Samsung TV Owners & Discussion Thread

[Hari1503559519]

G'day mate.  thats incredible.  Since my Q I have done my own research.  Samsungparts.com has lamps for USD199 + USD25 shipping to Australia.  Hopefully Samsung Australia will be competative in this ragard now, otherwise looks as shipment from the US will be the way to go.  Prices are certainly reasonable if the quoted 8000 hours is indeed the good honest truth.

Muz

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow, that's a great price. I'll be bookmarking that site for sure. Thanks.

[cosworth]

Hey guys thanks for that. I've now pretty much decided on the SP42L6HX (for a damn good price of less than $2500), EXCEPT I walked past the Good Guys today to see the LG Model : 52SZ8R (which is the 52" DLP model) for $2750, including delivery AND a 3yr warranty!

What should I do??? arhhgg!

[marks]

Wow 52" of DLP RP goodness for $2750 - how scarily tempting!

[muzzakus]

Wow 52" of DLP RP goodness for $2750 - how scarily tempting!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't be a tool, go for 61" !

hehe *jokes*.

The thing is, you keep a tv longer than most marriges last these days. It's a long term parternship. You're going to look at this thing more than you ever do at yourself in a mirror. If you have the room, and the $ - break it down to Years vs Cost vs Satisfavtion. A couple of grand extra, for a 7-10 year investment may make sense.

Muz

[Trigg]

Well, my Sammy 56" is now 14 months old and has now aquired a yellow tinge in the shape of a quarter moon. Fortunately took out a 5 year extended warranty, so will be calling the Servicing agent tomorrow.

Anyone else come across this problem before? How can it be fixed?

[Trigg]

On closer inspection (through service menu) appears that the blue LCD panel has shat itself.

[GLO]

In the past i have been able to view the HTPC and Foxtel side by side, but now i cant!

Dont know why.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think you need to first switch to the HTPC then open the PiP box and select foxtel and try resizing that way. Sounds very strange that it simple stopped working now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Tried this and it makes no difference now.

Also, i will point out that they Lamps are now only 100W for longer life, rather than the 120W original.

There is no perceivable difference in brightness to the naked eye.

[Impakt]

GLO: So you have already used up a globe? Why the change to the lower wattage?

I was speaking to someone last week about the TV and they were saying that heavy use (like 6-8 hours at a time) will cause a brown spot in the middle of the screen, is this true?

Who here watches everyday TV on these units?

Impakt

Tried this and it makes no difference now.

Also, i will point out that they Lamps are now only 100W for longer life, rather than the 120W original.

There is no perceivable difference in brightness to the naked eye.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[hally]

GLO: So you have already used up a globe? Why the change to the lower wattage?

I was speaking to someone last week about the TV and they were saying that heavy use (like 6-8 hours at a time) will cause a brown spot in the middle of the screen, is this true?

Who here watches everyday TV on these units?

Impakt

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I use mine every day. Have had it for 12 months. It gets used for Foxtel and XBox by the kids. I haven't had any issue with the TV (yes, touch wood).

[Cardwell]

SCREEN PROBLEM!! I've had my 46" LCD for a year and the picture is generally great EXCEPT that about 6 months ago we started to notice a reddish area about 8" across near the center of the screen. It didn't show up at all when the colors were bright, but it's very visible against some yellows, light greens, and skin colors. The border was irregular and it had clear wiggly lines through it.

Took it to a Samsung service agent, along with pictures taken of the screen which verified the problem. Samsung said they had never heard of the problem. Then it went away! Sitting in the service agent's air-conditioned environment for a few days had cleared up the problem. We live in North Queensland where the humidity is pretty high so we decided it was some form of condensation on a lens or mirror. The agent said we might want to run our air-conditioner all the time but we don't like to do that. Besides, it's winter now.

In the last six months, the reddish haze has gradually come back until it covers the whole screen, still with wiggly clear areas through it as though a worm had crawled back and forth cleaning it. It's not visible most of the time but shows up clearly in some colors. The manual cautions against humid environments but doesn't say what problems it creates. Anyone else know anything about it?

[Hari1503559519]

Cardwell, are you sure it's not dust on the red LCD panel? Here is an example of dust on the green LCD panel in a Sony projector.

http://www.dansdata.com/images/vplcs1/glitchb200.jpg

[broadbean]

Hey guys thanks for that. I've now pretty much decided on the  SP42L6HX (for a damn good price of less than $2500), EXCEPT I walked past the Good Guys today to see the LG  Model : 52SZ8R (which is the 52" DLP model) for $2750, including delivery AND a 3yr warranty!

