Samsung 1080p Owner's Thread --- HLSxx87W/HLSxx88W DLP Models - Page 202

It's funny, I never saw rainbows in anything other than credits until I watched this movie. It's not unwatchable at all, but I wish it weren't there. Is there anything I can do to reduce this? I know this question has probably been asked already, so if anyone can just point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it.

Also, is there a way to reduce the brightness of the screen other than the normal menu? The TV is so bright that it lights up my living room in the dark and causes my eyes to hurt some (only in the dark).

Last question, does audio travel through HDMI? I used an HDMI hookup from my 8300HD cable box, and the audio was mute.

Thanks

All the "Best of the Official Thread" is here in the xx87/xx88 TECH LINKS:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=697413

have fun!
Doc

Wow...just got my first electric bill since getting my 6187. Anyone else out there notice a huge increase? My bill went up almost $100 when going from my 27" CRT to my 6187. The TV is on about 5-7hrs/day (I work all day so TV is only on in the evenings). Is this normal?

Also, is there a difference in power consumption in the different modes (Dynamic, Custom, Standard, Movie) since they appear to use different brightness?

No way would a Sammy DLP raise your bill that much. In fact it probably uses about the same wattage as your old tv. You have some other issue causing the huge bill. (hotter weather...mis-read of your meter etc)

I called TVAuthority on Friday to ask some questions with respect to the waiting list. It ended up that the rep I got a hold of was Stephanie from our boards.

Needless to say, we had a great conversation and she answered some questions that had been lingering for awhile. She is a great representative for TVA and was very helpful.

During our conversation which partially dealt with the overscan issue on the xx87s, she thought she had read an article dealing with defeating the overscan issue on the 87s, externally. She searched for the article but could not find it. She said she'd keep looking but I'm going to throw it out to the board:

Has anyone read or heard of a way to defeat the overscan in any other fashion than the service menu of the xx87 units?

If there was a way, I imagine we would have heard on this board/thread by now and I've been following this thread for months.

As I've previously mentioned this is of concern as I have a 6187 on order.

Any comments will, as always, be greatly appreciated.

Had a chance to set up the new HL-S6187W over the weekend, and thought I'd post some initial thoughts:

1) Lightweight - my wife and I were able to easily move the TV from the garage where the box was delivered... it has some nice areas to "grip" it for safe moving.

2) The TV was plugged into a SD cable line (no digital box, yet). Tweaked using Eliabs settings in the TECH LINKS... nice look. Occasional "white dot" noise (not SSE) noticed up close, but not bothersome, and much less noticeable from 8' +

3) Hooked up the Home Theater Personal Computer (HTPC), running an ATI 9800Pro card, using a DVI/HDMI convertor and 12' HDMI cable. Using the ATI Graphics software, made a custom 1920x1080p settings (worked out to about 1880x1044 with overscan). Again, set up settings per Eliab, then inserted Digital Video Essentials for color and tint tweaks.
Played a few movies through the HTPC (software = ZoomPlayer with PowerDVD filters) and I went on to manually tweak flesh tones, black level and contrast (white levels) ala "Steaming Rat" method (see TECH LINKS) LOOKS INCREDIBLE!

4) Movie mode disables DNiE. This has been mentioned before.

5) Turned off overscan via Service Menu (SM) for a 1080i signal: ( pics and details to follow). I tried turning off the "melody" song in the menu, but the bulb/power still cycled. It's going to take a while to get used to the quick on/off/on cycle of the bulb when entering the SM.
I'd like to start a thread specifically to discuss Service Menu settings and pictorial lessons. I'll post it in my TECH LINKS, too. I didn't stay in 1080i mode too long, as 1080p looked better to me.
Be careful, one wrong arrow push can "blank" your screen and if you panic you won't get it back. If you make a mistake with this consequence just push the arrow once in the opposite direction that got you into that situation. You are warned!

6) When running DVE, one of the calibration screens has a 100% bright white rectangle in the upper left corner (with mostly dark screen elsewhere). Due to the TV's overscan, some of this bright rectangle's light is reflecting off the inside of the case and onto the screen as a distorted white feathery patch about 6 inches down and right at a 45 degree angle. It's really only apparent when standing above the screen up close. It's an anomaly of the overscan, I believe, and doesn't bother me much as this is a rather artificial means to bring out this reflection.

7) 1080i and 1080p are, at least to me, apparently different, although a minor difference. 1080p's horizontal lines when displaying computer material are rock solid. 1080i computer graphics have a "shimmering" or "flickering" appearance. This effect is apparent from 8' away, so it's "1080p for me!" The HLS is a "second" monitor, so I haven't tried displaying the WinXP icons or start bar on the TV, yet, so I cannot comment on overscan issues when displaying the main Windows desktop.

8) Mild SSE noticeable, but not bothersome to me, as I look at mild SSE all day long on my 21" LCD monitor at work. Not a big deal and not distracting while watching movies.

More to come!

Doc Rings

There is a Macro supposedly that does this. One of the ISF calibrators on the board gives it to his customers. Im surprised it hasnt been posted or done by someone else by now. Someone share the wealth over here If it works!

