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When I read about this fact in one of my magazines, I thought what is the point ? Why have the capability of 120 Hz if it is not going to allow for 5:5 pulldown on 24 fps signals or even 4:4 for 30 fps ? I thought 120 Hz was going to be such a wonderful thing because it simplifies processing and...

NO. One word or maybe it is two... macroblocking. Do a search.

Sorry... I can only confirm this problem with Samsung DLPs. My Samsung has it and every other Samsung I have seen has it as well. Based on my experience with my Samsung, I helped my parents pick out a Sony SXRD. I would not sleep well if I had steered them to a Sammy and the macro-blocking...

Take a DVD with lots of dark scenes (like Harry Potter & GoF -or- Pirates of the Car.) to your local TV retailer and play the DVD on both televisions. It probably won't matter what DVD player you use, but make sure you run through some dark scenes. I am willing to bet you will see a clear...

I generally don't like Terk products, but Terk may have the best HDMI switch. No power or remote is required. Terk's switch senses which HDMI input device is "on" and automatically switches to that device. The only drawback might be if you plan to have more than one HDMI device on at the same...

Macro-blocking is evident in many HD broadcasts, but it is much less severe. I don't know the exact cause, but macro-blocking is definitely worse and more evident with SD programming. For the most part, heavier video compression = heavier macro-blocking. It is particularly severe in longer...

If you intend to view standard DVDs and SD programming, stay away from Samsung and the "macro-blocking" monster. The Sony SXRD's do not have this issue and are a much better choice for non-HD viewing.

I have a Samsung DLP, and sad to say there is no real fix for the macro-blocking problem. I've talked to high-level Samsung techs, but to no avail. I've also tried a number of different DVD players and even had my set professionally calibrated. The calibration improved the color, but had only...

One other question. What is needed for a video card to be HDCP compliant ? Is it hardware, software, both, or either ? I guess I am just wondering if it is possible to make a card HDCP compliant via a simple driver download. It looks like nVidia's latest drivers support HDCP, but I am assuming...

I've stumbled on to a lot of "overscan" discussion at AVS forum, but I have not dug too deeply. At this point, I would be happy to just be able to deal with overscan from my video card. It is perplexing though... why should the video card output be any different from any other source device ???

The analog (VGA) output on the HP z558 isn't too bad, but it does fall short of HD quality and the real problem is that the VGA output does not fill the entire screen. This is normal per the Samsung literature, but I am not sure of the reason. DVI will fill the entire screen and may even result...

Oh believe me, I have tried different cables. I think I have tried 4 different DVI to DVI cables and three different DVI to HDMI cables. Samsung's literature suggests a DVi-D Single Link is needed, and that is what I have currently. I used the DVI to DVI cables with my Dell LCD monitor just to...

A Gateway ??? Well, they do a good job of hiding the fact that they sell a true media center PC. I looked at Gateway when I was researching what to buy, and I did not find any dedicated HTPC products on Gateway's website. It seemed the only big players were HP and Sony, though I did consider the...

One good piece of evidence that the HTPC market is expanding is the growing number of video cards with HDMI out. This is one reason I have not given up hope on using the HDMI input on the Samsung. I will try several more video cards before I do give up and just replace the Samsung. Chris, do...

You are exaggerating, right ? I know the numbers aren't very high, but I would have guessed somewhere in the 5-10% range... at least in terms of those putting serious money down (say $2000 or more) on an HDTV. And the interest in HTPC''s seems to be growing, albeit slowly. Even if HTPC users...

Thanks for the input everyone. I have done everything I can think of with the video cards and drivers, but nothing works. I've also contacted the video card manufacturer and HP, but they were of little help and did not suggest any settings different from what I was running with VGA. My VGA...

I recently purchased an HP z558 digital entertainment center computer for use with my Samsung DLP display. I thought it would be great to use as a DVR and eventually use to download movies once NetFlix is up and running with their download service. However, I have not been able to get the...

I've always found LCD monitors have an unnatural look. Colors seem to have an artificial glow and still do, even with some of the improvements mentioned.

Sounds like "macro-blocking". Common in DLPs and awful on my Samsung, but I have not heard of this problem on plasmas. On my Samsung, it is just poor processing of compressed video. A professional calibration may help a little, but it won't get rid of the problem. My Samsung was professionally...

Don't think so. I believe VGA is an analog device. There are video cards out there now that have HDMI outputs.

Thanks for clarifying Michael. I will have to keep this in mind when I started shopping this fall. Unfortunately, I don't think Sony will bring out a 55" XBR and I am not sure I could afford the XBR anyway. Perhaps the new A3000 line will not have this issue. I think the 120 Hz response and 3 x...

Is this really true ? I've been reading up on the SXRD sets quite a bit lately and I have never heard this as an advantage for the XBRs. In fact, I have heard just the opposite. I've heard that the HD picture (when fed an HD signal) is identical between the A2000 and XBR lines. The big advantage...

Thanks Jim !!! I've not heard of Monoprice, but looks like they have a great variety of audio/video accessories. Their pricing looks decent too. I think I will be ordering both of the items you recommended.

My Samsung DLP has only one HDMI input, and now I need a second for an HP media center PC. I was just curious if there is any signal degradation when using an HDMI switch ? My thought is that there should be no signal degradation if the signal is pure digital, which can't be said for analog...

I think this may be called "silk screen effect". My Samsung DLP has this same issue. My screen sparkles or shimmers during bright scenes with a mostly white background. It looks very unnatural. I am not sure of the cause, but I think it is fairly common on rear projection units. Turning down...

I have a Samsung and I can wholeheartedly validate this statement. If watching DVDs is a big part of your TV viewing and you don't intend to upgrade to HD DVD or Blu-Ray soon, do not buy a Samsung. The Sony SXRD sets perform much better in this area... better blacks, and no noticeable video...

The Sony SXRD sets are much much much better for DVD playback than any DLPs I have seen, particularly for dark scenes. And personally I don't understand what is so great about "picture-in-picture". I have it on my current set and had it on my previous set, and I've never used it. Does anyone...

I believe the player would only need to upscale. DVD content is 480i.

BTW, the Sony player is very good in my opinion. I actually had the original Oppo player with DVI and sent it back because of awful macro-blocking on my Samsung DLP. I still have macro-blocking during dark scenes but it is not nearly as bad with the Sony player. I should have mentioned that...

I don't think there is any other answer than to use the HDMI connection with 1080i setting since it is the closest to your native TV resolution of 1080p. I have the same Sony DVD player and it can scale to 720p or 1080i through the HDMI output. Being that your TV and DVD player are both Sony...