearer than some HD programming. Though the same movie on Showtime HD always looks better than the non-HD version.

Bottom line, all but one or two non-HD tv channels looks much, much better than we were hoping for. HD tv on the other hand ranges from spectacular to yuk. DVDs are best of all (also use component cables for DVD player connection).

Does professional calibration resolve the inconsistency issues? In non-technical terms, exactly what does calibration do? Improve the clarity/detail or are there greater benefits?

Appreciate any insights on any of these items.

ONE? lol,Alot more than one.
But i understand your point.
Still seem a little buggy to me.
I love the way a good DLP looks,I've seen them with a good set up and feed.
Thats why I'm still waiting to see if these new sets have any more problems(RBE,Pixilisation..etc.)

There's an insert included with my HLS5088W which states that you can control the set via a PC through the RS232.

Simply put, quality of HD varies just like SD. In many HD sports telecast, they're actually using SD cameras. They just don't have enough HD cameras to cover every angle at every event in the country at the same time. Then you have the issue of your local channel and/or cable systems.

My personal thoughts are that as time goes by, these bugs will work themselves out as HD matures.

I have noticed that the World Cup on ESPN HD is better then ABC HD. I assume it is the compression level each chooses to use.

On the Yankees I noticed that depending on the camera angle the quality varied greatly. It must be as you said, only some cameras are HD.

Alright, I have only seen one other set of settings for these TVs and they were on a 42" I have been looking for settings for so long but found that the disc I had would be sufficient. Anyways, here they are...Hopefully this will help a lot of you that were in my position. By the way I have the HL-S5687W...

Mode: Custom
Contrast: 47
Brightness: 34
Sharpness: 20
Color: 53
Color Tone: Normal
Digital NR: Off
DNIe: Off

well i guess i will post my settings that i am using with my hls 5087...they are a little different than what has been posted previously but i am very happy with them...here they are....

Mode: Movie
Contrast: 47
Brightness: 53
Shaprness: 7
Color: 42
Color Tone: Normal
DNR: Off
DNIe: Off

hope this helps...later

The short answer to all that you say is that your HD content should be much better than DVD quality (unless of course you have HD-DVD or Blu-ray). I have HD through Dish Network and 90% of the programming is stellar (rich in detail, with vibrant colors, DARK blacks, BRIGHT whites, and excellent contrast). Also, I have no problems with NASCAR or any other programming with a lot of fast-moving action scenes. There is some HD content that leaves much to be desired (I suspect some isn't even HD, but rather upconverted material), and it varies from show to show (not channel to channel). If I were you, I would have your cable guy out to take a look.

A few weeks ago, when I first got my HL-S 6187W, I liked it a great deal, but was bothered by a few things: 1) The colors were noticeably off (blue was way overemphasized), with no obvious way to correct them, and 2) the set was merciless to poor sources, emphasizing every flaw. On the whole, I found it superior to my two-year-old Hitachi 57S500 CRT rear projector, but there were certainly areas in which the Hitachi was better.

Since then, I've had the set calibrated by umr, and picked up an HD-DVD player for myself.

Revised opinion: Well, wow. There's no longer any area in which the Hitachi is better, except for the UI (the Samsung doesn't have discrete inputs on the remote, doesn't have night/day modes (you can fake it, though), and is just more awkward in general). This is the best picture I've ever seen on a television.

I was a bit nervous about the calibration, because... well, people say that it makes a huge enormous difference, but people also say that about power cords, so clearly people are full of it a lot of the time. Honestly, if the TV hadn't had any flaws that were outright visible to me (as the weird colors were), I probably wouldn't have bothered with it.

As it is, I'm glad I did. Not only did Jeff fix the colors (which, because I'm a total geek, was remarkably entertaining as a process), but he mucked about with the brightness and some other settings. The result is a picture that looks much better on every type of program material -- colors are way more accurate, MPEG artifacts are less noticeable, some banding that I'd noticed before is gone, and there are way fewer rainbows than before, as a result of the reduced brightness. It seems weird to say, "Yeah, I paid somebody to make my TV dimmer and get the colors less vibrant", but hey. I thoroughly recommend a calibration by umr for anyone with this television, as it really is just way off out of the box, and there's no way at all (I can definitively say after watching him make adjustments for four hours) for a normal person to get it fixed up right.

