Samsung: HLS5687WX
This is the latest 1080p; that?s true 1080p, where the DLP chip actually natively supports that resolution without wobolization. Made by Samsung, it uses 7th generation light engine with a redesigned quite color wheel that runs at almost 5000 rpm faster then the older models, which reduces the rainbow effect. Improved contrast ratio of 10,000:1, and a slick new cabinet design where the screen is emphasized. Its got 2 HDMI ports and USB. It got a "Gamers Mode" where Samsung worked with Microsoft to tune this TV for XBOX 360 play and reviews has said this to be an amassing feature.
http://www.samsung.com/ca/products/tv/dlptv/hls5687wxxac.asp (http://www.samsung.com/ca/products/tv/dlptv/hls5687wxxac.asp)
The reviews for it on cnet have been fairly positive, except a couple who got a lemon and had a hard time with Samsungs Customer service (really, who deals with direct manufactures these days? buy it at a good place and get some extended warrantee, these are electronics after all, expect the possibility of you getting a lemon, even Best Buy offers 30 days no risk return free of charge). But even the guys with the lemons admitted that the screen looked amassing.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Samsung_HL_S5687W/4505-6484_7-31783171.html (http://reviews.cnet.com/Samsung_HL_S5687W/4505-6484_7-31783171.html)
The guys on the Digital forums had nothing but great things to say, and the discussion mostly swayed to where can i get my hands on one of these beauties, and how cheap can i get it? It is relatively cheap for what it is, Best Buy is selling it for $3300, however guys have been able to haggle and get this TV for $2300 - $2500, which is pretty good when everyone seems to be comparing this TV to the high-end Sony SXBR, and choosing the Samsung over it.
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=45177 (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=45177)
I will probably buy this puppy around Christmas time (when i get the second half of my profit sharing bonus). But my mind is made up, this is the one i want ;D
Sounds awesome..
And I think I would go with an HP after doing a lot of research and seeing Cova's in action (and its true 1080p as well - and will take a 1080p single in!):
HP Pavilion MD6580n 65-inch 1080p Microdisplay TV (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/product_detail.do?storeName=storefronts&landing=storefronts&category=flat_panel_tvs&orderflow=1&product_code=L1737A%23ABA&catLevel=1)
Although that Samsung is really impressive.
ouch $4000.00+
A tad pricy for me, im hoping to get the Samsung one for around $2800
Well Melbosa picked the 65" version of my TV to link there, so ya the price is a little higher - mine is the 5880n, 58" version but otherwize the same specs - and from the quick browsing around I did online, it's within a few hundred $ of the price of that Samsung - they both seem to have an MSRP just over $3000. Also, my screen (or the 65" version linked above) uses wobulation - the mirror-array is only 960x1080. A side effect of that though is that it uses diamond-shaped instead of square pixels, there's not even a hint of screen-door effect on my screen, yet its still amazingly sharp when fed a good HD source. Wobulated or not, it will properly display every single pixel of a 1080p24/30/60 source over HDMI, and it looks damn good doing it.
That samsung looks like a nice unit too. The game mode is interesting - I did a lot of research on gaming lag on TV's before I bought mine, as it is a large issue on some displays. I don't have a gaming mode, but I don't have any noticable lag either (tested using racing games - you really notice any lag at all in those). If you do end up getting it, we'll have to set aside a couple days to try the same source (eg. the same game on a 360) on both our screens and see how they compare.
And finally - here's the official thread for that model of Samsung over at AVS - best forum ever for anything home theater related.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=665890
UPDATE
I know i said i was going to wait on this TV, but i bought the 50" version tonight. Here’s why, Visions had a miss print in their flyer this week and they were advertising the HLS5087 for $2188.00!!! (MSRP $2899.99) I went to visions and of course they didn’t have this model in, they admitted that the flyer was incorrect and the price was meant for the HLS5086 model. But since it was printed, they were going to honor the price, but they weren’t even getting this model in until later this week. The sale ended tonight. COST ON THIS TV WAS $2260.00, yes that’s right they were going to honor this TV to me for less than cost. They took my card and are going to call me back when it comes in.
