Samsung's new DLP TV.

mantis · January 2003

The new Samsung DLP Tantus 50 inch tv was on my list of options for a new tv for my living room as a alternate to going plasma on the wall untill Yeasterday.

The TV is 50 inch HDTV...blah blah blah.(read up if you want all the spec's)
The Tv's control is what beat me.No discrete power on and off,just toggle,and the way you switch inputs take 3 different buttons.Again no discrete input switching.
All this means is you can't audomate this easy.You have to ask all kinds of questions to the user to do so.Sucks real bad.

Now this part isn't completely comfirmed but I feel it was the Denon avr3803 video upconverting that was the problem.
Running VCR to the Denon in compostie,the outputing it to the tv VIA component(Denon upconverting),the picture would fall out then come back on.Strange.I couldn't even control the set when this happens.Untill the picture came back, then Tv control was restored.
Next up was the component inputs.......what a mess this was.HDTV 1080i support didn't hold for all three......don't ask me why they went this way.This held another problem with using a component video switcher between DVD progressive which is 480p,upconverted S and compostive signals which is 480i, and then HDTV via component which was 1080i.You had to space them across the components as for what they understand.Big problem for the owner if they want to use just one input for ease of use and switch everything threw the Denon as the system as designed.
Picture quality as for all HDTV set in analog was terrible(Pioneer Eltie,some Plasmas and Sony 4:3 HDTV sets are better then most)The picture quality of vcr and Tivo Dss was almost unwatchable.Images looked Pasted in there.......strange.Now HDTV looked super,it does on most Hdtv's.I'd say it looked right up there with the very best sets on the market.DVD performance was less thenaverage,I also believe the source had alot to do with it.It was a Panasonic Progressive DVD player,which I feel ranks right up there with Toshiba for the worse video performance in Progressive DVD players on the market today.
The Tv is very light.Easy to move around,O by the way it's a tabletop model.
I'm gonna cut out short on this.....I had a very bad experience with the set,but only one run in so my level of experience with it is real limited........this is just first impressions........I'll post more down the road as I get more involved with it and discrete codes might get devoloped.

TheGrayGhost · January 2003

mantis,

Did you buy the TV or just check it out in a showroom?

There is a long thread on AVS Forums with a list of service menu adjustment for the Sammy DLP TV that seems to have made the image quality much better.

mantis · January 2003

ghost,
I installed it in one of my customers house.It was part of a theater , seperate 2 channel system.20 inch dss HDTV 3 runs and program a Phillips Pronto for system control.

TheGrayGhost · January 2003

Here is the thread with SM tweaks that as an installer you could use to make your customer happy.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=181149&pagenumber=1

TheGrayGhost · January 2003

I installed it in one of my customers house.

After rereading your original post and this one Ive come to the conclusion that you had never seen the TV before you removed it from the box at your customers house.

Ive always been under the impression that a Professional Home Theater designer/installer plans his work around the components purchased by the customer to insure functionality once the home theater installation work is started.

For example a real professional would know that the Pronto can be programmed with macros to control the Sammy TV but not likely at the work site.

mantis · January 2003

thegrayghost,

After rereading your original post and this one Ive come to the conclusion that you had never seen the TV before you removed it from the box at your customers house.

Thats close....I only seen it in the store with HDTV running on it.I sat and watched it for awhile and thought it was a really good picture.

Ive always been under the impression that a Professional Home Theater designer/installer plans his work around the components purchased by the customer to insure functionality once the home theater installation work is started.

This isn't always true.Alot of times customers special order gear or have exsisting gear.But the Samsung TV is brand new.We where the first ones to Install it.It works alittle different in our store.We have IHAVs.They are the ones how design the systems.They do get Install involved for custom jobs like Elan,AMX,Crestron,etc.
This was a simple home theater in a family room.Rears hung on the wall with a Pronto for One Button control.We learn in the field equipment's shortcommings.Untill they release discrete codes,it won't be sold with a Pronto with custom programing.

For example a real professional would know that the Pronto can be programmed with macros to control the Sammy TV but not likely at the work site.

It would be nice to know ALL the products before they get sold.Then the customer would never know are downfalls.Again we learn alot in the field,we train as much as possible, but with the Christmas season,SuperBowl,we haven't had a chance to train on anything new.After the superbowl, we do alot of company training on our new products.But again alot of times it takes an install to find out what works and what don't.We The Installers will modify the system to work it's best in the home.Sometimes this requires the entire system to be swapped out.
There's alot more to Install then opening boxes and installing the products.
Customers have alot of say in what they use.We try to advise them of what works and what don't.We try as a company not to sell Yamaha and Klipsch together.But you know what????Some customers want it that way.So we work with them.
The job wasn't a failure...as far as the pronto,it worked all the other gear(Samsung HDTV DSS,TiVo DSS integraded,Denon avr3803,Panasonic dvdxp50,Sony VCR,speakers where Mirage omni sats all the way around and a REL Q150E sub)discretely.So he had the choice of using the pronto to work the tv manually or use the orginal remote just for the tv.
The Denon was suppost to switch all video and upconvert it to component, but we have been having problems with Denons upconverting(I'm gonna post a review about it in electronics).If the Denon would have worked the way it was suppost to,I can automate the system with TV included.
Here's a quick layout of what I do for control,you will find this everytime you wanna use the system.(displayed on the Pronto when you pick it up.....
WELCOME TO YOUR THEATER
PRESS
HERE FOR VIDEO
OR
HERE FOR AUDIO
ONLY.
here for audio and here for video are buttons.I dress up the home page with graphics.They both jump you to the macro page while turning on the TV or the Receiver 1st.Then on your system or macro page you find buttons like
WATCH HDTV,WATCH DVD,LISTEN TO CD,LISTEN TO SACD OR DVD AUDIO,etc.
It works out really nice.Customers sometimes buy multible Prontos for theater,livingroom system and then one for the bedroom.Just to get rid of all those remotes.We sell prontos on almost all of our installs.If they don't buy one upfront,I whip out my laptop and show them what they are missing out,then they buy while we are there.

begbie · January 2003

In my selling experience,
I find Samsung not in tune to the videophile (discretes,memory inputs,toggle issues,etc.) and cater more to the bottom line of a product that will meet the wants of the "Costco customers" (no offence to any Costco shoppers!) . They're more of a follower then a leader in electronics.

mantis · January 2003

begbie,
I agree with that.I was hoping for a turn around.As a company (Tweeter) we decided to add there products to the roster.I'm not sure why but we did.There not custom install friendly.Toshiba is right there but managable.
Products like Sony,Pioneer,Mitsubishi,Yamaha,Denon,B&K,Panasonic(barely),are very custom friendly.

mantis · January 2003

Even Onkyo and Integra,Rotel are all easy to control.

TheGrayGhost · January 2003

Mantis,

After getting a demo of the Sammy 507 DLP TV in a HiFi Buys showroom Im inclined to agree with you. It didnt help matters that someone had messed with the user settings and had the contrast and sharpness set to 100% and the color saturation at 85% along with a screwed up hue setting.

The biggest problem I see is the grayscale banding, crushed whites and excessive green tint on dark objects. Using the interlaced output of a cheap DVD player made the Superbits version of The Fifth Element unwatchable. The HD loop from a Sencore looked good except for the banding and crushed whites.

Samsung's new DLP TV.

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