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darthemma | I am considering buying either a Samsung HLM 617W or the Sony xbr 60" grand wega. The Sony is much easier to get. I'm having trouble finding the Samsung locally (Columbus, Ohio) to get a look at the picture quality. There is already a discussion board for the sony, but I'm looking for more information about the Samsung. Does anyone out there actually own one of these? Does anyone know why it's so hard to find? |
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Anonymous | Do a search on the bulletin boards of this very website for either Samsung, DLP, or HLN617W. You'll find tons. I think it's also available at circuit city's website |
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| I also am considering buying, but an HLN617. Has ANYBODY seen either an HLM or HLN 617? |
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Anonymous | if i was you get the hln series. The hlm are the old ones that had a defective processor in it. If you want to get it off the internet, get it at wholesaleconnection.com, they have a good price on it and the stand that you will need, the shipping price is good also. |
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| Has anyone compared the Sony 60XBR800 to the Samsung HLM617W. I am a Sony fan but the Samsung looks impressive. |
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Anonymous | I have compared the two and found that each has its pros and cons. First the Samsung 61" great contrast, good black levels, but two much solarization, poor color reproduction expecially green, and to much digital artifacts. Sony 60" blacks are fair, simular to plasma. A little on the blue side, but not bad if ajusted right. Very bright picture and great color reproduction. No digital artifacts. The picture was also alot sharper/detailed. I'd go for the Sony. If you want to wait a while (Nov.) Sonys new XBR950 will be out. It looks very promising. The only problem I have seen on the current Sony 800 is the black level was a little brighter than the Samsung. The new Sony should, by what I have found out should have better blacks than the current Samsung 61". Happy hunting! |
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Noel | Thanks for the input. I liked the Samsung but the GWII seem to have slightly higher resolution. I don't think that either would be a bad choice. At these prices you think long and hard before making a purchase. I would hate to think that I made a bad choice for something I would have to live with for some time. I purchased the GWII and took delivery on it today. I could probably have waited for the next generation but I had already waited (several months)for the GWII to make it to our area. I imagine the price will come done some (like the GWII did) with more and improved features. But who knows what will be available when I need a replacement again. Now I am in the market for a new DVD player. My current one is woefully inadequate (I knew it would be). |
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Anonymous | The only thing I have to say about the sony is that the pixels on the LCD burn very easily and if you don't have a power center you might want to invest into one to protect it. The warranty will not cover it unless it has covered a certin percent of the screen. I have the HLN43 and I like it, better than any other tv I viewed at Circuit city or Best Buy. Food for thought. |
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Noel | Well gentlemen and ladies, I have just returned my GWII. There are several reasons for me doing this. I will start with a little history. I purchased a DLP Hitachi 55DMX01WD from Ultimate Electronics. It had an excellent imagine quality, no matter the input. It was $12,000 plus originally. I got it for $2,500 because it was returned with a power supply problem (supposedly fixed). I purchased an extended warranty that did not cover lamp replacement. I had it for a week and the lamp burned out. It had a spare and Ultimate said they would replace the original. A week later the spare burned out. Replacement lamps were $750. I returned it. During the first week of ownership I sold my old Sony big screen rear projection set. I then faced a 19" Sony Trinitron in my living room. So I began I looking at many brands and technologies then decided on the GWII. Now for the reasons I returned the WBII. I have cable. Because I have a TV in multiple rooms I have no immediate intention of switching to satellite because of cost involved and the need for a separate turner. I hope someday TVs will have them built in. When watching any station (especially local ones) on the GWII the images were fuzzy. Plain surfaces looked blotchy. Keep in mind the Hitachi looked good with the same cable input. The lettering for subtitles is fuzzy. On virtually any other TV this wasn't an issue. I purchased a Phillips DVDR80 DVD player/recorder with Faroudja DCDi Progressive Scan. One of the DVDs I viewed was "Die Another Day" (digitally, a quality DVD). It was fraught with virtually same image deficiencies as cable. I am not saying the images were not superior to that of cable but those images suffered from the same lacked of clarity (to a lesser degree). Additionally I couldn't see a great deal of difference in image quality between the progressive scan and my vanilla DVD player. This I attribute to the GWII. I suppose I could have made the "tweaks" called out in that pain staking written service