So i went to Best Buy and they had the 56" TV on display (HLS5687, the one in this thread). OH MY GOD THIS TV LOOKS INCREDABLE!!, hands down best TV on the floor (even better looking then the HP that was sitting across from this one). I asked them if they carried the 50", the guy checked and said "Yes, but only in the warehouse", so i whipped out the visions flyer and asked if they would match that price, HE SAID YES, AND WOULD BEAT IT EVEN!!! so he offered it to me for $2116.99 (we're like $150 below cost right now!), but since the visions flyer's sale ended tonight, he could only offer it to me for tonight. I figured that i probably couldn’t get this price again for a long time since this TV is so new that it hasn’t even made it onto the floor yet. How could i refuse, i added the extended warrantee (4 yrs), and the stand, and a power bar. Came out to $3182 after taxes and environmental charges.
Out of curiosity i asked him what kind of package he could put together for me for the 56" model; $4179 after taxes and everything (knocked $300 off MSRP), so $1000 more for 6 more inches... that’s $166 for each extra inch. kind of hard to swallow, they didn’t even come close to tying to give me a "ratio" deal on the 56", and why should they, im already cutting them under cost on the 50". But i bought their warrantee and stand so im sure they still profited off me handsomely.
Long story short, were picking it up from the warehouse tomorrow, i kind of fell in love with the 56" in the store, but the 50" is the exact same thing just smaller (and sharper due to the projection of smaller pixels). I was right up next to the 56" and could not see any pixel structure at all. Viewing distance in my room will be 8' -9' so the 50" is ratioed better for my room. I figured at such a great deal, and 100% money back in the first 30 days i couldn’t pass this up.
I said to my wife, we got to take this deal, even if i like the size of the 56" better, all things point to the 50" (price and room size). It so deceiving in the store to look at the 50" next to the 56" or 60", but get it home into our small room and im sure even the 50" will be massive. We got 30 days to decide if the 50" is good enough for us. If not, they will allow us to trade up to the 56"... at about $1000 - $1100 more :-[ so what i really have to ask myself for the next 30 days... is 6 more inches worth $1100? ($183/inch)
Congrats on your purchase, Druid. I hope it works out for you.
Given the size of your living room, I think 56" would be overkill. 50" should be just right. Out of curiousity, what are you doing with your old TV?
Better get out the tape measure and double check your room.. ;)
Also don't forget that visions has your card number.
Quote from: Lazybones on August 28, 2006, 11:00:59 PM
Better get out the tape measure and double check your room.. ;)
Also don't forget that visions has your card number.
Visions only has my business card,
not my credit card, and im sure they wont mind not having to honor a TV to me under cost. And Best buy is 100% money back in the first 30 days. So theres absolutly no risk that i can think of.
My room is 14.5' x 12'
If i position the tv flush against the wall viewing distance is 8' to 9'
If i place it in the corner where my existing TV is, depending on where you sit, viewing distance will be 11' (best position strait on) to 7' (off angle)
But standing in the store only 4' away from the 56" TV, my eyes had no problem taking in the beauty of all 56". Like i said, this TV had no visual pixel structure so im sure even 7 feet away from this TV would be tolerable.
I guess gaming would be the only risk, might be hard to take it all in.
Too bad I am broke.. or I would try and get you to get the Visions one for me when they called you back.. Hard to beet the price...
Quote from: Ustauk on August 28, 2006, 11:00:44 PM
Congrats on your purchase, Druid. I hope it works out for you.
Given the size of your living room, I think 56" would be overkill. 50" should be just right. Out of curiousity, what are you doing with your old TV?
Putting it into another room to collect dust... unless there?s interest in buying it? Not sure what i could get for it, it sells for $600 brand new these days. Mine is about 3 yrs old. It weighs about 200lbs, a real pain to move. (My new TV weighs 61 lbs)
Quote from: Lazybones on August 28, 2006, 11:18:26 PM
Too bad I am broke.. or I would try and get you to get the Visions one for me when they called you back.. Hard to beet the price...
