Split Personality

The reason I came up with this title is that I found out that the Samsung HLN567W not only makes for a great wide screen TV but also as a giant PC monitor! Yes a real PC monitor hooked up to a PC video card's RGB/VGA (15 pin) output connector and not just via a PC's composite or S-video output connector. But more on this later...

My quest for an HD capable Rear Projection TV that will suit my needs.

Just like many folks looking to buy an HD Rear Projection TV (RPTV) nowadays, I was confused at all the choices at first. There were HD projection units based on CRT, LCD, and DLP technologies. I will not delve too much into a discussion of the merits and Pros and Cons of these technologies. Suffice it to say that I was leaning toward DLP based HDs, specifically Samsung's because my research has led me to believe that it will perform better (than the CRT and LCD based RPTVs) when hooked up to a PC. I intend hook up my PC so I can play PC games on this unit too.

DLP stands for Digital Light Processing. In a nutshell, this technology combines the "Digital Mirror" chip produced by Texas Instruments, a "Color Wheel" spinning at high rates, and a high intensity lamp. The lamp (replaceable) focuses the light to the "Color Wheel" which then passes on the "colored light" to the "Digital Mirror" chip that ultimately gets projected to the screen. There is a great animation of this process at www.dlp.com.

Making sense of the data gathered about DLPs on the Web.

Researching at various websites and forums can be confusing to a newbie. The forums at AVS (www.avsforums.com) are full of information but a newbie can also get discouraged reading from dozens of complaints and criticisms from disgruntled users as well as "fanboys" of various technologies. It is important to sift through these complaints and comments and focus only on legitimate ones.

Here are the CONs being posted about the Samsung from these boards and elsewhere which I have not experienced so far after a week of using the HLN567W:

1. Green tinting / Rainbowing. Have not experienced these at all and I have watched DVDs with dark backgrounds already (LOTR 2, Gladiator, Chicago) where, apparently Rainbowing is more discernible. Some people might be more sensitive to rainbowing though.

2. Poor CATV performance. Reception was pretty good though I had the cable folks rewire my home more than a year ago as I was getting poor reception back then. Cable signals are no match for DVD via DVI connection however.

3. Noise. I do hear the fan humming (even after I turn off the TV) but only if I go near the set and it is nowhere as loud as the cooling fans on my PCs. I don't think the sound of the color wheel rotating is audible unless I am mistaking it for the sound of the fan.

CONs I experienced.

Let me get these out of the way first. I would consider these as only minor problems / shortcomings of the HLN567W.

1. Sound Sync problems when watching DVDs / Cable. This happens when the voice is not in sync with lip movements of characters on screen. I finally experienced this problem while watching Pirates of the Carribean. Other DVDs where fine though. The problem went away after I stopped the playback for a few seconds and then pressed play again. I suspect this problem might have to do with my Samsung HD931 DVD player as I have not experienced sync problems with CATV signals when watching News, and Sports. I would not consider this a big problem since it appears I could "work around" it.

2. Confusing remote. Remote is not as user friendly as I would have wanted. This is compounded by the inclusion of a "flip up" cover on the buttons located towards the top of the remote. For example, swapping PIP channels require thay you flip up the cover since the swap button is located there. Also navigating settings could probably have been implemented easier.

3. The lack of brightness (dimming) when viewing at an angle above the screen. This is most apparent when one is standing up and close to the screen.

4. Dimming of the image when viewed from the sides. However, this is at extreme angles on the side of the screen. This dimming is not as apparent as (2) and it happens on all RPTVs no matter what technology is used. This is still better than a comparable CRT RPTV though.

5. Using picture in picture (PIP) while viewing cable channels changes the aspect ratio to "wide" when I have it on "normal" (with black borders on each sides). This can be annoying as I prefer to watch standard broadcasts (non HD) on "normal" aspect ratio. Now everytime I use PIP, I have to click the remote a few more times to return the aspect ratio to "normal".

Samsung HLN567W features.

Summary of features which I thought were important:

1. Uses single mirror DLP Technology which renders almost photolike images from high quality sources.

2. Has a plethora of inputs including (lowest quality to highest), 2 RF (RCA), 3 Composite, 3 S-Video, 3 Component (1 X 480i/480p, 2 X 480p/720p/1080i), 1 analog 15 pin RGB PC connector, and 1 DVI connector.