What should I do??? arhhgg!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm interested in that Samsung model as that's the best size for me. The LG DLP screens seem rather dark however. Samsung claims 1000cd/m2, while the LG you mentioned is only 400cd/m2!

I've also read up on a few threads in this forum about some problems with LG ownership.

Can you tell me where you got the Samsung for under $2.5k?

[martonl]

Well, my Sammy 56" is now 14 months old and has now aquired a yellow tinge in the shape of a  quarter moon.  Fortunately took out a 5 year extended warranty, so will be calling the Servicing agent tomorrow.

Anyone else come across this problem before?  How can it be fixed?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've noticed the same problem on my 46" Sammy LCD - I have a brown / yellow tinge that is oval in shape and fills centre 70% of the screen. It's not noticable all the time, only when the background is a light color and fills most of the screen.

It's about 12 months old, and I watch it on average of 3 - 4 hrs a day.

This is my 2nd LCD unit - the first lasted 2 months before I had it replaced with dust blobs. I'm going to get a service technician to look at it and see what can be done.

[Cardwell]

Martonl - Your problem sounds like mine. It started as an oval area in the center and gradually got larger. Please report back on what you find out. At this point, Samsung has said it must be because it is too humid and I can't argue because the service agent "fixed" the problem by letting it sit in his air-conditioned shop for several days. However, we've tried everything we can think of to make it a less humid environment and nothing seems to help.

HARI - Thanks for posting that picture. It doesn't really look like my problem, but I still think it may be dust. When we first took it in, we assumed it was dust on a lens or mirror somewhere in the system but when it cleared up it seemed to eliminate that. I don't suppose the lens is anywhere accessible where I could look at it?

[digitaladvisor]

These problem - yellowing centres are caused by the polar filters aging and failing.

IT IS NOT DUST. IT is NOT humidity. The organic compounds break down due to HEAT stress and develop microscopic hair line cracking causing a colour spectrum shift from white to yellow and blue uneven spectrum light spread. The LCD panels can also a break down due to heat stress as well.

Tip: NEVER NEVER TURN off these sets at the power switch - front of TV or at wall power socket. There is a gradual process of startup for fan cooling and shutdown. Simply the fan for cooling instigates (FIRST) on startup and cools after a 'soft' power down for around 2 to 5 minutes. Ensuring this this will PROLONG the life span of everything.

They replace the entire light/polar unit/lamp as ONE unit. These LCD light engines are made by Epson. They are also the same type found in LG's.

Had mine replaced @ 11 months old! Took SIX WEEKS to fixed though.

DA

[Cardwell]

These problem - yellowing centres are caused by the polar filters aging and failing.

IT IS NOT DUST. IT is NOT humidity. The organic compounds break down due to HEAT stress and develop microscopic hair line cracking causing a colour spectrum shift from white to yellow and blue uneven spectrum light spread. The LCD panels can also a break down due to heat stress as well.

Tip: NEVER NEVER TURN off these sets at the power switch - front of TV or at wall power socket. There is a gradual process of startup for fan cooling and shutdown. Simply the fan for cooling instigates (FIRST) on startup and cools after a 'soft' power down for around 2 to 5 minutes. Ensuring this this will PROLONG the life span of everything.

They replace the entire light/polar unit/lamp as ONE unit. These LCD light engines are made by Epson. They are also the same type found in LG's.

Had mine replaced @ 11 months old! Took SIX WEEKS to fixed though.

DA

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, the microscopic hair-line cracking might account for the wiggly clear sections and the gradual spreading from the middle sounds right. But I can't account for the fact that the problem disappeared after several days of sitting in the service agent's air-conditioned shop, then gradually re-appeared over the next few months. Also, I ALWAYS use the remote to turn it off. My problem is with a reddish haze, not blue or yellow, but perhaps the red LCD light engine could be cracking. My TV was 6 months old when it started. I would love to have an explanation. Do you have any more thoughts?

[GLO]

GLO: So you have already used up a globe? Why the change to the lower wattage?

Impakt

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My bulb exploded, dont know why, but it was covered by my extended warranty.

The ballast was changed at the same time.

Im still waiting to find out how to rectify my Picture in Picture issue. ( i cant get them side by side at the same size)

[djvkool]

Just a note on this...