Charge it!! =P
The TV is absolutely amasing, go check out the 56" in Best Buy, im sure you will agree. It is a killer deal and hate to see it go to waste. Every review i've read about this TV has nothing but positives to say about it.
Quote from: TheDruid on August 28, 2006, 11:23:48 PM
Charge it!! =P
The TV is absolutely amasing, go check out the 56" in Best Buy, im sure you will agree. It is a killer deal and hate to see it go to waste. Every review i've read about this TV has nothing but positives to say about it.
Although it would be technically possible, I have a hard enough time balancing my monthly expenses as it is.. I just do not have the means to pay it off, so it would end up burdening me even more.
... Damn property taxes...
Its amazing how much these companies can drop the price even without a flyer. When I got mine I told him that I would do $2500 tax, stand, monster cables all included (TV was on the floor at $2599) and they said okay. I basically ended up getting the TV for about $1750ish.
So the question I have...how do you know which products you can haggle and those you cannot? Im looking at a 32" LCD for my bedroom but do you think i can get them to drop their $1300 ones to say $1000 even?
There is a difference between just haggling an item and bundling profit. In your example.
The stand probably had a good margin on it, not sure how much but probably fairly good.
The monster cable can have up to a 200% or MORE markup on it.. cables sold as accessories are nearly pure profit.
Extend the warranty? Again, odds are that that it will be 100% profit.
I remember when I was working in sales that if you bundled things right, on the system you could turn a nice profit while making the customer think they where getting a deal.
In the druids case, he probably is getting an amazing deal.. however, he also bundled a stand and 4 year warranty.
Best bet would be to try and find actual cost prices on the net and use that as some sort of a starting bartering point. Things like the protection plan is almost pure profit for them, so if you express intrest in it im sure they will bend a lot more easily. The stand too, im not sure what the markup is on them but i would imagine its significant.
I heard that cabling usually has a very low markup, which is why some places absolutly refuse to throw them in for free.
Its also worth noting that if your going to barter, pick a cold rainy night on like a monday or somthing. Sales people are more likely to barter and give you a great deal if they havent made their sales target for the day, not to mention less customers around so they are going to invest more time in you.
Quote from: TheDruid on August 29, 2006, 08:30:58 AM
I heard that cabling usually has a very low markup, which is why some places absolutly refuse to throw them in for free.
I can guarantee you that cabling is ultra high profit, and most stores will do anything to retain that high profit. Even at less than ideal pricing you can prove this with Ethernet cable, the price per foot to make a cable vs purchase a packaged one is huge.
Quote from: Lazybones on August 29, 2006, 08:30:33 AM
In the druids case, he probably is getting an amazing deal.. however, he also bundled a stand and 4 year warranty.
Amasing deal on the TV alone, no doubt about it. They were forced to go under cost. I could have walked away with the TV at $2300 after taxes and enviornment charges.
But bottom line i need a stand, and the one that goes with it looks great. Im sure it would be hard to find a glossy black stand for much cheaper that would match this TV ($350, extendable to fit 50", 56" and 60" models)
The protection plan was pure profit no doubt ($450), but with the bulbs being a pain point in DLP, its almost cirtain that i will be excercising this plan in the future. There is limited coverage on the bulb.
Basically the TV's MSRP is 2899.99 add taxes and all and its $3118.00, so just like Shayne, i basically got the stand and protection plan for free. The only difference is, his was the last one of a model they were no longer carrying in his brand. Mine was a brand new latest generation model for my brand.
No regrets on my end, its one of things you just gotta go for eventually though. Its like buying a CPU or a Video Card.
You brought up the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray thing and I thought I would ask Alyson, her rumormill from those in higher places say that they are waiting on the PS3 and the Xbox360 HD-DVD addon before they embrace the upcoming generation and start to bring in the titles.
This "upcoming" generation feels more like laser disc though. Really not a lot of hype and the reviews of the technology from those comparing the 2 and comparing to DVD it doesnt seem like its really worth it. Think its worth buying the $200 HD-DVD addon for the 360?
