I picked up a new Samsung HLN61W on Friday, and spent the better part of the weekend playing with it. My previous monitor was a 32†Panasonic Superflat tube TV. Although I enjoyed the size of the HLN61, I must admit I was a bit dissapointed with it’s PQ on DVDs. My use will be almost entirely DVDs, and almost zero TV (I have never had cable or satellite).
I first used Home Theater Tune-Up test patterns to attempt to tune the meager user controls available without hitting the service menus. This was difficult to do precisely, since I could tell almost no pattern difference as I adjusted the settings for sharpness all the way up and down. So my friend and I spent hours fiddling with brightness, contrast and sharpness (dissapointing there is no gamma adjustment on the main menus). We could the picture good, but not great.
My complaint is that no matter what we did, it looked moderately compressed dynamically (washed out, mediocre dynamic range), had mediocre blacks, and just wasn’t that vibrant or brilliant. Not as 3D looking as I would have liked either. I used progressive scan component and also S-video inputs from the Panosonic DVD player (can’t remember the model number – a DVD-A player that was around $600). S-video was much worse than component – real washed out no matter what we did.
My question is am I expecting too much? Is this really a world class unit, or is it realistically a cool technology that gives pretty good performance and enables a big screen in a light, thin tabletop package. I love the low weight, no burn-in, etc. of DLP, but maybe it just never get’s great. Are you folks that have large DLPs able to get really great PQ, or is it just a cool big screen with not bad PQ? Anyone had an ISF tune this set up – how much did that help? Hate to pay for that if I may return the set if it does not get a lot better.
I bought it at a local B&M dealer, and they said if I went into the service menus I would void the warrantee. That sure makes it tough to put it through it’s paces.
I will never buy a huge console type big screen – too heavy and ugly, which is why I have been looking at the DLP, and the Sony GWII, but for between $4000 and $5000, I demand a kick-butt picture. Maybe I can’t get it with DLP rear projection. If not – where from here? Plasma is still $$$$$$$, has burn-in, and sucks I lot of power I believe.
Any insight, comments, opinions etc are much appreciated. Cheers,
Chris
I first used Home Theater Tune-Up test patterns to attempt to tune the meager user controls available without hitting the service menus. This was difficult to do precisely, since I could tell almost no pattern difference as I adjusted the settings for sharpness all the way up and down. So my friend and I spent hours fiddling with brightness, contrast and sharpness (dissapointing there is no gamma adjustment on the main menus). We could the picture good, but not great.
My complaint is that no matter what we did, it looked moderately compressed dynamically (washed out, mediocre dynamic range), had mediocre blacks, and just wasn’t that vibrant or brilliant. Not as 3D looking as I would have liked either. I used progressive scan component and also S-video inputs from the Panosonic DVD player (can’t remember the model number – a DVD-A player that was around $600). S-video was much worse than component – real washed out no matter what we did.
My question is am I expecting too much? Is this really a world class unit, or is it realistically a cool technology that gives pretty good performance and enables a big screen in a light, thin tabletop package. I love the low weight, no burn-in, etc. of DLP, but maybe it just never get’s great. Are you folks that have large DLPs able to get really great PQ, or is it just a cool big screen with not bad PQ? Anyone had an ISF tune this set up – how much did that help? Hate to pay for that if I may return the set if it does not get a lot better.
I bought it at a local B&M dealer, and they said if I went into the service menus I would void the warrantee. That sure makes it tough to put it through it’s paces.
I will never buy a huge console type big screen – too heavy and ugly, which is why I have been looking at the DLP, and the Sony GWII, but for between $4000 and $5000, I demand a kick-butt picture. Maybe I can’t get it with DLP rear projection. If not – where from here? Plasma is still $$$$$$$, has burn-in, and sucks I lot of power I believe.
Any insight, comments, opinions etc are much appreciated. Cheers,
Chris