Samsung HL-S5686W 56-Inch DLP HDTV Review
What a great TV. Picture is awesome on DVD and HD. Standard def doesn’t look so hot, but that’s got more to do with the cable source (and the fact that my GF insists on watching standard def in stretched mode).
It also works great hooked up to a computer as a monitor. video streamed over the network looks really good, and it displays its native 1280 * 720 very nicely as a windows desktop. I bought a wireless keyboard – with mouse built in- from Fry’s, and now I really enjoy surfing the internet from my couch.
I bought this TV in February ‘07, when amazon had it on sale for ,250 with free shipping. What an awesome deal. Since we got this TV (which dwarfs the 30″ CRT that used to be our living room TV, but now lives in the bedroom), we’ve been watching everything from standard def to HD to tons of DVD’s — upscaled by our Sony upscaling player (also great, it remembers the position of the last 6 DVD’s and movied played on it through HDMI look wonderful). The difference from before we got the TV to now is so amazing it’s hard to describe. Though you get used to the awesomeness pretty quick, you still say to yourself “Man I love this TV” at least once a week. We now host a weekly LOST viewing every wednesday, and are looking for a new show to watch with our friends every week now that LOST is in reruns. My money is on Entourage.
My DVD collection has grown by leaps and bounds since I got this TV, largely thanks to blockbuster’s awesome and frequent used DVD deals. But, I digress, back to he TV. I love this TV so much I feel like I ripped Amazon off. Though it doesn’t do 1080p, there is no 1080p content on TV just yet so it looks as good as anything else can unless you’re a gamer or own an HD optical format player. Haven’t noticed a rainbow effect, and neither has the GF. We went to the store before buying this TV to see if we could see the rainbow effect and neither of us could. YMMV on that.
Pros: Great picture (after you mess with the menus a bit)
Can’t beat the price for this screen size with any other technology.
Great Build Quality (after 4 months of ownership)
Cons: It’ll need an expensive new bulb sometime next year at the rate we’re putting hours on it.
No 1080p
Remote sucks and is worthless (but, who actually uses the remote that came with their TV for anything except accessing he tv menu?)
Bottom line: You cannot beat this TV in terms of screen size, features or quality for the price.
Samsung HL-S5686W 56-Inch DLP HDTV Feature
- 56-inch Digital Light Projection (DLP) HDTV; measures 50.8 x 35.6 x 16.3 inches (WxHxD)
- Latest Texas Instruments DLP chip faster than any other HDTV technology
- 1280 x 720-pixel resolution; 2500:1 contrast ratio; 3-line digital comb filter; Cinema Smooth 3:2 pull-down film mode
- Connections: 3 composite A/V (1 front), 2 S-Video (1 front), 2 component (Y/Pb/Pr), 2 HDMI, 1 RF, 1 USB
- Two stereo speakers, 10 watts apiece (20 watts total); SRS TruSurround XT virtual surround
Samsung HL-S5686W 56-Inch DLP HDTV Overview
Samsung HL-S5686W 56″ DLP HDTV
Samsung HL-S5686W 56-Inch DLP HDTV Specifications
Amazon.com Product Description Get the sharpest and clearest images possible from HD and standard TV with with the 56-inch Samsung HL-S5686W DLP television. A contrast ratio of up to 2500:1 captures blacker blacks, crisper whites and images that burst into life. And the high-speed of the DLP chip, with millions of tiny mirrors that switch on and off over 15,000 times per second, delivers a precise, razor-sharp picture. It has a built-in analog/digital (NTSC/ATSC) tuner, offers both HDMI and component video connections, . It also measures just 16.3 inches deep (with a “hidden speaker” thin bezel), fitting where many other large-screen HDTVs won’t.