Oh...I didn't touch it, and the TV still turns on just fine. The only settings I touched were horizontal and vertical position, and turned off Overscan. I was just curious when I noticed it though.

Thanks but it only has the red and white audio cables. Any other ideas????

rman402

at least on th3e HLS-6187 (you didn't state model i that I saw) the DVI /HDMI input does not capture sound; there are RCA jacks available for that. You want to use the other HDMI plug which should pass thorugh audio, though I don't know if it comes back out mixed to two channels or is still the 5.1 stream -- maybe let us know.

Well I called Samsung today to find out the ETA on my replacement 5687 and was told that I might have to wait a month or so while they find one. Meanwhile I have now lost about 30% of the right side of the screen and the black shade is growing. At the rate its going I should be without an image in 2 more weeks! All I can do is call Samsung every few days or so to keep the fire burnning and hope to have the replacement set before football season begins.

It would be difficult to bring my Sony CRT back in to the TV room after a few glorious months of bliss.

I don't think it's SSE as the grey dots are not regular at all and some are slightly larger than others. It appears more like a blown up view of the dust seen on a computer LCD screen.

Keep in mind that both HDMI connections are identical. If you are connecting from a HDMI source, audio and video will be passed to the TV.

If you connect from a DVI source the "HDMI/RCA Audio" combination allows you to pass audio to the TV. The reason for that is that a DVI source is video only.

I just bought a HL-S6187W and I am still awaiting delievery. I called Comcast to order digital cable/HD and to find out the options I had. The told me that the standard HD cable box has DVI out but does not have HDMI. This was the box I was planning to get. However, they said that the box with a DRV built into it does had HDMI.

My question is what connection should I use? Can I just by a DVI to HDMI cable and use that? Are there any cons with that set up?

Is it really worth is to get that HDMI set up? Note, I am not a videophile so I'm not that picky.

Should I just go with component? Assuming one of those boxes has that option?

Also, on the audio out to my receiver, should I use the optical out from the tv? Will that broadcast in 5.1?

Thanks!

SSE is not always "regular", but what you are seeing could be a contaminant between screen layers. Replacing the screen is an easy repair because there aren't too many things that can get messed up.


If it's over the entire screen then that's strange.

Funny, that had not been my understanding from the manual, but I just tested it with my HD tivo and you're spot on, audio comes to the tv at least through both.

As for the sound on my system, I run all the audio direct to my receiver anyway and don't use the TV speakers at all. They really are weak. And why channel your sound through another source; that just adds noise to it.

The video is identical. It's what I'm using right now. I have the audio connected to our A/V receiver using a digital coax audio cable.


The video quality will be the same. If you are not into recording TV programs you don't need the DVR.


You can but that will force an extra conversion from digital to analog which then has to be converted back to digital in the TV. The net result is reduced PQ due to adding errors on top of errors.


Most people use optical or coax out from their sources (STB or DVD player) directly to their A/V receiver. A TV is not a 5.1 device so it will not pass on a 5.1 signal.

Just get the DVR box. You'll LOVE it.


Yes, the optical out port on the STB will carry 5.1.

i used the best hdmi cable available from monoprice.com and tried both 1080i and 720p settings. didn't see any obvious difference. overall the picture quality seems slightly sharper than my cheap toshiba output thru component, but at the same time, the picture was a lot noisier and the toshiba output seems to be smoother and more film like. but overall at a normal viewing distance, i don't think you can say one is better than the other.

Thanks guys! I really appreciat it!

let's see... Summer-time... hotter this month than last and the A/C runs more.... hmmmm... MUST be the TV!

Hopefully, somewhere on the World Wide Web, someone will post a very helpful series of remote control buttons pushes that will temporarily defeat overscan on the xx87's.

The trick is getting the codes that allow SM access/changes without the power cycle.... kind of "wink wink, nudge nudge" information...

We'll get to the bottom of this...STICK TOGETHER TEAM!!!

Doc Rings

I have a 6187 I'm curious as to how you hooked up you sound system and what system you are using? I really don't want to have to buy another sound system to replace this Bose since it seems like there is no way to listen to it whule I'm watching tv but I just may have to. Also when you are watching cable tv what source is it through? Do you have to switch to HDMI as thew source or is it TV. I may not have the HD Box hooked up correctly or perhaps there is another way to hook it up. I am running a DVI-HDMI cable from the box to the TV and the red/white audio cables to the DVI Audio in jacks on the back of the TV.

The Samsung tech came out Saturday afternoon and guess what, yeah it was the same guy as before. This guy must have someone else doing his booking for him cuz the guy I booked this meeting with is someone else. Before I even let him in, I had to ask him if he brought 6188 parts. He said he did, so I let him in, and he went to work replacing one of the main systems in my tv. This didn't fix the problem though. Then he tells me it's the connector. After going back out to his truck and getting a connector, he gets that changed and that does the trick. While he was out-side, I snapped a bunch of photos of the guts of the tv and some stuff he brought in with him. Once he finished, we looked at some different channels. He tunes to some HD programming (little league baseball) and the picture is very good. The grass showed up as green instead of orange. SD channels were not looking very good though and all he would say about it is that's what you get from SD on this set. He packed up his stuff and was on his way fixing other Samsungs, I guess. Since he didn't take long fixing this problem, I still had some time to walk down to the beach for a couple hours of bright sunshine.

