Finally ordered my new Sammy HDTV!

[digitalwanderer]

I must say, our HDTV is a much more popular item than I thought it would be. I'm probably the least excited in the family about it, and I'm pretty excited.

My wife came into the PC room last night late saying, "John, you got a minute?". I figured she was having a problem with the DVR and needed help, but it wasn't. She was watching the recent Lost recap episode and wanted me to watch the scene where the tail section crashed.

MOST impressive, I must admit. Damn near close to blowing me away.

The other weird one is some of the shots in shows I never really paid attention to before just jump off the screen at me, like the exterior hospital shot at night from House that they segue into the show from coming back from commercial. I just am amazed at the details I can see in each individual room!

HDTV = GOOD THING™

 

[London Geezer]

Argghhh!!! I hate you people ... you've got me wanting an HDTV LCD now! I'm very tempted by the M51 version of the Sammy 32"-er. I should resissst... but can I?

The M-series are pretty cool, but remember that apart from faster response time (8ms instead of 12ms) and some tweaks here and there, they're the same - obviously with a different look... Personally i thought i rather spend a little less now for pretty much the same panel, then sell this and get a 1080p panel when things have settled, than buying a more expensive set now i wouldn't really appreciate at the moment anyway.

Both the R51 and the M-series have 10-bit processing - the R41 doesn't. Problem is that apart from Dixons and Currys, pretty much every other retailer only has a R41.

Only 950 odd quid for the LE32R51BD... and if u order from Dixons and put MAC5 discount code, you get 5% off the total bill, which is a good 60 quid...

Oh by the way, in the US the name is different, it's this one:

http://www.samsung.com/Products/TV/LCDTV/LNR328WXXAA.asp

This set has 2 component inputs, my one has 1 component input and 2 SCARTs instead. My one also has a digital tuner for DVB. All the rest is the same.

Coming tomorrow!!!

 

[hey69]

show your stuff boy! and i will show mine

nothing to do with it , but its a nice pic

 

[pascal]

Nice PSP hey69 !

Congrats LB for your new toy
Do you already have pics?

Sorry for this late reply but my home is under a major reform. There is dust everywhere.

 

[Mariner]

Somebody will have to show the poor girl how to use that PSP - she's absolutely clueless!

Alternative caption:

Sony's innovative response to the DS thumbstrap just doesn't seem destined to catch on.

 

[Geo]

It should make one leery of "going commando" with another fella's PSP tho!

 

[Ty]

It should make one leery of "going commando" with another fella's PSP tho!

Lol. But if it were her PSP I might take that chance!

 

[London Geezer]

YAY!!! Got the set and it's absolutely amazing!!!

Had to fiddle with the contrast/bright/sharpness levels to get it right, cause straight out of the box the settings make everything look like total shite.
But eventually (and we're talking 5 minutes here, not hours) i got it - mostly by turning the sharpness level almost all the way down (from the 50/100 to 20/100) which gets rid of all the MPEG blocks (they are accentuated when you turn the sharpness up) and all the unneccessary noise.

All the people complaining about FReeview looking like crap on this set, they really have to get their settings right cause i got it to look bloody amazing. At any rate much better than my old Panny CRT, which admittedly was struggling lately.

Setup was easy, u turn it on and it starts picking up the Analog TV channels, which doesn't work, but who cares cause all i really need is the Digital TV channels, which the set picks up very very quickly.

The thing is just sexy. In my still-not-too-furnished new flat it looks amazing, the whole place is kinda minimalist (simply for lack of STUFF than for choice really) so the set really stands out. It's temporarily on the floor and i think i might just leave it there cause it looks very cool.

I'll post pics eventually.


Tried DVDs through HDMI and it looks fabulous. First try was Final Fantasy The Spirits Within and needless to say it looks bloody amazing. Then tried The Fifht Element (a very crappy transfer) and it still looked fabulous, very clear, very bright, very colourful.

Speaking of which, the set is BRIGHT, and i mean REALLY REALLY BRIGHT, and the colours are so vivid on all sources i'm surprised lots of people have criticised this set when watching low quality feeds.

Tried PS2 and, well, i can honestly say i REALLY need a next gen console on this TV cause my little old PS2 really shows its age on this set. Even God of War - which looked really good on my CRT - looks like a jaggy fest.

Strange thing is that i tried Jak3 and it looks exactly the same whether i put it in progressive scan or not. God of War looks like it's running in pro-scan too even if it isn't. Guess the TV's deinterlacer is good enough for PS2 games - they're a jaggyfewst whether in pro-scan or not, and when running interlaced, there are no signs of interlacing artifacts. At least now i'll stop bitching about not having pro-scan options on PAL versions of the games!!

Next thing i tried was my flatmate's laptop but i didn't have time to download Powerstrip to set it at the set's native resolution so i'll have to give that a go tonight.

All in all, on eof the best purchases in my life, if not THE best purchase of my life. Considering the price, i'm a very happy bunny.

Pics coming up soon!!!

 

[hey69]

my geforce 6 powered PC recognised my tv perfectly. didnt need powerstrip or programs like that. 1360x768 rock solid trough VGA (and only 720p or 1080i trough dvi)

 

[London Geezer]

my geforce 6 powered PC recognised my tv perfectly. didnt need powerstrip or programs like that. 1360x768 rock solid trough VGA (and only 720p or 1080i trough dvi)

My flatmate's laptop only output 1204x768 and other usual PC resolutions, not 1360x768. It has some crappy ATI intergrated graphics blah blah blah. i'll need powerstrip for that.

 

[Moloch]

So you watched any erotic films on it yet?

 

[London Geezer]

So you watched any erotic films on it yet?

uhm nope... but i have to test the skin tones of the TV so for scientific reasons i'll just have to try some porn!!! Purely for picture quality reasons!!!!

 

[Moloch]

uhm nope... but i have to test the skin tones of the TV so for scientific reasons i'll just have to try some porn!!! Purely for picture quality reasons!!!!

:smile:

 

[London Geezer]

(someone will feel deja-vu-y with this post)

I updated the DVD Player's firmware and now it works perfectly. Really really nice. Before there was a problem with the player (Philips 5900) which didn't allow 5.1 sound through coaxial when using HDMI. Now it all works fine.
Watched Galaxy Quest last night which looked dreadful, almost as if i downloaded the divx file from the internet.. only it was a proper DVD... err... I mean... even freeview looks better than that DVD...

Guess both the player and the TV are a bit unforgiving sometimes, plus i wasn't sitting too far away last night (had people over, gotta show it off!!). Plus my eyes and my brain pick up flaws very easily and it's hard to think of anything else when you see big macro blocking, banding and dithering all over the place...

Tried FF:TSW again and even there i could see the flaws, i guess i've reached the limits of DVD in my head. I mean that's supposed to be kinda flawless straight-from-digital and still i could see the flaws, which are just due to the DVD format...
Can't wait for HD movies - apparently both HDDVD and Bluray are coming out in at the same time (September) here in the UK so i think i'll just wait for PS3 and stock on the Bluray movies in the meantime. Unless HDDVD players are cheap (and i mean CHEAP) enough for me to have both in the house...