I saw this note on an item on edm.forsale. I don't know if it affects DLPs (the TV mentioned is a regular rear projection model), but I thought I'd post it just in case.
Quote from: edm.forsale
I have a 51" HDTV Widescreen Toshiba TV for sale.
it has very light ghosting in on the top left corner.
*note to self* never leave a dvd playing on the main screen for an extended
long period of time :(
DLPs cannot be effected by this.
Might be a cheap LCD they are the only ones that have ghosting problems from what I understand.. Unless he means burn in, in which case it might be a plasma.
Quote from: Lazybones on August 29, 2006, 02:27:18 PM
Might be a cheap LCD they are the only ones that have ghosting problems from what I understand.. Unless he means burn in, in which case it might be a plasma.
Sorry, I forgot to paste in the model number from the post. Its a Toshiba 51H84 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001YI90S/102-8230520-5840930?v=glance&n=172282), which on closer inspection is a CRT. The intial label on the Amazon page had it as a rear projection. My mistake. This information would be more useful for Thorin, since I remember he was considering getting a large CRT a while back.
Quote from: Ustauk on August 29, 2006, 02:41:57 PM
Quote from: Lazybones on August 29, 2006, 02:27:18 PM
Might be a cheap LCD they are the only ones that have ghosting problems from what I understand.. Unless he means burn in, in which case it might be a plasma.
Sorry, I forgot to paste in the model number from the post. Its a Toshiba 51H84 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001YI90S/102-8230520-5840930?v=glance&n=172282), which on closer inspection is a CRT. The intial label on the Amazon page had it as a rear projection. My mistake. This information would be more useful for Thorin, since I remember he was considering getting a large CRT a while back.
It's still a rear-projection. There's three Cathode Ray Tubes (one for each colour) in the cabinet pointing up at a large mirror. The mirror reflects the image through the screen to your eyes. Much the same way any rear-projection unit works (such as a DLP or LCD rear-projector).
Thanks for the note, but one of my problems is that we watch a lot of regular TV (4:3 ratio) and that the widescreen TVs really don't fit our lifestyle. And it's bloody impossible to find a big-screen 4:3, these days
In case somebody's intersted in the Toshiba, despite the ghosting, the original ad on edm.forsale can be found here (http://groups.google.ca/group/edm.forsale/browse_thread/thread/31ada5b671843a95/2236be4e3125bfd5?lnk=st&q=toshiba+group%3Aedm.forsale&rnum=1#2236be4e3125bfd5). $800
My Toshiba does a good job chopping the bottoms and tops off a bit to fit in the 16:9 so normal TV takes up the full screen
My brother is buying my old Sony Trinitron WEGA from me with the stand for $350.00 I gave him a killer deal, It would be hard to get the stand alone these days for less than $150. I paid $1300 for the TV and $200 for the stand 3 years ago.
sony still has this TV listed at $1100 on their website
http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servlet/ProductDetailDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=159717
(http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servlet/ProductDetailDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=159717)
but the strange thing is that the HD version of this TV goes for $600, go figure
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926HDS0010044912&catid=23239 (http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926HDS0010044912&catid=23239)
Im glad to be rid of it frankly, its a beast to move and i cant see us using it all that much since we'll have the 50" HD in our living room, and the 27" HD LCD in our bed room.
Didnt get my big screen today, we were suppost to pick it up, but then i measured the van and realized it would not fit. So were having it deliverd. It should arrive after 5:00pm tommarow.
I was at XSCargo today. I don't know if you're new TV comes with a DVI input, but they had some Monster DVI cables (http://www.xscargo.com/product.php?dept=search&action=search&item=DVI400&index=0) for $10. I'm not sure if they're the type you use for a computer, but they might work for that. They also have a set of Monster S-video and RCA cables (http://www.xscargo.com/product.php?dept=search&action=search&item=17678&index=0) for $10, but most likely those are included in the cables you're getting from Best Buy.
I pretty much have all the cables i need right now. since i already purchased the best quality cabling for each component i had hooked up to my old TV. Ive been buying the Philips brand from walmart. Its great combination of quality and price, all gold plated with thick shielding.
