2007 Samsung HL-Txx76 Owner's Thread

I just purchased the 5076 slim DLP yesterday. First off so far the picture didn't really impress me out of the box hooked upto digital cable DVI-HDMI connection. I play around with the settings and got the picture to show much better but I still don't know if its better than the 42HDS52 Plasma I traded in for it. DVD's and my PS3 look great so far, but digital cable SD and HD I expected it to be alot better than my plasma, my need more time to adjust the settings more to get a better picture. I'm curious if I should try to run just component cables to TV from my digital cable box instead, to see if that may show alittle better. But the TV is honestly great so far. I just need more time to try to get the best picture out of it. I want it to blow my old TV out of the water.

Thanks for starting the thread, mantraxl. Just today I posted the below on the CES thread, but now it belongs here:

I received my HL-T5676 last night and while I have not had a chance to play with it much, I have some initial impressions. First, I'm new to the HD world, so PQ and detail is fabulous. So far I've only fed the set a diet of OTA HD signals and from the Oppo DV-981HD. The former is impressive, the latter is much better than I expected for DVD.

Using Eliab's HL-S starting points resulted in a very natural color. I slightly bumped down the color and up the contrast and was very pleased with the results. I did nothing to the specific color settings in "my color control," but it's great that they are accessible for when I can use a calibration disc.

"Bowing" is definitely present, but for some reason it's only noticeable when the menu is on screen. I measured almost 1/2" from the center of the screen to the left corner, but less than 1/4 " in other locations and with other geometry on the screen -- is it possible the menu is curved intentionally...? In any case it wasn't at all noticeable with regular viewing, so for now I'll hold off before demanding a replacement or fix.

As noted by others, the case at the top, and to a lesser degree at the sides, is very flexible. By lightly pushing on the top you can move the image on the screen 1/4' or more. Since injection-molded plastic tends to relax as it goes through stress-relief over time, I worry that the screen shape will change long-term. However, the back of the set is very rigid and looks like it was designed for wall-mounting.

The back and sides have many ventillation slots, and a lot of light shines onto the back wall. This isn't noticeable from directly in front of the set, but looks pretty tacky from the sides. I assume this is Samsung's poor-man's ambient backlighting.

No popping, bad odor, smudges, green push, or any of the other maladies that seem to afflict some of the HL-Txx87/89 sets in the LED forum.

OK, noob question: what are the "dynamic contrast" and "black adjust" settings? My guess is they control the range of the dynamic iris...? To my eye the low setting on both gave nice results.

Overall I'm very pleased so far. Great picture, lots of adjustment control, ulta-thin, and sleek styling.

Just got mine in today from the shipping company and got it setup. First impressions I cant tell any difference pq wise compared to my HL-S6187W. However it is alot thinner. I like the design much better. My only complaint so far is the audio is horrible compared to my old tv. It just sounds terrible like the speaker location is in a bad place or something. It just sounds muffled.

Some of you may have read some of my other posts regarding this tv but they can now belong here. I got this tv about a month and quickly went through 3 of them due to bowing issues. I'm on my fourth now and am waiting for my samsung sanctioned repair guy to fix these geometry problems which samsung claims to be a shipping issue and can be easily fixed. Other than that the set looks amazing. This is my first hd set, SD comcast looks great (i do not have a box, just a coax line) and the Tv picked up some hd dtv channels, nbc 1080i looks really nice. My only complaints are of course the bowing, the fan is a tad noisy and my Wii looks horrible on it. But dvds and even my sega genesis look really good blown up to 1080p. The repair guys comes thursday, i will let you know how it all goes.

I picked up the 5076, and am in general pretty pleased with the set. I previously had a 32" Zenith CRT HDTV, so it's quite the step up. The Xbox 360 and HD-DVD's look pretty nice on it once you do a rudimentary calibration. I'm gonna pick up DVE HD-DVD later this week to do a proper one. Like others said, this thing is super slim! I was able to put it on a fireplace stoop, which really opened up the room. I do have a few misgivings about the set though. I didn't realize how restrictive the viewing angles are. If you're not sitting right in front of it, the picture is really dimmed. Also, as others have reported, there is some tilt to the set, counter clockwise. I'd say it's about a 1/4" difference, and the only time i really notice it is on 4:3 content. That's not too big of a deal.

Now for the two more serious problems I have with it. I'm new to RPTV, so I guess this would be called SSE. When looking at white, or a solid color (like on a show like south park for example), the screen shimmers almost like it has some grease on it or something. Much of the time I don't notice it at all, but other times it's pretty distracting. Also, my set has some bowing to it. Through the middle of the set, the geometry is just fine, but starting about 8" from the edges on each side, it starts to bow upwards. I've been able to see it during a few movies, and it's REALLY obvious watching the news or something with lines. It's as if the tv set is smiling. I've seen a few reports of bowing, but can the rest of you chime in? I don't want to go through the pains of going through 4 sets if it's a problem with this model. Let's try and get idea of how widespread this problem is.

