The Samsung HLT6187S is from Samsung’s latest series of slim rear projection DLP HDTV’s. The new slim LED light engine has this set down to 14.4″ thick and the bezel around the TV is only 0.6″ to really cut down on size so this TV will take up a lot less room than older rear projection TV’s. For such a huge HDTV (it measures 54.8″ x 37.8″ x 14.4″ or 4.57’ x 3.15’ x 1.2’) it is relatively light at only 74.7 pounds. It offers a full 1080p HD picture on the large 61″ screen with hidden speakers on each side offering SRS TruSurround XT sound. The new LED light engine has the best color and energy efficiency of any rear projection HDTV and doesn’t include any arc lamps or color wheels. This means this TV will last much longer than any other HDTV’s on the market.
DLP Technology on the Samsung HLT6187S
Digital Light Processing (DLP) was developed way back in 1987 by Texas Instruments but hasn’t become a practical technology until more recently. DLP has become the leading display technology for rear projection TV’s. The other major two are LCD and LCoS but with recent advances in DLP it has come to rival the Plasma and LCD flat panel displays that are most common. It has definite advantages over these though. There is no possibility for phosphor burn-in like a plasma screen, much less screen door effect than a LCD, a smother more jitter free picture than both plasma and LCD, and is considerably cheaper than LCD or plasma. The color gamut is also much wider than that of a LCD or plasma meaning it can show more colors at any one time.
With the ultra slim LED light engine that Samsung has developed there is no need for a lamp like in plasma or LCD displays that will need replacing every few years and can run up as much as $300. Not to mention that a burnt out lamp will put your TV out of commission until a technical repair guy can come and replace it. The color wheel is also unnecessary now. It makes the TV run quieter and it’s a moving part that can’t break anymore and need replacing. The LED will last the life of the HDTV, no replacements needed.
DLP works by using millions of microscopic mirrors that switch on and off 15,000 times a second reflecting colors from the LED light engine to the screen. This makes for a razor-sharp picture with fast moving images. The DLP chip is much faster than any other HDTV technologies.
The HL T6187S’s Picture and Visual Display:
The Samsung Cinema Smooth light engine uses three LED lights, a blue, red, and green, to create images on the screen. This gets rid of the “rainbow effect” that is sometimes a problem for DLP technology televisions. It also makes a crisper image with much less screen door effect. In its sixth year of evolution they have created a high definition chip that delivers extremely high contrast with very defined edges and sharp detail.
The picture on the Samsung HLT6187S is a large 1920 x 1080 resolution which means pictures can be displayed in up to 1080i or even 1080p. The number is the number of horizontal lines on the screen, because the horizontal resolution is 1080 it can fit 1080 horizontal lines. If you are wondering what the difference between i and p is, the i stands for interlaced and the p stands for progressive. It is how the image is shown on the screen. An interlaced image refreshes all the odd lines at once and then all the even lines at once while a progressive image refreshes all together. The progressive image is better because each line gets refreshed twice as much.
The screen has a 16:9 aspect ratio. This is the standard ratio for all widescreen televisions so it isn’t anything special. It would be very difficult to find a set that didn’t conform to this standard but the picture would look really weird if you did buy one. The standard for regular non-widescreen televisions is 4:3. There is nothing very special about the aspect ratio, your TV is either going to have a regular screen with 4:3 or a widescreen with 16:9.
The contrast ratio on this HDTV is 10,000:1. This is the ratio of the luminosity of the brightest color to the darkest color. The 10,000:1 is a dynamic ratio which means it is what the system is capable of producing over time, not necessarily all on the screen at once like a static contrast ratio would compare. A 10,000:1 dynamic ratio might show a contrast that isn’t quite as good as a 10,000:1 static ratio if it is an image with a large range of brightness (really bright colors with really dark blacks) but it is such a high ratio that it would hardly be noticeable and for the number of times that situation will occur it isn’t a big deal. Some older HDTV’s have a contrast ratio under 1,000:1 and the picture is still high definition so this 10,000:1 ratio, even though dynamic, will be more than enough.
The DLP technology has a bit of a smaller viewing angle than a LCD or plasma. While these other HDTV technologies have about 178° this television is only viewable within a 140° angle. That is usually more than enough though. If you think about it, there is 180° you can see the front of the screen from, this means with only 140° of it being viewable there is 20° on both sides where the picture isn’t deemed viewable. Who is going to watch a TV in those 20° though? It is pretty difficult to see the TV from there anyways even if the viewing angle was 180°.
The Samsung HLT6187S has a 120 Hz refresh rate. This is double that of some other HDTV’s which only have a 60 Hz refresh rate. The refresh rate is the number of frames shown per second. At 120 Hz the video frames will refresh 120 times per second and will in turn create a much smoother and more solid picture. This is especially noticeable if you are watching something that is fast-action like sports or playing video games.
Sound on the Samsung HL-T6187S 61 inch DLP
The Samsung HLT6187S comes with two 10 watt speakers that are hidden on the sides of the set. The speakers use a technology Samsung calls SRS TruSurround. It offers a simulated 3D surround sound experience from just the two speakers. It is pretty high quality stereo sound and although it obviously isn’t a full surround sound system it does a good job. There is balance, bass, and treble audio controls along with a 5-band equalizer to optimize your sound.
Connections on Samsung’s HLT6187S 61″ DLP
The High-Definition Multimedia Interface is the new connection of choice for high definition devices. It carries the best HD signal from a device to the HDTV. Three connections is a great amount, you can connect a video game system like a Xbox 360 or PS3 and a HD DVD or Blu-Ray Player and still have a connection to spare.
A Video Graphics Array input is generally used to connect a computer or laptop to your HDTV to use it as a monitor.
The USB connection can be used to play music or show pictures off any device with a USB connection.
The component video connections split the video signal into 3 parts and have an increased bandwidth for color information. They can transmit high definition signals in 1080p. Lots of DVD players and things like that use these connections
Another connection that can transmit signals from computers or things like DVD players. The video signal is transported in 2 parts
A single video signal that contains all the information. Not as good as the HD component or S-Video connections.
This connection can be used for sending the Dolby Digital audio of HDTV broadcasts to an A/V receiver with Dolby Digital decoding
Used for connecting your HDTV to a stereo or home theatre system.
Other Notable Features
The Samsung HLT6187S comes with a game mode that will enhance game console performance by quickening the response time and enhancing the graphics and sound. Connecting a USB drive to your HDTV with either pictures or MP3’s on it will allow you to browse through your pictures or listen to your music. It can custom label channels and there is a parental control to control which channels your kids can watch. It has video noise reduction that can filter out unwanted noise from the signal. 3:2 pulldown compensation that will correct artifacts and distortion that happen when film-based material at 24 frames per second gets converted to your television that is 60 fields per second. The swivel stand can be controlled by the remote so you can turn the screen to the optimal angle for wherever you are sitting. There is also picture-in-picture so you can do things like use your computer while watching TV all on one screen.
Possibly its nicest feature is the Digital Natural Image engine (DNIe). The DNIe is unique technology Samsung has developed to optimize whatever signal it is using as input to create the best possible picture output. The signal is passed through a six-times density enhancer, motion optimizer, contrast enhancer, detail enhancer, color optimizer, and image optimizer and continues to make the Samsung 61″ HL-T6187S one of the most desired and best selling set of any HDTV on the market in late 2007!