The only cabling i need now is an HDMI cable, but i wont need that untill i pick up my HD PVR. BTW, i am on the lookout for a good quality reasonably priced HDMI cables. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Picked up mine at "The Source" for like $50. @%&#ing highway robbery
Quote from: TheDruid on August 29, 2006, 11:28:38 PM
I pretty much have all the cables i need right now. since i already purchased the best quality cabling for each component i had hooked up to my old TV. Ive been buying the Philips brand from walmart. Its great combination of quality and price, all gold plated with thick shielding.
The only cabling i need now is an HDMI cable, but i wont need that untill i pick up my HD PVR. BTW, i am on the lookout for a good quality reasonably priced HDMI cables. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I remember Cova had a source for good, yet inexpensive cables online. You may want to PM him.
Or you could have just done a quick :search: and found Cova's thread on ordering cable (http://forums.righteouswrath.com/index.php/topic,3012.0.html)
Melbosa is planning to make an order from www.monoprice.com in the near future (if he hasn't already). Might be able to get in on that and save some shipping.
Quote from: Lazybones on August 30, 2006, 09:18:35 AM
Or you could have just done a quick :search: and found Cova's thread on ordering cable (http://forums.righteouswrath.com/index.php/topic,3012.0.html)
Whoops, I forgot he had a post. I just remembered him talking about how he got a deal on his cables once.
I just talked to Melbosa, and he hasn't sent out the order yet, so there's still time to send him a personal message containing your addendum to the order.
I dont need one any more. I thought the Shaw PVR had HDMI, but its only componenet. Im going to have a serious problem when i get my PVR, because my TV only has 2 component in. But my DVD player, XBOX and the PVR are all component.
I guess i could just drop my DVD player and use my XBOX as the DVD player. Or i could just go get the HDMI cable for the XBOX. I think a 3rd party company makes one.
the 360 DVD player blows
Quote from: TheDruid on August 30, 2006, 01:56:30 PM
I dont need one any more. I thought the Shaw PVR had HDMI, but its only componenet. Im going to have a serious problem when i get my PVR, because my TV only has 2 component in. But my DVD player, XBOX and the PVR are all component.
I guess i could just drop my DVD player and use my XBOX as the DVD player. Or i could just go get the HDMI cable for the XBOX. I think a 3rd party company makes one.
Excuse my ignorance, but can you use one of those A/V switches that normally switch between right and left audio channels and video RCA cables to switch the red-green-blue component RCA cables? I wait in trepidation for all you a/v experts to tear me a new one :)
Quote from: Ustauk on August 30, 2006, 02:21:25 PMExcuse my ignorance, but can you use one of those A/V switches that normally switch between right and left audio channels and video RCA cables to switch the red-green-blue component RCA cables? I wait in trepidation for all you a/v experts to tear me a new one :)
If such a thing exists, which im sure it does, however im sure it would require me to manually go over to it and make the switch... ugg physical movement. There must be some way i can spend money to solve this physical movement problem :P
Quote from: TheDruid on August 30, 2006, 04:08:36 PM
Quote from: Ustauk on August 30, 2006, 02:21:25 PMExcuse my ignorance, but can you use one of those A/V switches that normally switch between right and left audio channels and video RCA cables to switch the red-green-blue component RCA cables? I wait in trepidation for all you a/v experts to tear me a new one :)
If such a thing exists, which im sure it does, however im sure it would require me to manually go over to it and make the switch... ugg physical movement. There must be some way i can spend money to solve this physical movement problem :P
Well if you're absolutely opposed to any manual labour, and willing to spend the money, you could get an Audio Authority 1154A Component Video AutoSelector (https://www.audioauthority.com/indexh.php?ret=https://www.audioauthority.com/index.php?p=productMore&iProduct=3). The cheapest one I could find on ebay is here. (http://cgi.ebay.ca/HDTV-Component-Video-Switch-Audio-Authority-1154A_W0QQitemZ120024625762QQihZ002QQcategoryZ73390QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)
I am very sure I have seen AUTO selectors at both Walmart and Futureshop
Dont matter no more, i just bough a 1080p upconverting DVD player that uses HDMI. Heres the kicker, after buying it, i imediatly went to the Source and bought a HDMI cable, cost me $75. Go home and noticed right on the box of the new DVD player "HDMI Cable Included!" *smacks his forhead*, well i guess im returning a cable now :P
Which player did you get?