When I got back from the beach, I checked out the PQ on the SD channels again and most looked much better than before. However, quality is still inconsistent, and there are still some issues with jagged edges, noise, and the like. I am wondering how many others out there have problems with the graphical icons like CNN, Fox News, or sports scores. On my set, these are sometimes surrounded with moving beads of color, and/or they have fuzzy/jagged edges.

Maybe some calibration work would fix this?

Overall though, the picture is 10,000% better, and I am elated for that. I even did some work on my PC and wasn't blinded by neon-like colors. Looks like I will be keeping it for now.

This wasn't directed at me, but I'll take a stab at it anyway. The best way for you to do this is to go DVI->HDMI from your STB to the TV, which you're doing now, and then go composite audio (red/white) from the the audio out of the STB to your Cinemate system as those are the only audio inputs it has. I know you said you tried that, but double check that you had the output audio cables connected to the output connections on the STB that correspond to the DVI out. Many have multiple composite outputs and you have to use the ones that go with the video output you're using. I've also heard of STBs that don't have composite audio outputs for the DVI/HDMI video output, only digital coax or toslink.

Also, I'm assuming that you're not connecting anything else to the Cinemate system? If you are, you must be using a switching device, and there could be a problem along the way there as well.

get the dvr, besides thi dvi to hdmi will not work. it's allready been discussed. i have the sa hd 8300 dvr, (my first) and love it. i never thought i needed it. now i couldn't go without it.

Eliab and Dave calibrated my HL-S6767 last Friday (8/18) - and the next day I headed on vacation for a week. So after getting back this weekend and watching some movies, sports and SD, here is my feedback - albeit a little late.

I purchased the 6767 in June from Costco, and OTB this set looked great to me. I'm not an expert and learned most of what I know since I found this thread back in January, but I'm intelligent enough to fool around with settings and thought I did a good job making minor tweaks. I was wrong.

Eliab and Dave were here for about 4 hours working their magic. To start, they mentioned that my set was focused about as well as it could be OTB, and no smudges whatsoeverI think I was one of the lucky ones to get an early model before these issues started creeping up. So lucky me.

After calibration, this set looks amazing! Fleshtones are much more realistic and shadow detail is great. I'm still getting used to a more toned-down picture, but they told me it might take awhile to get used to their settings. And after a few days of watching movies and sports, I can see how my new settings are much more pleasing to the eye than the harsh detail I was getting prior to calibration. The only thing they mentioned I should investigate is backlighting, so I'll be ordering an Idealume today.

I can't say enough good things about their professionalism, attention to detail and how they went about their work. After they were done, they sat down with me and covered everything (I occasionally looked over their shoulder) - we watched some SD, HD and a DVD. They went over all the new settings and left me with a detailed report of everything they did - just in case I get adventurous and muck things up, I can get back to their settings.

I wish I could lend more technical detail to what they did, but I can't. What I do know is that the calibration was worth every penny, and I was skeptical at first.

Eliab and Dave - thanks again, you made what I thought was an already great set even better.

I have almost the same Bose set up and the 6187. I believe you must turn off the 6187's internal speaker for it to work

This might be a silly question but I'm too new to this to really know.... I bought a 5687w and have two DVD players, one progessive and the other not. They are both older Sony's. Both players are connected via component cables to the TV. Can you force the TV to upconvert the DVD picture to 1080i or p?

rman402, bbexperience does a good job laying it out for you.

Myself I have the directv HD10-250 TiVo which records satellite and OTA. It has hdmi out, component out, Svideo out, and RCA composite audio, and optical digital. SO i run the HDMI to the tv, which has the sound at zero, and the optical to my aging but convenient Denon system. It offers optical in and RCA in, and in fact I have both wires hooked up to different sources which lets me pass through my TiVo to the VCR or DVD recorder depending on selection (my main issue hooking up was remembering to set the TiVo out to 480i so I got a picture through those sources. What, my VCR doesn't downsample 1080i !? Oops!)

So the TiVo feeds video via HDMI to the tv, set to that source, and I tune the Denon to the TVDBS optical input.

I don't even have an antenna hooked directly to the tv. When I want to watch a DVD I switch the tv to the composite input and the receiver to that source which is RCA (the DVD player does coax digital, not optical, sigh.) but it works fine, I get ProLogic instead of Dolby Digital as with the other source and alas, DTS is not available thorugh that connecton though the Denon can decode it.

So if you still don't have sound, make sure you aren't playing a DTS dvd audio source through something that can't decode it. Test that your receiver input works with another source and other cables.

As noted above the audio will travel through the HDMI cable to the tv unless your original video source is DVI only, then you have to use RCA cables from the source. And you should be able to connect from the tv to your sound system, but really it's better to go direct in my opinion.

(Though this message led me to a question of my own which I'll post later.)

I did notice my audio volume is much lower from the DVD than the TiVo, perhaps that is coming into play with yours.

Good luck.