samsung txm3096whf picture distortions

[terpswin]

Hello,

I bought this TV a couple of weeks ago (Best Buy ~$850). I have Comcast digital cable in Montgomery County, Maryland with a Motorola HD cable box.

My picture is a distorted. Vertical lines are not straight.

Watching non-HD channels, there is a very noticeable shift towards the outer side edge of the screen which gets worse closer to the top and a slight shift towards the center which is worst near the bottom of the screen. When watching in the unstretched 4:3 mode, this creates an hour glass pattern to the edges between the picture and the gray/black side filler.

For HD channels, this effect is even more pronounced and the top distortion bows back in towards the center at the very top. If the program is truly in a wide format, this ranges from barely noticeable to very annoying if the picture is panning across small details. It then looks like the picture is being viewed through a bent piece of glass all the way across the screen and inch or two from the top. For content that is 4:3 with the black side panels added by the TV station, there is the hour glass edge with a bulge near the top in the shape of parentheses.

For DVD's (I haven't bought a progressive scan model yet), when I watch a wide format movie in 16:9 using the component video cables, the distortion appears to be small, similar to the non-HD channels.

Anyway, my cable signal is a bit weak and Comcast is going to replace my 'drop' - the cable that runs under my lawn - because the cable guy thought that might be causing the distortion. I am skeptical.

I can still exchange the set at Best Buy, so I don't think the warranty service will come into play. But this will be a pain because the box was destroyed since I followed the directions and pulled the tab and rip-cord to unpack the set.

Does anyone have similar experiences or know if there is anything else I should try prior to exchanging the set?

[Skyboss]

Try replacing your cables. It sounds like you may have some magnetic distortion. :D

[terpswin]

Thanks, I may try it, but the cables are brand new. The componet cables were provided by Comcast with initial installation and the Coax from the wall were replaced during a subsequent service call. Could the interference be happening somewhere else, before the signal reaches that room? What sort of devices could create such magnetic fields?

[twonami]

tweak it but be careful.
To access the service menu turn off the TV and press 'mute', '1', '8', and '2' and power on to access it.
make sure you know what you are doing.
I had the same problem when I got mine and tweaking it made all the difference. Also get a reference dvd with test patterns in it.

[terpswin]

See this other board (http://www.***************.com/htsthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB36&Number=407872&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1 ) for a continuation on my story:

[terpswin]

Oh, I see, links to the other board are forbidden here. Seems kind of silly, but since I'm a newbie here I'll reserve judgement. Do a google search for "My TXN3071WHF Story".

Anyway, I ended up returning the 3096 to Best Buy. They only had it's replacement, the TXN3071WHF, in stock, so I exchanged it for one of those. The geometry was much better, but still needed tweaking in the service menu using lots of great details from that other board. I now know that the more bizarre distortions in the 3096 may have been fixable with similar adjustments, but I am happy to own the updated version.

[diwakarv]

Greetings:

This is my first post. I saw the post by terpswin and want to share my own experience with the samsung television.

I have a KD-34XS955, sony 34" CRT HDTV. The picture is excellent, both in 16:9 and 4:3 mode.

I bought a TXR3079WH, the samsung 30" slimfit CRT HDTV. At the store I only saw the picture in 16:9 mode and assumed 4:3 picture would look fine. It does not. When I switch to 4:3 mode, the gray bars on the side of the tv looked funny. First I thought it was an optical illusion caused by the images I was watching on the screen. But then I saw that at the top of the tv where the vertical gray bar meets the top edge of the tv, the bars bow outward. I notice similar behaviour on the bottom on the screen, but not as pronounced. Now, I now that cables, magnetic distortion (not because of the tv itself) was causing all this. So I went to the store. I tuned their samsung slimfit tv to the 4:3 mode, and the their tv showed the same behaviour. So I went one step further, I tried a different samsung HDTV model, and it showed the same effect. Now I mentioned that my sony does not do that. That tv has perfect vertical lines, I tuned the sony hdtv in the store to the 4:3 mode, and that tv also had perfect vertical lines.


Please help me understand what I need to change in the samsung tv settings to make the picture better.

Thanks,

Diwakar