Samsung. It's was the only one at futureshop that upconverted to 1080p. But as an added bonus, since its samsung, it's design matches my TV because there from the same generation. And the remote controls for the TV and DVD player are already programmed for each other ;D
Watched a few movies last night "upconverted" to 1080p, can't say i really notice much of a difference beteen 720p upconverted - 1080p upconverted. maybe some movies will up convert better then others?
Quote from: TheDruid on August 31, 2006, 09:07:23 AMWatched a few movies last night "unconverted" to 1080p, can't say i really notice much of a difference between 720p unconverted - 1080p unconverted. maybe some movies will up convert better then others?
I take it back, after spending a little bit of time with it last night, trying different movies and such, i can totally see a difference now. It looks sweet. StarWars IV never looked so good. The only way to get better would be to go right to HD or BlueRay. But since that battle will be raging for a while, this will do just fine for now. Plus i don’t have to replace my entire DVD collection.
I thought i had a problem with my HDMI port 1 with 1080p since the first night i hooked it up, there was distortion lines. Switching it to HDMI 2 seemed to fix it. But i found out that with this TV, the DVD player i have has a long "load time" when you first turn it on (Samsung HD960 DVD), and the DVD and TV have to successfully "handshake" otherwise you may get distortion. But i found if that happends just switch the source on the tv away from HDMI and then back. So all ports are working fine :)
The only annoyance i found so far is that the HDMI ports only recognize 2.0 digital sound. At first i thought that i could just run all my sound to my TV, and use the optical out on my tv to send to my receiver. Kind of like an optical switch. However since the HDMI only recognizes 2.0, and there are no optical in's on the TV, it kind of makes the optical out on the TV useless for anything better then 2.0, So im still forced to run separate sound cables to my receiver. I need to get a better receiver though, my DVD, XBOX, and cable box all can output in optical but i only have one optical in on my receiver. The DVD player wins for now. But im on the lookout for an optical switch.
TV impressions, Fantastic.
We've watched cable, 3 - 4 movies now (Narnia, StarWars IV, Robots, Jen watched foot loose) and played my Xbox 360. Cable is as good as you would expect it could be. The TV does up convert all signals to 1080p, so nothing is blocky and looks about as good as it did on my 32" Trinitron, except with smoother lines and scaled to 50", the picture is as clear as the signal can give me. My Cable is hooked up to my TV VIA S-Video (best available with my cable box)
Movie’s are phenomenal, im not just testing a new TV though, but a New TV and DVD combo. Since they are both Samsung, they ascetically look good together. Use of the HDMI is nice, keeps a component in jack free, however sound from the HDMI into the TV is absolutely useless! The TV only recognizes 2.0, so im running a separate optical line to my receiver, however to get the best possible sound i had to turn DTS and digitized signal on for my DVD player. The annoying thing now, every time i manually switch to a new chapter, select a menu option or play the movie the words "Sound output type not supported on HDMI port" shows up for a second on the screen. Ug!... there must be someway to turn that off?
Picture is more then i could have ever expected from a standard DVD. With Narnia as a new school test, StarWars as a "re-masterd" test, Robots as your classic computer animation test, and well Jen's Foot Loose movie from the stone age.
Narnia and Robots performed as good as i expected, highly detailed, very cinematic. But I was blown away by StarWars, i saw colors and detail that was never there before, i could almost see my face in C3PO ;) It truly looked HD and i cant imagine its too Far off from an actual HD-DVD/BlueRay serving of this movie. Although i didn’t really watch foot loose, i must say that it was the best looking "old, non re-mastered movie" i ever seen :P I was a little skeptical about a 1080p up converting DVD player and truly thought it was just a gimmick for us early HD adopters to justify our big expensive TVs. But seeing it in action, it really does make a difference. It also made me feel a lot less guilty for spending tons of money on my DVD collection that i though would soon be obsolete with the new disc generation. Apparently i can have my cake and eat it to.
