[jholty]

Hello everyone, i'm new here, and to home theatre in general. I have a few questions that i can't seem to find the answers for anywhere, including multiple internet forums.


I just purchased a Samsung HCL4715W 16:9 Widescreen HDTV rear projection(hasn't been delivered yet). I got it from Best Buy and purchased the 4-year service agreement. I also purchased a home theatre system from Pioneer with a progressive scan DVD player to go with it(HTS-910DV). With that said...


I watch about 85% regular t.v.(ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) through AT&T digital cable and the rest i will be watching DVD movies.


My question is....did I make the right purchase going with the widescreen? since i watch so much regular t.v. I don't want some weird lines on the side of my screen or have some funny looking picture because some feature on my t.v. tries to stretch the picture out to get it to fit!? If my t.v. even has such a feature? I know,...you're thinking, "this guy dosn't even know what features his t.v. has?", Right? Well, I do know what features it has, i just don't understand what they do or how they work? When I asked these question at the time i purchased my t.v. no one could really give me a straight answer, or one that sounded non technical, and i've been reading these forums for days now, and no one seems to ask the questions i need answers to. So here I am!


I do not plan on buying a set-top box for HDTV right away, so is my digital cable going to give me a good picture?(when I say good picture, i mean is it going to look better on my new t.v. than it did on my old Panasonic 27" picture tube t.v.?)(obviously not as good as my DVD player is going to look, but I understand that). Or did i waste my money on buying the HDTV?


Do all HDTV's need some type of professional calibration everyone is talking about, or is that for a completely different subject?? sorry i don't understand all these abbreviations and stuff everyone uses, so it's hard for me to know what i'm talking about. If so, will my service agreement cover these adjustment? What about "burn in"? How do I prevent it from happening? Is it covered under my warranty? I visited a different Best Buy store tonight and still no luck with sales people knowing what they are talking about. One guy did say that when i'm watching regular t.v. broadcasts with my widescreen that it will "stretch" the image so there will not be any blank spots on the screen. He said it does degrade picture slightly, but keeps the "burn-in" from happening? Is this true? Is so, than I don't mind loosing a slight bit of quality for a t.v. that dosn't have this messed up screen in a few years.


sorry for such a long question, but all i do is keep reading and reading people's posts and none of this stuff makes sense to me? isn't anyone else in the same boat as me?

 

[SteveMo]

Hello,


I owned this RPTV (rear projection tv) for awhile and you will not be disappointed with what WS (widescreen) has to offer. I too have digital cable and it looked very nice on it. The first thing you need ot know is that when they delever it or if you do it yourself, when it is home do not lift it out of the box or turnit anyways that it is not upright. That would scratch the screen inside. Tear apart the box around it. Then make sure it works (turns on or whatever) however persuasive a delevery person may be for your signature, before they leave. When you first turn it on hit the buttons menu, then down to the picture icon and hit the enter key. Then go down to the bar that says contrast and turn it all the way down. You can turn it down to about 20 if you plan on wathcing materaial instead of breaking it in as I did. The CRT's use most of thier life in the first 100 hours. This means it is most prone to burn in. You could leave a screen saver on it if your DVD player has one . YOu could leave it on for up to four hours at a time shutting it off for 15 minutes each time for a rest period. This could give you the needed 100 hours even quicker. You can do the manual converagance if you want to wathc some material when you get it,o r you could wait until after the 100 hours. You will need to converge or reconvere it again after 100 hours as the CRTs will have drifdted after that time. They will not need any frequent adjustments (just 3 or 4 times a year is my guess) unless you move it or bump it on accident. You should always use a stretch mode when watching regular 4:3 images and be sure there are no static (non moving) objects on the screen. The "bugs" or television logos in the corners are the worst. You can pan the image up to avoid these about 98% of the time. The color on the Samsung is outanding. My THX glasses used with the THX oppptimode said the 50 or default color adjustments was dead on. You may want to turn down the color a bit as it may be to saturated (by THX satadards). Mine had a bad part that could not be ordered at the time so they gave me my money back. If you have an evaluation period you will want to examine the horizontal lines from your viewing distance to see that they are even in brightness mostly. You will want to make sure the halo effect caused by the reflection in the mirror is not to bothersome. The halo may be seen when a brighter object appears on one side and it is dark on the other. Depending on the sales manager you may get your set converged in the service menu which is more detailed than the user convergance. If so make sure they correctly save it so that the auto converge recognizes the saved setup. Otherwise it will read "No Sensor" or something to that effect. Detail is very good on it compared to alot of RPTV's costing much more. If you enjoy alot of bass or LFE (low frequency efeects channel form a surround sound reciever) you may want to build something around the RPTV to prevent the set from vibrating like I did. It works. You will definitly want to make sure there are not speakers on the sides of it as this can cause reflections resulting in poor imaging. An accousticly non reflecion room does not provide the best result however so this does not apply everywhere.


questions:


My question is....did I make the right purchase going with the widescreen?


Yes!! Remember that some cenemesope aspect ratios still have black bars. They are actually in the movie itself but they will be much smaller. Be sure to get movies that say they are anamorphic or enhanced for 16X9. If your not sure check out a DVD web site. Congratulations on the service agreement choice it is a good idea.


I do not plan on buying a set-top box for HDTV right away, so is my digital cable going to give me a good picture?(when I say good picture, i mean is it going to look better on my new t.v. than it did on my old Panasonic 27" picture tube t.v.?)(obviously not as good as my DVD player is going to look, but I understand that). Or did i waste my money on buying the HDTV?


No waste at all. It has 2.3 pulldown, a line doubler, a comb filter,and noise filter. Regular tv will look MUCH better.


Do all HDTV's need some type of professional calibration everyone is talking about, or is that for a completely different subject??


It's well worth the money for a pro to set it up but be sure you are happy with the tv first of course. Most RPTV's will need some tweaking that only a ISF or tech can do because thy are most knowlegable in the know-how.


If so, will my service agreement cover these adjustment?


Ask them nicely and they might. I'm not sure. My sears tech did for me. He forgot to save the settings correctly in the service mode however.


What about "burn in"? How do I prevent it from happening? Is it covered under my warranty?


See above for how to prevent it. No it's not converd under the warranty. A new color tube will cost you about 300 dollars each to replace if you don't take care of it. Black bars in movies should also be takin into account. TYou should watch more movies that fill that screen than ones that do not. You could use an external scaler, device, or DVD player such as the Malat n996 to movie the movie up or down to avoid this if your worried about it.


He said it does degrade picture slightly, but keeps the "burn-in" from happening? Is this true?


Yes. Only if you avoid static images also. It does not degrade the quality considerably. It still looks good or at least it did to me.


Edit: I meant Malata n996. You can find a CCF for the set with some nice macros if you plan on using a comaptable remote. It's at remotecentral.com under Samsung 4715. It wasn't mine.


Note: do not watch the tv in total pitch black. It's like some mothers are famous for saying "don't sit to close to the tv". It would burn you retinas. 6 to 8 feet is best and will present the most uniform picture as well.

BTW (by the way. I think thats what BTW means at least) I have a service manual for that tv. If you like the tv and want the service manual handy, let me know. I will sell it for 10 dollars plus shipping. It was 25 dollars orginally. It is missing page 24, and was when I got it. IT is to big to be stappeled. There are pictures and a reivew of the Samsung at my web site. If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask. I also had trouble finding answers about the Samsung. Welcome to AVS forum.

 

[SteveMo]

Here is a good link for learning. I'm still learning.

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