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August 21, 2006

I finally pulled the trigger and replaced my 12 year old CRT based television with a brand spankin' new Samsung HD-S5687-W 56" 1080p DLP TV. One of the things I really like about the Samsung DLP TV's is how tweakable they are beyond the standard user settings.

Samsung TV's have what's known as a service menu, a special menu that's used by service technicians and calibrators to test and tweak various aspects of the TV beyond what's available in the user menus.

To access the service menu on the HLS models, make sure your TV is turned off then enter the following sequence on your remote:

Mute --> 1 --> 8 --> 2 --> Power

You'll now be in the service menu where you can view stats such as how many hours you've watched on your current lamp, view various test patterns (more on this in a later post), and tweak all sorts of settings for the TV.

Two words of caution for using the service menu:

  1. Upon entering the service menu, and user defined settings you may have made in the user menus will be lost. It's a good idea to write them down before entering the service menu as you'll need to reenter them after you exit
  2. DO NOT MESS WITH SETTINGS IN THE SERVICE MENU UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY ARE FOR. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR TV RESULTING FROM ANYTHING YOU READ HERE, OR THAT YOU DO ON YOUR OWN!

Comments
Simeon's Gravatar So I put in the code you mentioned and was playing around with the menu's, but then the tv turned off. I cant turn it back on. Will you buy me a new tv?

But seriously, I love playing with the stuff I am not supposed to on my gadgets, Its so much fun to make them do something you know your not supposed to. So much fun to tweak :)
# Posted By Simeon | 8/21/06 6:59 PM
Rob Brooks-Bilson's Gravatar Lol!!

I've been going crazy with my home audio/video/networked stuff lately. Seems like everyhing I buy has some sort of issue that requires me to learn a great deal about how it works in order to deal with tech support. I have a whole short series of blog posts on the way about the fun I've had in the past week ;-)
# Posted By Rob Brooks-Bilson | 8/21/06 7:04 PM
omar's Gravatar hi, i have a HL-5688W 56" dlp it has come to may attn that all samsung dlp's have a great deal of noise. i was at bestbuy ealier today and comfimed this, every sansung dlp has alot more noise than any other dlp. WHY? and how can i get rid of it some one told me to turn off dnle i did it help just a little. can you help me?
# Posted By omar | 10/9/06 8:26 PM
Sue's Gravatar Does anyone know how to access the service menu of a Centrex tv ????
# Posted By Sue | 10/16/06 9:57 AM
Rob Brooks-Bilson's Gravatar Hi Sue,

Have you tried asking around over on the AVS Forum:

http://www.avsforum.com/

There's a lot of really good info there, and a strong community of AV enthusiasts who could probably answer your question(s) regarding the Centrex.
# Posted By Rob Brooks-Bilson | 10/16/06 3:23 PM
Douglas's Gravatar OK, now where do I find information of what does each entry in the menu mean? Example: if I chose Options, then there is one option which is Digital --> DMD and there is another for DMD --> Digital. What do those mean? What will happen if I selectone of them?
# Posted By Douglas | 10/23/06 11:40 PM



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