Hi Larry,
I second everything posted by Bruceomega, and for that matter by all the others above. We were an early DLP adopter. Our Samsung HLM437W actually came off the first boatload to reach these shores, before the first ever TVA power buy on avsforum.
The DVI/HDMI connection Bruceomega mentioned is indeed critical for best PQ. Both our digital STB (for TV) and our DVD player (Denon 3910) have DVI video outputs. Do not even consider a source for use with a digital display that lacks a DVI or HDMI output. PQ suffers significantly with an analog video connection.
Every display technology has pluses and minuses. DLP suffers from rainbows, black levels that don't quite match the best CRT's and a somewhat disconcerting lack of focus during fast camera pans. Not everyone sees rainbows (we don't), and I'm reluctant to describe them since looking for them makes them more noticeable for many people. DLP black levels have improved since the HLM series and we're quite satisfied with ours. Careful setup, including a couple of service menu tweaks, can produce a very satisfactory gray scale. The soft image during fast pans is also something many people don't notice until it's pointed out to them, so don't read the preceding paragraph! ;-)
We bought from Tweeter and took their extended service plan for 5 years. (Early adopter nervousness.) That has worked out well. The most frequent problem on early Samsung DLP's was the infamous "three blinking lights" problem, which meant the light bulb or bulb detector switch was wonky. Tweeter fixed ours in 2 days. People without such coverage sometimes waited much longer.
Bring some favorite movies with you on your next visit and you can see the PQ for yourself. We could watch something from our pathetic library of course, but if there's something you're familiar with it might be more helpful.
Cheers,
Doug
I second everything posted by Bruceomega, and for that matter by all the others above. We were an early DLP adopter. Our Samsung HLM437W actually came off the first boatload to reach these shores, before the first ever TVA power buy on avsforum.
The DVI/HDMI connection Bruceomega mentioned is indeed critical for best PQ. Both our digital STB (for TV) and our DVD player (Denon 3910) have DVI video outputs. Do not even consider a source for use with a digital display that lacks a DVI or HDMI output. PQ suffers significantly with an analog video connection.
Every display technology has pluses and minuses. DLP suffers from rainbows, black levels that don't quite match the best CRT's and a somewhat disconcerting lack of focus during fast camera pans. Not everyone sees rainbows (we don't), and I'm reluctant to describe them since looking for them makes them more noticeable for many people. DLP black levels have improved since the HLM series and we're quite satisfied with ours. Careful setup, including a couple of service menu tweaks, can produce a very satisfactory gray scale. The soft image during fast pans is also something many people don't notice until it's pointed out to them, so don't read the preceding paragraph! ;-)
We bought from Tweeter and took their extended service plan for 5 years. (Early adopter nervousness.) That has worked out well. The most frequent problem on early Samsung DLP's was the infamous "three blinking lights" problem, which meant the light bulb or bulb detector switch was wonky. Tweeter fixed ours in 2 days. People without such coverage sometimes waited much longer.
Bring some favorite movies with you on your next visit and you can see the PQ for yourself. We could watch something from our pathetic library of course, but if there's something you're familiar with it might be more helpful.
Cheers,
Doug