menu document and possibly improve the quality of the GWII 's imagine. However I didn't have to do that for the Hitachi, "out of the box", it had an excellent picture quality and clarity. I do realize there is a price differential. Don't you think those "tweaks" should have been made at the factory? I not saying that anyone who is happy with the WBII is mentally or ecstatically challenged. What I am saying is that GWII hasn't met my expectations and I don't want to have to adjust it at level required to produce quality viewing to say nothing of the risk of voiding the warranty. I want to thank everyone in this discussion group. Without your help and expertise I might have been stuck with something I was unhappy with that cost a great deal. And to those that have adjusted their WBII to their satisfaction my hat is off to you for your technical prowess. I will now set my sights on the KF60WE610 or maybe revisit the DLP technology. This has been quite the experience. |
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| Noel: Why the Sony KF60WE610 vs. the KDF60xbr950 (new model) or the KF60XBR800 (last year's model)? They are all 60" R.P. LCD's from Sony. I am going to buy one of them but am unclear what the differences are. Can you help? |
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ed cunningham | noel: what was your final resolution on the 55DMX01WD lamp problem? I have had identical problem and Ultimate unsuccessfully, attempts to repair major components. anyone else having this same DLP lamp difficulty? thanks, ED |
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Noel | Bill, I have taken a hiatus from my widescreen quest. I don't know if you are still in the market but if you are look at this discussion group (link below). It might have answers for you. My personal leanings are toward the KDF60XBR950. But I haven't actually viewed one. http://www.agoraquest.com/viewtopic.php?topic=7648&forum=35 |
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Noel | Ed, I returned the 55DMX01WD to Ultimate Electronics. Interestingly enough, I was talking with a coworker a couple of weeks back who recounted that a friend of his experienced much the same problem. He also returned his Hitachi to Ultimate. That makes me wonder if I might have ended up with his Hitachi. For what it is worth it appears to me that there is a possibility that a design flaw or production issue might exist for this particular model. |
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Bruce Lee of TVs | I Have a 60 day old HLN617 Sitting in the original box ready to go back to Sound Advice (Tweeter). Everthing looked poor. the only thing that looked close to good was Star Wars - Attack of the Clones played off a Samsung 720P DVD using a DVI and some High Def chanels. Sound Advice wants to do a service swap becuse they say taking the TV back will mess up thier inventory. So now I have this behemoth box just sitting in my living room and I went back to watching my 7 year old 27" samsung tube wich clearly blows the DLP out of the water when it comes to detail. I want to vomit when I think of how long I waited for my DLP only to discover that ths tech is not quite ready. I say why not go with something that will show both formats quite well and waite five or so years till someone truly makes a slim TV that can play high def (and is affordable). Still waiing |
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Bruce Lee of TVs | Sorry for the type O's in the last message I had a nano to type it. As I was saying, DLP....Not what its's cracked up to be. LCD does have the screen door effect, is soft on the contrast, light on the black levels and big on the motion artifacts. LCD pixils can and do burn in and can be approved for delivery with a surprising number of stuck pixels (DLP has a lower tolerance for faulty pixel mirrors). So far of the affordable HDTV big screens CRT rear projections still offer the best quality picture. The trade offs of course are they weigh a ton, are bulky, the screens suffer burn in and they are not truly compatable with digital images. The thing dudes, is that just as a high performance car can not reach its true potential without the premium fule, these sets will not show thier true purpose unless they are fed with the best video material. There is no such animal as HD DVD yet and HDTV is nothing more than glorified 480P. Just dont try to get enjoyable viewing off of your new sets from standard cable or even most DVD (Try to stick with super bit). If your intent on using the new screens now - like DLP or LCoS - and expect to get the veiwing pleasure the manufactures promise, just turn them on for HD programing. The other option is to spend an additional $1,800 or so and go with a 42" HD Plasma. You have a smaller screen but a lot of WOW potential and some let you use your lap top and watch cable with a split srcreen. You can't do that on a DLP at least not the HLN617W Samsung. @#$&&*@!!!! |
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Noel | I had a DLP Hitachi 55DMX01WD. Refer to my previous posting. It had (in my opinion) a picture that rivaled that of plasma. Not quite as good but gooooood. It made a decent cable single look good. Other than the lamp problem there where two things I didn't like about it. The first is the delayed audio (probably video as well). If I put my 19 Trinitron Sony next to is for video comparison the delay in audio was really pronounced. Of course you won't normal play to TVs next to each other. However running two sets (in different rooms) on the same channel could be distracting. The second thing I really disliked is the response to changing channels. It was agonizing slow. So "previous channel', "flash back", "recall", you get the picture, was also agonizing slow. Comparing DLP to LCD, from what I seen, maybe DLP has a slight edge. That being said I wonder about the reliability of the little spinning color wheel. Just my thoughts open to discussion. |
