Samsung LCD's with an HTPC

[timmay01]

Hey guys,

I'm considering the Samsung 46a650, and would be using it purely for an htpc setup. It's surprisingly hard to find out details about this though. A couple questions...

1. I plan to have the PC go into standby when idle, and (of course) cut the video signal to the TV. A normal LCD monitor would automatically go into standby mode. Does the Samsung LCD do so too? I've seen some online reports that it stays on with "no signal" displayed instead (argh!), but there's no confirmation. Some say VGA works, DVI not. Anyone tried it?

2. While I'm asking, are there any drawbacks to running an HTPC over DVI/HDMI to this TV? Does just-scan fill the LCD screen with a 1080p 1:1 pixel mapping? It's been noted that you need to run HDMI2 in PC-mode, and that you lose settings when that's the case. Are the settings really useful?

Not sure if anyone tries this with their Samsung, but figured it was worth a shot. Thanks!

-Tim

 

[aznconfused]

I have the 52" 650 series and although I have not hooked up my pc to the tv, I do believe the tv goes to the black screen "no signal" display when my ps3 idled for a long time. Also, a few Samsung A650 tvs have a problem with automatically turning off by itself. A firmware update has been released to fix the problem. The following models are affected:
? LN40A650A1F
? LN46A650A1F
? LN52A650A1F
Mine happened to be one of those so I got a replacement. You could shell out the extra cash for a 750 as they do not have that problem.

 

[krotchy]

Originally posted by: aznconfused
You could shell out the extra cash for a 750 as they do not have that problem.

You said it yourself, the 650's don't have the problem after a firmware replacement. There is no reason to shell out 200-300 extra dollars for something that has been fixed for months.

 

[weeber]

Timmay,

I've got a Samsung 4665 hooked up to my HTPC, without any problems. To address your concerns.

1. My TV does not go to standby when the PC goes to standby. Indeed, the blue "no signal" box appears when my PC goes to standby. However, the blue box flashes, so image retention is not a problem. It doesn't bother me, it just reminds me to turn off the TV if I forget.

2. I have my HTPC hooked up via the DVI/HDMI connector. Most of the time I leave my TV set to "Just Scan" which is 1:1 pixel mapping, and it works great. On some broadcast programming for the TV shows I record, I need to set the TV to 16:9 which provides a little bit of overscan.

I don't know anything about HDMI2 and having to run it in PC-mode. My HTPC is hooked up the HDMI2, and I'm not running it PC mode.

 

[timmay01]

Thanks for the comments! Weeber, some quick replies...

Originally posted by: weeber
1. My TV does not go to standby when the PC goes to standby. Indeed, the blue "no signal" box appears when my PC goes to standby. However, the blue box flashes, so image retention is not a problem. It doesn't bother me, it just reminds me to turn off the TV if I forget.

Argh. That may be a dealbreaker for me (I use it for power-savings purposes too). Good to know though.

Anyone know of an LCD TV that does go into standby when the video is cut?

2. I have my HTPC hooked up via the DVI/HDMI connector. Most of the time I leave my TV set to "Just Scan" which is 1:1 pixel mapping, and it works great. On some broadcast programming for the TV shows I record, I need to set the TV to 16:9 which provides a little bit of overscan.

Does the Just Scan mode fill the screen perfectly (like a regular lcd monitor), or leave either a black border or overscan?

Thanks for the details, weeber. Helped me big time.

-Tim

 

[weeber]

Just Scan fills the screen perfectly as long as you have the graphics adapter set to the proper resolution (1920x1080). Going to 16:9 adds a little bit of overscan to the picture which I have to do for some television shows because the closed captioning signal shows up as little squiggly lines at the top of the picture in Just Scan mode. These squiggly lines are normally cut off on a normal television because of overscan which is built in to every TV. Basically I leave my TV set to Just Scan for the frontend use and for playing games, and there is nothing cutoff. Keep in mind that the latest Nvidia and probably ATI (not familiar with ATI) also allow for image adjustments so that you can recenter, shrink, and expand the image to fill the screen so that there's no black border or overscan. It wasn't an issue for me, my Samsung did fine out of the box, but it may not be that big of deal on other TVs that don't have this feature.

I don't see why the blue box issue would be a deal-breaker, but maybe there's a TV that doesn't do this. Offhand, I don't know.

Glad I could help.