I do like the picture quality, and the features are nice, so I'd like to keep it. But the more i watch it, the more the bowing is starting to bug me. I'll probably exchange it for a new set later this week. If the bowing persist on the new ones, I might have to go for the other tv I was looking at, the sony 50a2020. *Off topic, but does anyone know if that set exhibits as much SSE as this sammy? I like this tv, but am curious.

I believe 3:2 pull down and 1080p24 have been confirmed on both HLT-XX87, HLT-XX89 and HLT-XX76. i know the first two are confirmed, i am assuming the latter is also.

I noticed the bowing also but only when the guide is up. The funny thing is my wife isnt into electronics or tvs but when she got home last night and hit guide she said what is the deal with it bending, that is how bad it is. Does anyone not think the speakers are horrible as well?

Yes, that's SSE. Turn the contrast down (50 or less) and the brightness down(45ish). That will minimize it but be aware that each and every RPTV, regardless of mfg. has that effect. Some more than others. JVC and Sony are pretty bad. It's the nature of the beast so to speak.

I dug into what I had called my bowing problem last night, and discovered that my issue may simply be an artifact of the set case being so flexible and my lousy stand. The set has no perceptible pincushion and with normal viewing the geometry looks fine, but when the menu is up the left corner is "curled up" and the right corner drops away with noticeable overscan. Just as I can significantly affect the screen geometry by pushing down on the set top, I can induce a similar effect by pushing UP on the bottom corner. I was able to fix the problem by applying slight pressure to the TV base corner, comparable to adding a very thin shim between the base and stand. I attribute this twisting to the cheap stand the TV is temporarily sitting on. As noted before, it's amazing how little pressure on the set case is required to significantly change the geometry on the screen.

Samsung kept the weight of these sets down, at the expense of a stable cabinet.

People watch the image of these sets more than they lift them. Seems they could have invested a bit more in the cabinet design to eliminate the geometry issues.

I doubt many people want to use Home Depot shims on their fancy new HDTVs!

My HLT5676s should be here within the hour. ABT has already called to confirm delivery. I will do my best to post pictures, results and my impressions in a effort to give back to this forum as much as I feel I have taken from it.

Just got off the phone with Samsung and told them that the tv is not acceptable. The bowing is horrible and the screen is just too flimsy. She was going to forward the file to the manager to see what he wants to do. I wonder if the new LED sets bow like this???

My sets geometry is pretty good, I got it as a replacement for an HLS 5687s that had horrible pincushion.

It had some tilt out of the box but a shim under the base fixed that, it does have some distortion of horizontal lines, just slight upward bend at the left side of the image that was worse before I shimmed it.

I can live with it, all the Samsung sets seem to have geometry problems from the flimsy cabinets and shipping. I will say the pincushion on the HLS actually got better just from letting it sit on a flat surface a couple months, almost half of it went away while I waited for the replacement, but it was still out of spec and the screen was wavy.

My HLT screen seems to be perfectly flat.

I was going to get the 5676s next week but i think ill wait and check out some other brands first.This sucks that theres problems with the new line.Circuit City still has the 5687w in stock.Which tv is better the 5676s or the 5687w or maybe ill look into the sony 55a2020.

Well, thats bad news.

Jason I can tell you from experience so far the 5687W is by far superior! It just feels more sturdy and to me I have calibrated my new 76S and I think the PQ is better on my old 87W. I am just at a loss for words how a company can put a subpar product out like the new line and expect people to buy it. Just by touching the side of the screen with a finger the whole screen moves noticeably and that never happened on my old 87W. I have had it with Samsung and will never buy there products again.

My experience was precisely the opposite, the HLT has a flatter, more stable screen, better geometry and better PQ than my HLS did.

DLP in general has these geometry problems, the other methods all have ways to deal with it, this is the big weakness of DLP.

Samsung DLP is less consistent than others because of these thin bezels they're using. I think even mildly rough handling in shipment is enough to knock them out of alignment.

I really like my new set, particularly considering what I have into it at this point.

Does anybody know what this does? Is it basically a max/min "aperture" adjustment for the dynamic iris? In the 35 seconds I have experimented with the setting I can't deduce exactly what is changing.

Incidentally, despite my earlier grumblings, I love my 5676 so far -- incredible color, wonderful detail. After making sure the TV was on a flat, level, rigid surface, the bowing is negligible. And the super-thin depth is great. Unlike most RPTVs, it doesn't protrude into the room like a pot-bellied stove.

Just got my 5076 yesterday. Through a little haggling between CC and BB I was able to save $320 off the List. I pushed on the sides of their 5076 and saw how pressure can covex the picture, but I have to push pretty hard if I used 1 finger.

Other than the UltraThin, the 5087W or 5687W's had a different color wheel. Supposedly, the all the HLT's have a color that replaces yellow. They also have a display rate of 120hz, which I can not confirm if the 5687W's have as well, I do know it is not list on the Spec sheet like the new HLT's have listed. For you gamers, there is also a 3D input which will allow for 3D game with the appropriate hardware. I've also heard the User Interface is much better as well.