As for the HD-DVD player, well, it's just plain ol' the single best source I've ever seen, darn near flawless, and with amazing detail on this display. Watching Serenity on HD-DVD on a calibrated 1080p Samsung is just an amazing experience. This is about as close to a film experience as anyone's likely to see until... well, until next year's models make the current stuff look like crap. But for now, it's seriously impressive.

Been waiting for the DLP technology to mature and come down in price. I finally decided now was the time and bought the HLS5087. Viewing distance is 9-10 feet. I'm happy with the size but it does dominate the living room a bit although maybe it just takes some getting used to having replaced a 32" CRT. Besides which this was the smallest Sammy DLP with 1080p. It comes down to the home theater vs living room debate I guess.

Ok, the thing stopped working after 4 days, it refused to turn on and got the 3 blinking lights. Delivery person opened the box at the curb and carried the thing in like a sack of flour and banged the set into the banister. I probably got somone elses repaired set for all I know. On the plus side, CC had a replacement set to my house in 3 1/2 hours and this time 2 guys showed up and I made them carry the box into my living room.

I have my SA8300HD and Sammy HD960 plugged in using HDMI cables I bought from Blue Jean Cables and digital optical. My Yahama HTR 5830 has 2 optical inputs and was inexpensive. I could use the digital rca cable but it goes to CD input and i've killed enough of my wife's brain cells without trying to explain she has to hit CD to hear audio from the DVD player. BTW, the SA8300HD disk drive was making popping sounds. I just went to TWC with the box and nicely asked for a new one in a sealed box. Also selected DD in the STB setup and turned on the internal mute in the TV. HD960 gives an error message that HDMI doesnt carry DD when you select digital audio in the setup. I just turned off the on-screen messaging as I'm using the digital optical as mentioned. I also set the STB to output 720p and 1080i. Not sure if HDMI even carries either 480 signal.

HDMI makes my screen snowy. My research led me to find that turning on the TV, Audio and STB in that order allowed the HDMI copyright crap in the TV and STB to communicate with each other so I got a picture. Seems to work now after also making sure the HDMI cables were securely plugged in.

Lastly, I'm getting an ISF calabration after my 30 day return period but I did make adjustments out of the box. Can hit reset prior to the ISF guy getting here. Cable I selected Standard and Normal. Turned off DNIe and DNR but turned DNR back on as it seemed to make my SD picture better. Lowered every setting by 50% and then raised brigtness and contrast to my liking. DVD input I just selected Movie and played with brightness a bit.


Well, that's my experience to date. I'm just an average guy that watches TV/sports and the occasional DVD and I'm very happy with HD and SD pictures on this thing for what thats worth. Actually, I've found myself watching almost anything that is broadcast in HD.

When I read this post earlier today I was concerned. I've only had my 6187 since Thurs. and am still looking for troubles. With F1 and Champ Cars racing today, NASCAR had to go direclty to TIVO. My HD Fox comes of the air, and it was flawless, (the shots that were taken with HD cameras). OK, either your cable or local Fox affiliate is causing the problem.

i haven't too much picture smear with my 6187. i'm using the same cable box, through comcast with hdmi. the 8300hd dvr is much clearer than my privious sa3350. go to monoprice and get a hdmi cable. you'll notice the difference. you can also have your cable company come out and check the line. tell them the pq is lousey. they'll check the signel. a poor signel will cause smearing also. i don't know if anyone caught drag racing on espnhd last night. i have to say, it had to be the best picture iv'e ever seen. i recorded it just for demo purposes. i'm so glad i didn't go with the sony sxrd. i looked at the sony for months,and i thought the pq was great, but there was much more picture smear on the sony with all sports. sometime it was unwatchable. and was hoping the sammy would at least be of equal pq based on what i was reading on this forum. imo the beats it in all around. you can't even watch sd on the sony.

If I were you, I would take your gaming console up to BB or CC, connect it to the set and see for yourself. The one thing I have learned about gaming lag is that it is very subjective, dependant on how serious of a gamer you are and very dependant on the type of games that you play. About a year ago I took my Xbox up to BB to test the Sammy HLR5667W as well as 4 other sets. That is where I confirmed that the lag on the Sammy was a deal breaker for me.