3. Invulnerability to image burn-in. This is an important consideration for me since I plan to play XBOX and PC games extensively on the HLN567W.

4. Very thin bezel (less than 1 inch) surrounds the non-glare screen.

5. User replaceable lamp.

My Personal Home Theater Experience.

I am using a Samsung HD931 DVD player as my main video source. The HD931 is a perfect match for the HLN567W as it has a DVI output connector, supposedly the best connection to use when connecting HD capable TVs (even better than component connectors). This connector is exactly like the DVI connector that you use when connecting a DVI input equipped PC LCD Monitor to a DVI output connector found on more advanced PC video cards. Note that DVI is the connector of choice when hooking up HDTV capable receivers used to acquire HDTV broadcasts.

I have not gotten to comparing component versus DVI quality yet. All I can say is that the picture quality when using the DVI connector is outstanding. I watched LOTR Twin Towers and scenes that showed panoramas with snowcapped mountains were truly breathtaking. WOW indeed. The colors were rendered very accurately. But the best DVD I have seen so far when it comes to demonstrating what the DLP technology is capable of is Seabiscuit. Incredible color (specially the scenes showing fall colors) and detail. The downside of all this resolution is that I do notice mpeg compression artifacts on movies such as Finding Nemo if I look close enough.

I would also like to comment that the images on this TV can be viewed in broad daylight. My TV is on a family room with a skylight right above it and I could still see the image clearly so long as I am seated at the proper viewing area.

Connecting the XBOX.

At first, I tried connecting the XBOX via the S-Video kit. I was kind of disappointed because the image was not as clear as I thought it should be. It appears like there was a very light mist blanketing the graphics.
I bought a Mad Catz component connection kit and connected the XBOX to the TV's 480i/480p component inputs. Much better. The mist was gone using component connectors.

Note that with the XBOX, the only component connector that will work ALL THE TIME is the component 1 (480i/480p). Connecting the XBOX to component 1 will enable you to play 480p, 720p, and 1080i rated games but you will not see the higher details in 720p and 1080i rated games.

The problem with hooking up the XBOX to the component 2 and 3 connectors? These higher quality 480p/720p/1080i component inputs are not compatible with the startup screen of the XBOX (which displays at 480i) so you will not see the setup screen and will instead get a "no signal" message.

However, you can setup the XBOX to play newer 720p and 1080i games to show added resolution / detail on the Samsung if you don't mind not being able to display the XBOX setup screen. Most of us do not need to use the setup screen anyways after the initial configuration process is completed.

Here is what you have to do:

1. Hook up the XBOX via component 1 (480i/480p).

2. On the XBOX setup screen, select video settings and set it up for Widescreen plus click yes to be able to play 480p, 720p, and 1080i rated games. Note that these options are displayed by XBOX only if an HD cable is plugged to it.

3. Turn off the XBOX and re-connect the component cables to component 2 or 3 (480p/720p/1080i).

4. Note that when using component 2 or 3, you will not be able to see the XBOX setup screen (which displays at 480i) so you will get a "no signal" message if no XBOX DVD is loaded. However, once an XBOX game is loaded, you should be able to play the game and see added richness specially from 720p and 1080i rated games.

I played old XBOX games Dead or Alive, Halo, and Project Gotham. I also played the recently released SoulCalibur 2 which has a 720p designation on the box and it has markedly superior graphics than the older games. Of course this was after I had setup / connected the XBOX to component 2.

The games had good (480p) to excellent (720p) image quality except that at this size you could see the jaggies especially in older 480p games like Project Gotham... not a big concern for me though.

Connecting the PC.

Now here is where it gets better...

Armed with the knowledge (from researching the Web) that the HLN567W has a native resolution of 1280 X 720 (the exact resolution of 720p HDTV), connecting the PC went without any problems. Note that I did not need to run any additional software (Powerstrip, etc.) to select a display resolution of 1280 x 720 under Win XP's Display Settings as this display resolution shows up as an option when I click the "List All Modes" button. I am using an nVidia powered GeForce 4 class video card with nVidia 45.23 drivers. Older nVidia cards (prior to GeForce 4) or nVidia cards with older drivers might not show 1280 X 720 as an option in which case additional software might be needed. Not sure about ATI powered video cards but driver updates may also be required.

