HDTV Questions and Answers Thread

[SikWitIt]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

Alright so my 42 inch Samsung DLP made its way to my house about 3 hours ago, I hooked up my digital cable box(non HDTV) and my progressive scan dvd and my xbox.

Im having problems hooking up my home entertainment theatre to my cable box though, but after looking in the manual for my home entertainment system it looks like i need a digital optical cable. Which brands are good for a digital optical cable ?


Also anyone with a samsung dlp what are the settings you use for contrast, brightness, color and sharpness ? I dont kno how i should set these, and because im still using analog signal I want to maximize my picture

Bump...Any help ?

[mjb2124]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

Bump...Any help ?

The digital optical cable I got is from Best Buy. The brand was Acoustic Research. Cheaper than Monster cables, but IMO it's just as good.

As for your settings on your DLP... One Samsung DLP will display different than another with the same exact settings. Not to mention our own vision and room settings are different so it's tough to give you exact settings.

My settings are off from what a lot of people on avsforum.com say to use, but my GF and I think it looks great so that's all that matters.

There are 3 picture modes in mine (Dynamic, Standard and Cinema). Many with a Sammy DLP use the Cinema setting. I don't like it and think it's too dark. I use Dynamic because the picture wasn't as dark and seemed more vibrant (whites are whiter and blacks seem blacker to me). Standard also seemed good. I'm at work and can't recall what my settings are exactly so this is a guess - contrast was in the 80's, brightness was in the 40's, color was 50 and I think sharpness was 50 as well.

I use those settings for every input and think it looks fine to me (Standard cable, HD, DVD and my Xbox). I never had my TV calibrated professionally or with any of those CD's though. This is just based on what looked good to me.

[fishepa]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

The brand was Acoustic Research. Cheaper than Monster cables, but IMO it's just as good.

I second that. Monster is a complete waste of money IMO.

[Money99]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

Once you get HD and a big screen you can't go back. 720p is already amazing I shudder to think how good the next step is going to be.

Well you gusy were right. I got my HD receiver all setup and configured my TV for 1080i resolution and all I can say is 'wow!'. There's a channel on there that does nothing but promote the HD channels and shows short clips of nature (tigers, mountains, etc) to show off the technology. I was glued to that station and would constantly go back to it.
Finally, around 9:00 pm Smallville came on in HD. The picture was very clear but my wife and I thought that it looked like it normally does. So we flipped to where Smallville was playing in normal digital feed. It looked like we were viewing it through vaseline.
I can't wait to check out some sports with it. Tonight there's a preseason football game on in HD so I'll be watching it for sure.

[FISH]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

Enjoy my friend!

[SikWitIt]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

The digital optical cable I got is from Best Buy. The brand was Acoustic Research. Cheaper than Monster cables, but IMO it's just as good.

As for your settings on your DLP... One Samsung DLP will display different than another with the same exact settings. Not to mention our own vision and room settings are different so it's tough to give you exact settings.

My settings are off from what a lot of people on avsforum.com say to use, but my GF and I think it looks great so that's all that matters.

There are 3 picture modes in mine (Dynamic, Standard and Cinema). Many with a Sammy DLP use the Cinema setting. I don't like it and think it's too dark. I use Dynamic because the picture wasn't as dark and seemed more vibrant (whites are whiter and blacks seem blacker to me). Standard also seemed good. I'm at work and can't recall what my settings are exactly so this is a guess - contrast was in the 80's, brightness was in the 40's, color was 50 and I think sharpness was 50 as well.

I use those settings for every input and think it looks fine to me (Standard cable, HD, DVD and my Xbox). I never had my TV calibrated professionally or with any of those CD's though. This is just based on what looked good to me.

Thanks a lot, I agree with your i think Dynamic looks waay more vibrant. Standard is good too and i seem to use it for sports just because sometimes the green grass is a little straining on the eyes.

I use like 61 contrast 42 brightness 65 color and 50 sharpness on dynamic for my regular CAble and its awsome and similar ones except no sharpness for my dvd's.........and 78 contrast with the rest of the settings the same for my video games.

[koolbubbaice]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

I've also heard the DLP is the way to go at this moment, anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Based on a persons personal opinion.. Depends on what you are looking for in a display..

[rubisco43]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

For those looking for just OTA HD channels, is making a HTPC the way to go or just one of those roof antennas?

[Whaaaazuuuuup]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

has anyone found the SANYO 30' in their local Walmart? my lil brother is leaving for school and is looking to buy it but we can't seem to find it anywhere...

[colkilla]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

hey not sure if anyone has ever asked this, nor if anyone has the answer, but here goes; if you have an hdtv monitor and the set top box from your cable provider which has a dvr and allows you to watch hi-def programming, can you use the picture in picture feature on the tv to watch TWO programs at the same time in hi-def? provided the tv or the cable box has a two tuner function of course. also, could you watch a television program in hi-def and play say an xbox 360 game in the pip window at the same time? thanks if anyone has the answer.....

[ShaKobe]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

Not too sure what you're asking here, but I think I'll give it a try.

If you have two inputs, and you have them connected to your tv from two different connections, you can use PIP for each of them.

If you have one input, but that input source (cable box, dtv, etc) has built-in two tuner capability (never heard of this tho), then I don't think you can use your tv's PIP for this. I could be wrong tho, and you might be able to, but I don't see how your tv would be able to distinguish the two signals from the same source.

Also, you should have no problems playing XBox and watching tv with your PIP.




Ok, now for my question. Does anybody know of a good DVD player that has an HDMI connection, plays Divx format, burned DVDs, and as extra fluff, can upconvert to 1080i and has media slots for digital camera memory?

[Whaaaazuuuuup]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

anyone getting the "vertical white line" when playing dvd on your xbox? if so, how do you prevent this...

[Heelfan71]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

anyone getting the "vertical white line" when playing dvd on your xbox? if so, how do you prevent this...

where it the white line at on the screen??

[Whaaaazuuuuup]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

where it the white line at on the screen??

they're showing up vertically. i've got the xbox hooked up by components. the ps2 wires are hooked up by composite wires and looks decent...

[kodiak]

Re: Another HDTV questions info thread

I did not have a vertical white lines but a rolling horizontal one. Thought it was my TV, took it back, bought a completely different TV and still had it. It was interference that was causing it. I bough the monster power strip from BB for $120 and that took care of it. This power strip even has coax inputs and outputs so you can take the sat or cable line from outside to filter it before running it to the sat or cable box. I am sure yo ucan find one a little cheaper but for me it was worth it.