Samsung’s DNIe™
Samsung’s DNIe™ (click for demo) technology offers digital perfection in naturally presented, crystal-clear images that uncover even the most minute detail. |
Motion Optimizer: The visual data are automatically broken down into signal and noise and adjusted through a combined spatial/temporal process to eliminate noise and blurring without the slightest damage to the original signal. This guarantees the viewer a picture of astounding sharpness, whether the scene is still or moving. |
Contrast Enhancer: DNIe has done away with the unwanted side-effects that conventional contrast enhancement can produce, such as noise boost-up and flicker by developing an algorithm that recognizes over 1 million criteria for applying contrast. Its detail contrast enhancement technology can automatically analyze up to 70,000 local images within a frame, treating the viewer to a picture rich in contrast even in the tiniest details. |
Color optimizer: For each scene the color optimizer calculates the saturation of red, green, and blue in the input signal and adjusts it to the shades that the human eye accepts as natural. Even a conventional process like white tone enhancement produces more striking results when when used with DNIe. The end result is a palette of vivid hues and pure white tones to satisfy the most discerning viewers eye. |
Detail enhancer: Many viewers complain of the unnatural effect that conventional uniform detail enhancement produces by relying on artificial amplification of the input signal. In contrast, DNIe automatically analyzes the portion to be amplified, detecting and re-processing any noise or defect to bring the viewer a startlingly sharp and lifelike image. |
DLP (which stands for Digital Light Processing) uses an optical semiconductor to recreate source material with a fidelity analog systems can’t match. While other technologies lose a certain amount of light in transit, the microscopic mirrors in a DLP projection system bring more light from lamp to screen. It also features better color uniformity over time–no burn-in, screen aging or color-shifting possible. It’s the leading display technology for products like small portable conference room projectors and professional venue entertainment systems.
This Samsung DLP television employs a Texas Instruments DLP chip that is comprised of millions of microscopic mirrors. The DLP chip is faster than any HDTV technology, with the mirrors switching on and off 15,000 times a second to deliver a razor-sharp picture for fast moving images. It also offers Samsung’s Cinema Smooth 720p light engine, which creates an image with no visible pixel structure and accurate shading and better low-light detail for the most film-like picture. You’ll get up to a 2500:1 contrast ratio with outstanding colors and deep black levels.
The Samsung Digital Natural Image engine (DNIe) Video Enhancer refines all analog NTSC and wideband video inputs for an overall improvement in picture quality. DNIe improves contrast, white level, picture detail and incorporates digital noise reduction to improve lower quality video inputs. The 3-line digital comb filter constantly analyzes the three dimensions of picture height, picture width, and picture changes-over-time to dramatically reduce edge image artifacts while improving transition detail. Samsung’s Cinema Smooth 3:2 pull-down film mode corrects for the artificial frames created when films are converted to DVDs. The result is a clearer image without the subtle motion artifacts caused by 24-to-30 frames per second video conversion.
Samsung’s 2.6-inch color wheel spins at 14,400 rpm for smooth, fast motion video, and has five color segments for more accurate colors. It achieves film-like transitions without pixel breakup found in slower color wheel designs and slower switching LCD microdisplays. Air Bearing technology also makes it whisper quiet.
Samsung also worked closely with Microsoft to create a special Game Mode that optimizes image quality, sound and response time for more realistic video game play–with just a single touch of a button. The Game Mode enhances dark areas, sharpens the picture, speeds up the image processing response and enhances the sounds of your games.
Other features include:
- Picture format adjustment: Enjoy all your 4:3 aspect-ratio programming in smooth, wide-screen without black bars. Four pre-set aspect ratio modes–Normal, Wide, Zoom 1 and Zoom 2–stretch your image to fill the screen naturally.
- Color temperature adjustment: Selectable between Cool1, Cool2, Normal Warm1, and Warm2 with on-screen display.
- Auto volume leveler: Keeps audio volume consistent during channel changing to minimize static sound bursts.
- Discrete IR codes: This set is equipped with discrete IR codes for use with a macro/programmable remote.
- Closed caption: Displays dialog that can be read along with encoded broadcast TV programs and pre-recorded videos.
- V-Chip: Enables parental control for channel and program blocking of TV programs that incorporate the rating code signal.