I connected my PC via the RGB/VGA (15 pin) connector of the video card to the RGB connector of the Samsung. My video card also has a DVI connector but I did not use this as the Samsung's DVI is already connected to the Samsung HD931 DVD player.

I booted the computer and the Samsung displayed the BIOS messages just like a regular PC monitor would. Once in XP, I set the windows resolution to the Samsung's native 1280 X 720 (60 hz). At this resolution, the text on applications was sharp and very legible even from 12 feet away. I looked at jpeg images on my "pictures" folder and was amazed... the image quality was just like viewing them on a good PC monitor.

I then proceeded to play Call of Duty (at 1024 X 768 since the game did not support 1280 X 720 resolution). All I can say is the graphics were rendered just like they would be on a PC monitor but much larger! WOW. One small problem when playing PC games, just like when I played XBOX games, is that the jaggies (or stairstep) on diagonal lines are more apparent because of the size of the screen. Completely not the fault of the Samsung though. This is where an advanced video card (like ATI's Radeon 9600 Pro or higher) capable of running games smoothly at 4X anti-aliasing would be a real plus as this feature will smooth out the jaggies without affecting image quality.

Final words.

Others might be put off by some of the problems I mentioned specifically the voice sync problem which I still think is a source issue (DVD Player) and not that of the set itself. In my case, I have been dealing with Hardware / Software issues for more than a dozen years on the job and at home so I might be more tolerant / patient of "bugs" that appear in cutting edge products such as the HLN567W.

The best advice I can give to people who are hesitating because of these issues is to get a good extended warranty from a reputable dealer, which is what I did.

Despite the problems I have encountered, this HD RPTV has still exceeded my expectations. It actually behaves more like a giant computer monitor than a TV. I highly recommend this unit to anybody who wants to see and experience first hand what convergence (watching movies, playing XBOX and PC games, surfing the web, etc.) is all about.

*** Important Update - Jan 23, 2004 ***
I have encountered the voice sync problems on a few more DVDs (28 days later, LA Confidential, plus a few more DVDs) as well as on Cable TV channels that appear to be busy (Pulse 24 here in Toronto) or that have text crawling on the bottom of the screen (MSNBC). This is not a source problem as I have a 27" tube TV that I used for comparison. The 27" did not have the same video delay problem on the same channels that the Samsung had. Problem is intermittent and there can be no delay one second and all of a sudden a big delay (very noticeable) the next.

This is definitely a TV problem so I am lowering the rating of this product as I feel this defect is bad enough to subtract from the ownership "experience". A TV costing this much should not have this problem. I am also changing my recommendation to "not recommended" until I am satisfied with Samsung's solution to this problem.

The good news is that Samsung Canada has acknowledge that this problem exists on some HLN DLP TVs and they are coming out with either a fix or replacement. Not clear on this one yet. I will try to keep folks posted on any developments.

*** Update - Jan 31, 2004 ***
It appears that Samsung's solution is to replace the "chassis" portion of the HLN with an updated part. Not exactly sure what this new "chassis" includes.

I was hoping for a straight replacement to the new HLP series as I did not want to risk more damage (from alignment, etc.) during a repair. Because I was still in the 30 day return period with my dealer, I decided to just return the set and just get store credit.

Despite my bad experience with the HLN567, I am still considering the new Samsung HLP series as I really liked the outstanding picture quality and the PC / XBox connectivity options. I am just hoping they finally fix the audio / video sync issue with this new series.

Suggestion to buyers looking at this set: Wait until Spring (March / April) for the new HLP series DLPs from Samsung. It most likely will include a fix to that pesky audio / video sync bug. It will also have have the upgraded Texas Instruments HD2+ DLP chip which promises improved contrast among other things. If you can wait a little more (around June), Samsung will also incorporate the new 7 segment color wheel to its HLP series which promises even more improvements, including further minimizing the occurence of Rainbows (to those affected by this).