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Anonymous | So you can't split the screen on the HLM617W and watch cable and surf the net at the same time. I assumed you could. |
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311kmk | nope, Samsung DLP's can do PC picture in picture, but not split screen. They have a small tv window on top of the PC image. |
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| I have a Samsung DLP for about 30 days and I am thrilled with it. I did a significant amount of research on the Web and quite candidly, I almost decided to do nothing because of all the conflicting information. However, I took a leap of faith and purchased a Samsung DLP over the Sony LCD, Plasma and CRT. I must say I am VERY satisfied. The picture quailiy is excellent through Comcast Digital Cable and I have had not problems. Most reviews continue to affirm Samsung Picture Quality as best and stated in this month's review " Easily the projection television reviewed to date" |
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Jon | I'll add my two cents here. I purchased a Sony 60WE610. The main reason I purchased it over the Samsung was that I noticed too many digital artifacts on the Samsung. That, however, may have been due to the source, I don't know. I do know that none of these sets look nearly as good without DVD or HD material. The combination of external antenna and DirecTV give me a steady stream of HD material (but some channels and programs are much better than others). The Sony does a good job with its upconversion. The Sony, by the way, has excellent, saturated color and a bright picture. The resolution is also excellent. The black level is good, maybe very good, but not excellent. |
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| I recently purchased the Samsung HLN43 and I have Comcast cable. I'm finding the lettering on even the HD broadcast channels is shaking. The regular channels don't look so great as the resolution just isn't what I expected. Is this the TV? Should I switch to Direct TV? |
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Anonymous | For what its worth - I experienced the same thing with a HLN56 OOTB, but after tweaking it with an AVIA Guide DVD, even SD digital cable channels with a lot of text (CNN, ESPN, etc.) looked 110% better. |
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New member Username: NghumpPost Number: 1 Registered: 12-2003 | I just recently purchase the HLN617W. I don't know if I am expecting too much. On a standard broadcast you end up with two black bars on either side of the picture. This isn't the issue. I don't know if anyone has noticed but there are two light lines down either side of the screen about a half-inch wide. A repairman attributed this to over scan. He also said that Sony's KDF60XBR950 had the same problem. I didn't believe him so I checked it out at my local Circuit City store and sure enough the Sony had this phenomena as well. Has anyone else noticed this? I find it disconcerting. I have a Sony DVD player that doesn't have progressive or DCDi feature. The HLN617W has these features built in. I use component cables to connect my DVD player to the HLN617W. An Ultimate Electronics sales person told me that this hook up would bypass the HLN617W DCDi feature. Does anyone know if this true? |
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Unregistered guest | I recently purchased the Samsung HLN567W - 56" DLP TV and am relatively pleased with it. However I have found a problem with the audio delay when playing a DVD through my Sony PS2. There's definitely delay in the audio from what you are watching. Regular broadcast or HD broadcasts do not exhibit this problem. Samsung Tech Support (regularly lambasted on the internet - and maybe rightfully so), has offered differing opinions. One techie told me to switch from S-Video input to Component input (haven't tried that yet). Another said it may be a compatibilty problem with the PS2 and to try another type DVD player (haven't tried that yet either). And yet another indicated that this was a known problem and that a fix was in the works. "In the woks"??? I just bought this damn thing and alrerady I'm looking at a potential recall! Has anybody else encountered this? If so, have you been able to find the right fix. I'd hate to return this set for this problem as all other aspects of this TV are awesome. Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated. |
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Anonymous | This delay is actually an video delay as opposed to audio delay and a long thread about this problem can be found on www.avsforum.com. I had an HLN567W which had an amazing Picture Quality but I decided to return it after encountering intermittent video delay problems (video not in sync with audio) of varying degrees cropping up when watching Cable TV and some DVDs. A Samsung Tech acknowledge that this problem exists but the fix was currently not available. Kept asking for patience. C# |