Just wanted to spread a little knowledge to the masses concerning Samsung's new R88 series. From what I have seen the uk batch of tv's seem to have varying types of fault. I have seen 3 different sets (2 in my home and 1 display model in my local Curry's outlet) and all 3 had different faults. Firstly the Curry's shop model had a problem with the volume touch sensitive controls and subsequently no sound emmited from the set. Of course this should of set alarm bells ringing, but I was so taken by the sets features and picture that I presumed that the set was faulty because it was the display model. However when I got home with a brand new boxed model I took it out of the box and set it on its new stand and proceeded to switch it on. 30 seconds later the set switched itself OFF!, and then automatically switched itself back on. It then proceeded to carry on this cylce every 30 seconds!!....Not happy. So after frantic menu searching in the 30 seconds that I had to detrmine if there was a particular setting that could be causing the switch off, I reluctantly phoned the shop help line only for the person at the other end tell me that the tv was knackered. Anyway I returned the tv to the shop and was given another brand new set. Well, when I got this set turned on more problems ensued. To begin with when the set came on from standby, blue and green vertical lines would flash up on the screen and dissappear. It was if the screen was knackered, but it did go away insatntly with no remaining artifacts left on the screen. All slightly disconcerting. Then, a message would appear in red letters along the top of the screen detailing the tv's range, size and a counting running clock which wouldn't go away....at all!! And on top of that when I used the remote control to adjust the settings, the incriments of the scales would go up in 5's instead of single incraments. So again I was back on the phone to the help line who was able to talk me through a system reset, which I have to say worked apart from the scary blue green lines at switch on. Anyway the straw that broke my patience was when the screen would cut-out when the picture on the screen would change from light to dark especially in strobe lights (I was watching the credit sequence of the original Blade movie). I managed to find out that the screen can be sensitive to this signal and could be tweaked by using the "backlight" feature, but when I tried to rectifiy it only made it worse!! So in it went back into its box and another trek back to the shop with the tv in the back of the car. I must say through all of this that I must congratulte the helpfullness of the Curry's staff who by the end of this escapade new me by my first name every time I entered their shop, and especially as I was on nightshifts and needless to say my temper tolerance was greatly reduced. Anyway I came away with the 42" Phillips PL5522 and a free HDMI cable for my troubles which I am greatly happy with. So if you are thinking about this range of Samsung's, please think again. By all means try one out in the shop, but I had 2 brand new, out-of-the-box sets and nothing but trouble. Which is a shame as they look beutiful and have great picture colour. Has anybody else had any problems, or is it just my luck? lol.
I had an LG 37" to start with but after 5 visits from the "Tech Guys" Curry's decided to replace the set. I was "advised" to take the Sharp Aquos 37". The picture quality was brilliant but the sound was terrible so I returned it the same day. I was going to go for a Sony Bravia but the store manager recommended the Samsung R88. BIG MISTAKE!!! The first one I got had terrible sound. The second one had purples and greens filtering through in dark areas of a program and the third (current)is driving me nuts. It went crazy one day and the picture went all "shimmery" like it was struggling to refresh. Then the next day it took about 2 mins to come on and the picture was back to normal. Samsung have agreed to take it back but I don,t know what to go for now. Is the new Sony a good LCD TV (40")? All advise would be gratefully appreciated.