Harvey Norman City West in Perth has 3 (Sony, Sammy, and Toshy) 60" RPTV side by side, fed by Sony HD STB....through component, I have to say I wasn't impressed by the Samsung, the Sony and Toshiba are in par (Toshiba's black is better, though Sony's contrast is better)

[Force1503559522]

Just a note on this...

Harvey Norman City West in Perth has 3 (Sony, Sammy, and Toshy) 60" RPTV side by side, fed by Sony HD STB....through component, I have to say I wasn't impressed by the Samsung, the Sony and Toshiba are in par (Toshiba's black is better, though Sony's contrast is better)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

was that even the LCD RPTV or the DLP ones one more thing I'll add is every Harvery Norman store has been complete **** when it comes to the setup of their HDTVs

[Suntzu1503559824]

Bugga!

I had to format my laptop due hard drive failure.

I had the VGA output set up brilliantly before. I have a 46" unit. No grey borders. After I formatted, I tried Hari's driver and then powerstrip, but no joy. The grey borders are back with avengance.

I cant for the life of me remember what tweaks I did to eliminate the Grey border with VGA out, it just worked. Now its back and p**ing me off.

Anyone got any clues on how to remove the grey borders?

[Hari1503559519]

What display adapter does your notebook have? I'd say you might need to update your gfx card drivers, before you can really remove the borders.

[Suntzu1503559824]

What display adapter does your notebook have? I'd say you might need to update your gfx card drivers, before you can really remove the borders.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I use the latest CAt 5.7 and install them to my insipron using a little software hack.

The thing is last time i used your drivers it was Puuurfect man!. No grey border at all. Now after the format, no matter what I do it gives me the black borders. Its one of those times when you get something right and cannot work out how to do it again. Because i had no border before , its much worse going back!

It might be that I used new drivers but as I recall before I formatted I have used cat 5.10 through cat 5.6 and the border was gone so im not too sure its driver related.

Can you tell me hari what drivers you have and what settings. Im using your driver. Thnaks for the great work btw

[Hari1503559519]

I'd say it's driver related, because I have found with ATI that for some reason some versions of the Cat drivers just fail to switch to the resolution you want on HDTVs. What you need to do is fully un-install the Cat 5.10 and install 5.6. After you have installed the Cat 5.6 drivers follow this guide I had made and posted a while a go in this very thread.

Copy and paste the code below paste it into Notepad then go to File save as change the save as type to All Files, Lastly name the Driver Samsung.inf make sure you do not save it as a .txt as it will not work.

[Version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
Class=Monitor
ClassGUID={4d36e96e-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Provider=%MFG%

[Manufacturer]
%MFG%=MonMfg

[MonMfg]
%MODEL%=Mon.Install

[Mon.Install]
DelReg=DEL_CURRENT_REG
AddReg=Mon.AddReg,RES,DPMS

[Mon.AddReg]
HKR,%MODE%,Mode1,,%RANGE%

[DEL_CURRENT_REG]
HKR,MODES
HKR,,MaxResolution
HKR,,DPMS

[RES]
HKR,,MaxResolution,,%MAXRES%

[DPMS]
HKR,,DPMS,,0

[Strings]
MFG="Samsung"
MODEL="Samsung LCD RPTV"
MAXRES="1280,720"
MODE="MODES\1280,720"
RANGE="30.0-70.0,50.0-75.0,+,+"

Now to install the driver:

1. Go to My Computer right mouse click then select Properties.

2. Now you should be in the System properties window select the Hardware Tab then click on the Device Manager Button.

3. Once in Device Manager select the Monitors and right click on the Default Monitor and select Update Driver.

4. The Hardware update Wizard will start.

5. Select Install from a List or specific location then press the Next Button.

6. Now select Don't Search. I will choose the driver to install.

7. Now you need to click on the Have Disk button and a window should come up asking where to copy the files from.

8. Select browse choose the Samsung.inf file and press OK.

9. Samsung 61 LCD RPTV should show up select it and press Next.

10. You might get a window saying that the Driver has not passed windows logo testing just press Continue Anyway Button.

11. The Driver should be installed now.

[Suntzu1503559824]

Hari,

i did exactly what you said inthe guide with cat 5.7. i will try it now with cat 56. I think you right, its definatley not displaying the correct res at the moment.

[Hari1503559519]

Any luck with the Cat 5.6 drivers, Suntzu?