High-quality virtual surround sound can be experienced with just the speakers built into the TV. SRS TruSurround XT technology delivers an amazing, simulated 3D effect with clear dialog and powerful bass. It produces 10 watts of power per channel (for 20 watts total). It offers the following connection options:
- Component (Y/Pb/Pr): 2 inputs
- HDMI: 2 inputs
- Composite (RCA audio/video): 3 inputs (1 on the front)
- S-Video: 2 inputs
- PC: 1 D-Sub-15 input
- PC audio: 1 input
- RF: 1 input
- Sound monitor output: 1
- USB: 1
Tech Talk
HDMI is a lossless, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface to link any audio/video source (such as a set-top box, DVD player, or AV receiver) with your TV–all over a single cable. HDMI supports standard, enhanced or high definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on a single cable. It supports all ATSC formats–standard (SDTV), enhanced (EDTV), and high (HDTV).
SRS TruSurround XT audio adds three new audio enhancement technologies to produce an amazingly immersive sound experience.
- Dialog Clarity brings movie dialog into ÒfocusÓ during the playback of any surround-encoded material to make speech much clearer and crisper.
- TruBass creates incredible deep rich bass allowing a person to perceive significantly deeper, richer low bass tones that are far beyond the physical low frequency capabilities of the speaker itself.
- The SRS WOW feature widens the soundstage by processing standard two-channel stereo material as well as multi-channel encoded material for a dramatic improvement in the playback of any stereo audio over a two-speaker system.
Component video (also called Y/Pb/Pr) features a three-jack video input, which provides separate connections for luminance (Y), blue color difference (PB) and red color difference (PR). This results in increased bandwidth for color information, resulting in a more accurate picture with clearer color reproduction and less bleeding than you would get with S-Video or composite (RCA yellow video plug) connections. You will need a separate RCA left/right audio cable for sound.
What’s in the Box
DLP TV, remote control (with batteries), power cord, printed operating instructions.
Warranty
It’s backed by a 1-year warrant on parts (including lamp) and labor, with in-home service backed by Samsung toll-free support.
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Customer Reviews
Don’t waste your money – W. R. Nichols Sr. –
A TRUE POS, after 2 months, had to replace color generator, glad it was under warrenty, after 2 1/2 years of limited use, white dots, now 11, appear on screen, Samsung says this is normal due to DMD chip, BULL, it is a poorly manufactued
product, they even put an insert in the owners manuel saying this is normal due to
manufactoring process, SEE numerous online reviews of people with same problem, HOPE you bought extended warrenty, I didn’t becasue of Samsungs good rep, BUYERS BEWARE!!! SAMSUNG will not fix problem, buy DMD chip set for 9.00, install
yourself.
Do not buy Samsung – William D. Turnipseed –
I purchased a Samsung television about eighteen months ago. Two weeks ago the picture became all distorted. Since my television warranty was through Circuit City I had no choice but to call a television repair person out to look at it. As soon as he walked in the door he knew what the issue was. He told me that the part would cost almost as much as the television and that his recommendation was to throw away the television and purchase another one. After doing some research I discovered that there were quite a few Samsung televisions that were going out and that the parts were on backorder for about a month. Samsung was also not helpful. I trying to discuss this with SamsungTweets on Twitter, but he blocked me when I asked why nobody called me like he said they would. The only other answer I got from Samsung was that I needed to take it to a service center; this is after I told them that a television repair person had looked at it. From what I can tell from looking on television repair forums, Samsung televisions look to be pretty flakey.
Worst TV ever!! – Adipolle – Austin, TX
Our 56 inch Samsung DLP TV worked fine for a year and then just become completely unreliable and shuts off every day. Found a dozen forums with complaints about Samsung DLP’s-stay away from Samsung DLP’s. TV keeps shutting off every couple of hours. Worst 00 I ever spent-buy LCD’s or Plasma. I bought a 42″ LCD(Magnavox) 2 years ago-not one single problem-play Xbox 360 on it every day.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 05, 2010 18:58:52
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