I too love the OTA HD quality of my, now two week old, HL-S5687. Even the built in speakers for everyday TV is darn good. The video quality via DirecTV is very poor

I've had a DirecTV R15 DVR (which is standard def) for a while (owned, not leased) on a 36" tube and the quality is great. I just got a Samsung and the OTA HD is great, unconverted DVD via HDMI is great, but the R15 via SVideo is pretty fuzzy (R15 does not have component or HDMI). I understand tat some of this may be due to the Sammy upconverting 480i to 1080P.

Other than upgrading everything to HD (not even sure if that will help on non-HD channels), what can I do get get a better picture from DirecTV?

Ideas????

Thanx!

Confirmed with TVA on Friday June 23 for delivery of my 5087 in July 5-7 window. I pre-ordered on May 1, but could not take delivery until after July 3 (new house), so my data point may not mean much. I'll post again when it shows. Thinking about an upconverting player, it seems like everyone is getting the sony DVP-NS75H. I'm wondering about the Samsung DVD-HD960, I'm sure there's 50 pages of posts on these somewhere here at AVS. I'll take a look.

If I were you, I would seriously consider switching to Dish Network. Their new HD DVR (the Vip622) gives you a stellar picture (on HD content) through the HDMI connection.

two weeks into my HLS5687. No problems, great picture. Any issues on the picture are related to the transmission of the comcast digital cable. Varies from show to show. usually HD is fine, most SD good. Sometimes I get macroblacking but it goes away with next broadcast. xbox 360 is perfect, no game lag at all. DVD upconverted to 1080p is great. So far so good.

We need some cable help.
The family had pooled our monies to buy an aging father-in-law (who sits 2' from a 19" TV in order to see it) a the 56" Samsung DLP. Everyone had sticker shock with all the extras we needed. Now, we are skipping the extended warranty/building a TV stand etc.

The salesman totaled up an extra $400 in cables and surge protectors. Would you experts here chime in on what cables and surge protector we need? I have seen they are about 1/4 in price on the web, but we are unsure of exactly what to buy - HDMI cabels etc.

He will have:
Direct TV satellite
One VCR
One DVD player

Thanks in advance for your help!

order the cables you need from monoprice or blue jean cables, whichever you prefer. the links are at the top of this page. cheap, high quality and quick to ship. Get the best surge protector or power station you can afford. If you have $125 you can get a PureAV PF40 online. You can easily spend less then $50 if that is what you want. THe important thing is to provide some level of protection, the higher the better. If you are running all audio through the TV and using the TV speakers, then one cable for each component is all you need. Use HDMI if you can, but you limited to two, so use component for the other. Three cables should take care of it for you, assuming you use the component for both A/V, such as a simple RCA L/R audio connection and a three pin RCA component video connection. Many component cables have the L/R audio connections built into them so you have one cable with five RCA plugs on each end. You can easily spend less than $100 total via monoprice.

Wow. You guys got me worried about the tigerdirect thing.... I searched the forums here before ordering from them, and all I found were a couple of posts showing benign order and shipping experiences. I know their rebates suck a lot, but this didn't involve a rebate. I printed their description that says item is brand new. I figured anything else I may be missing should be covered by my credit card company anyway.

They do not accept any returns, but neither did Amazon, from which I made an earlier order. Amazon showed the estimated ship date as August 26, so I got tired of the waiting.

Hopefully the purchase will be OK.

I'm getting the HL-S5687W tomorrow but won't be getting paid HD programming for at least a couple months. Can anybody recommend a good indoor antenna, if there is such a thing? I'd like to get HDTV started as soon as possible with minimal efforts/costs.

Thanks a lot!

Hi
I got an email from TVA stating that I can place my order for my 5087, and
will do so promptly right after Aaron returns my call.

I plan for the following

-- TV
-- 4yr Repairmaster extended warranty for $199 (hopefully a good idea)
-- The Free monster power conditioner (CA resident)

I think the HLS series have a detachable power cord, As I would like to place
the power conditioner w/ the AV equipment, I would need a long power
cord. Any suggestions on a power cord? (hopefully wont cost me a lot).

Any ideas on the shielded power cord from Monoprice?