XBOX 360 looked about as good as it did on my 27" LCD, only 23" BIGGER! I switched the TV to "Game Mode" which is apparently optimized for 360 play, its designed for rapid fast moving action, and color platelets common to game systems. I got absolutely no complaints here, i stood and watched the Perfect dark intro like 4 times with sound pumping from 5 speakers for the first time. Then i played the second level of PD. Although the LCD looked great in 720p, im finding that with the bigger screen it amplifies the detail that i missed on the small screen before. Defiantly an improvement. You haven’t lived until you’ve played Frogger in 50" of 720p HD glory. And Shayne, yes Geometry wars is harder on the big screen. But that didn't stop me from getting a score of 370,000 ;D
The TV looks great in my living room as well. Since it's a lot thinner then my 32" Trinitron, i was able to stuff my subwoofer behind the TV, so the front profile takes up no more room then my last TV. I bought new speaker stands to go with the TV (Damn highway robbery, $100 for these simple metal stands), no more cheap Wal-Mart end tables for my speakers. The 50" is defiantly the max size for this room, i couldn’t imagine a 56" in there, any bigger and i'd would have to start moving my eyes to take in the whole picture (which is a no no with DLP and the rainbow effect). On the subject of the rainbow effect, does it still exists on this TV?... yes, but very minimal. Only in extreme black on white contrast scenarios where im shaking my head or rapidly darting my eyes do I see it, and even then it’s very minimal. I’ve seen the rainbow effect on older DLPs and sometimes the rainbow would trail over an inch behind the object. With this TV it’s just a slight color tinge on its edge, very tolerable. They have made improvements in this area.
Overall great buy. It will be a while until the price on it’s comes down to a reasonable level ($2899.00 MSRP) but I’m sure you could talk the sales guy down to $2600 or $2500 on any day of the week. I also heard Samsung might be doing a $200 price drop soon on their stuff. But keep in mind, only the 56” has made it onto the display floor, the 50” are still in the warehouse, The BB guy said that they want to clear out all the older models before bringing out the newer one… understandable, you could get a kick ass deal on a 720p Samsung DLP right now.
Sounds impressive. I think I will wait on getting into HDTV, most likely when the upgrade mandate starts materializing around 2009/2010, that is to say when I'm looking at buying either a new TV or an HDTV converter for Das Tube. I don't really watch anything that has to be super high def (anime / cartoons, old 60s shows, crappy Sci-Fi movies where higher resolution makes it look worse, old sprite-based games, etc).
I'd like to see Star Wars in 1080i, but are you sure it was IV and not one of the prequels?
Quote from: Mr. Analog on September 01, 2006, 10:46:29 AM
I'd like to see Star Wars in 1080i, but are you sure it was IV and not one of the prequels?
Yes, it was StarWars IV A New Hope :P
And i was watching it in 1080p (better then 1080i). I bought the first DVD release of it last year. So it has all the added CGI scenes. But i was mostly impressed with the original re-masted stuff. Apparently Tatooine isn?t just a big orange/yellow blob, there's rocks and stuff. Darth Vader?s helmet has smudges on it. All kinds of crazy detail was showing up.
Sounds like someone should have a movie night :) Revenge of the Sith, maybe?
Quote from: TheDruid on September 01, 2006, 10:23:18 AMAnd Shayne, yes Geometry wars is harder on the big screen. But that didn't stop me from getting a score of 370,000 ;D
No wonder I have a hard time doing well - my screen is even bigger.
And yes - it must be almost movie night by now.
HaHa! I figured GW would be harder on a big screen, you just can't focus on the entire screen.
Stand further back... The controller is wireless after all.. Although I guess that depends how big the room is. ;)
I wan't one of these:
(http://photo.hankooki.com/newsphoto/2006/03/08/kt2200603081813480t1.jpg)
It should only cost about $1,000,000 usd.