I didn't get mine setup yet due to the 2 hours of time it took to put the Bush TV stand together, which I ended up being done at 1:30am. Like everyone else I hope I don't have the bowing prob. Question, Is Bowing the same as pincushion?



Does anyone have any calibration setting they feel is the best fit for this model? It would help in getting mine up fast later tonite and get me on here to post my thoughts. Thanks!

I got my 5676S delivered last Sat, and I am loving it so far! HD (over the air, HDDVD, Bluray) looks amazing, and even SD looks 10x better than on my previous 5 year old Hitachi 51UWX. I haven't seen the pincushion or bowing effect yet. FYI, I found these settings in a different Samsung thread they set for the 5676, they made a difference in my picture:

Mode: Movie
Contrast: 27
Brightness: 51
Sharpness: 40
Color: 65 (i thought that seemed high, calibrated 3 times, approx same value)
Tint: G:55 R:45
Color Tone: Normal

Everything Else Off

The only problem I am having is getting my Harmony 676 to switch HDMI inputs correctly when switching activities but that is no fault of this TV. I'm one happy customer so far.

I think I used the HLS setting from Logitech and then added all the new stuff from HLT to the setup. Only thing I haven't done was HDMI3, but haven't called Logitech either.

Man, I'm still on the fence about this set and this thread isn't really helping.

I am not helping much. Not very technical. This set is better than the HLS that I had. I guess most of the techies went the the 87 or 89 series. My suggestion is to buy at a place that offers 30 day return so i you don't like it you can return it.

I look mostly at the 87/89 thread. Other than the LED and some other tweaks 1.3 on the 89. it can't be drastically different. Then again i don't have both to compare side by side.

If you are deciding between the XX76S or XX87, or 89S, to me it's a no brainer. I've heard many people speak of the inaccurate coloring of the LED Engines. I heard multiple people who were at CES, say that it was not impressive when compared to the old technology.....but besides that stuff, it is too expensive when compared to the tried and true. Here are some facts:

#1. We don't know how long this LED Light lasts. I worked with LED's for a Light Safety company for many years. An LED is suppose to last 20,000 hours. But there are some things that need to occur for that to happen. 20,000 hours is an approximate time that is tested by keeping 1 single LED powered, without shutting it off, and at a constant appropriate amperage. Shutting the TV on and off, and the construction of the cluster of LED's, along with the amperage will drastically change that amount. I've had customers send LED products back, burnt out after a couple of months. Most life-time warranty send backs were at around 1 1/2 years.

We do not know how easily these can or can not be replaced. Also what is the cost, and can you replace them yourself? These are big time concerns.

#2 If you are not prone to seeing Rainbows then thats one more against the LED version.

#3 IT IS HUNDREDS OF $$$ MORE FOR UNPROVEN TECHNOLOGY.

CONCLUSION:

If you want a HD TV NOW, purchase the the XX76S. If you are willing to wait for the next 6 months to see what the XX87's and 89's problems are..just wait and learn from others mistakes.

Hello All,

After having my HLT5676s for all of 24 hours, I can honestly say I am very happy. It may be that my initial excitement hasn't worn off yet, but after months of research on this forum, the set is doing everything I need it to do. Quick Pros and Cons and Thoughts while I am at lunch: (in no particular order)

1) No pincushioning that I can see. I do have a slight rotation issue that is only noticeable when the computer desktop is on the screen. Perhaps this can be adjusted by a tech.

2) I am using the 3rd HDMI port with a DVI-HDMI cable to attach the computer. Be sure to label that input as "PC" as it will open up the WidePC menu, allowing size and positioning adjustment of the display. As soon as I did that, I had no overscan issues, and as best I can tell I am getting 1:1 pixel mapping. The computer recognized the TV as a Samsung 1080p set and automatically set the resolution to 1920x1080. BTW... I am running Vista Home Premium with an NVIDIA 6200TC video card.

3) I am running a DirecTV H20 into HDMI1 and also have an indoor antenna (Zenith Silver Sensor) connected directly to the TV. I live on the north side of Chicago and am approximately 3-4 miles with direct line of sight to the Sears Tower, where I am told most of the transmitters are located. Last night's viewing consisted mostly of the NHL finals, switching between both sources. I can say that NBC's feed was shabby IMO, and I saw much macroblocking on both inputs.

4) I don't feel the set is that flimsy, but I have no comparison. I replaced an old 40in Mits tube TV with the 5676 yesterday, and anything compared to that 290lb monster would be considered "flimsy"

5) Unfortunately, I am susceptible to RBE, and I can say as the day progressed and the room became darker, I saw more of them. I hope through calibration and the addition of a ambient light behind the set, I can learn to accept or minimize the effect. This is the only item at this point that may make me swap this for another set. I also have done nothing but switch all inputs to Movie mode and the Warm2 color setting.

6) I purchased from ABT (local here in Chicago) and can say the entire buying and delivery process was extremely enjoyable.

Please feel free to ask any and all questions. Unfortunately, I am headed out of town this afternoon for a week (after only 24 hours with my new best friend, damn it) but I will have access to this forum while I am gone, and will try to answer as best I can.