Samsung HLT5687SAX Reviews

Great while it lasted - 2.5 years and no color red.
by Jordan Lund from Portland, OR USA, 2010-01-17

This was my 2nd HDTV, the first being a rear projection unit. The picture was sharp and beautiful from July, 2007 up until January, 2010 at which point the red LED burned out. Researching this online while staring at a blue-green picture I found that this make and model of Samsung has this problem ALL THE TIME.

In fact, I got pretty lucky that it lasted 2.5 years. Some folks have this happen after just 12, 15 or 18 months.

The red LED can be obtained for around $100 but there's a 4 week backorder on it. Something tells me that's another indication how common the problem is. I could buy a light engine for $1000 but that would be throwing another grand at a set that still has a weak red LED.

Red LED dies far too early
by Jeff Nick from Washington DC, 2009-12-01

Red LED died about 18 months after purchase, conveniently past the 1-year warranty mark. Seems to be a pretty common occurrence if you search around for Samsung LED DLPs issues. Replacing the LED unit is very expensive, sometimes half the cost of the TV value. The failure rate is so bad that Samsung is stopping (or has stopped?) production on all LED DLPs. Go with bulb-based if you're getting a rear projection TV. Reliability is perhaps the most important feature of a large screen TV for me, which this TV seems to fail miserably at.

15 months only
by p and j , 2009-06-23

This TV was fine for 15 months, and then the red led or something to that effect failed today so we now have a blue-green tv. Of course amazon only has a 30 day warranty and samsung only has a 365 day warranty (unless you pay extra)so we are stuck. I will post again if the local repair facility is able to fix it in a short and cost effective manner.
If not, my advice is to not buy from samsung.

Fantastic HDTV
by Bokonon , 2009-04-11

I've had this TV for just over a year now. All I can say is that if you can still find one at any kind of reasonable price, buy it. This is very possibly the best technology/electronics purchase I've ever made (and I've made a lot more than a few).

The picture on this thing is just tremendous. One of the outstanding features of it is how great regular, standard-def channels look on it...particularly compared to some I've seen on some LCDs and plasmas. The HD is flat-out stunning. A bonus is its' very low max power consumption of 230 watts. There are smaller screen plasmas out there that take 500 - 550 watts. No thanks -- I live in Ohio where electricity is expensive.

I have an unusual shaped den that has kind of a largish niche in one wall, so I didn't need a flat panel for (presumably) space-saving purposes. This thing is still only about 11 inches deep. An old-style 26" tube set is probably a lot thicker than this.

After I had it for a month or two and realized it was the best TV I'd ever owned (and was definitely a keeper), I bought two cabinets to put on either side to hold the DVD player, TIVO, etc. and then had a cabinet maker make a custom stand for the TV that matched the side piers. Sweet.

Comparing Apples WITH apples !
by Jack's son from FLA., 2008-07-17

I patiently did the Homework. The Comments were and are the best idea for consumers who want the peace of mind they made the Best Choice . Customer comments, such as "buy the Next size up", because the stations transmit smaller images than the screen size YOU purchased,
ex: 56" screen displays a 46" in the 4:3 transmission on cable networks.
Amazon was a Good first time experience. Research/ Buying/Delivery and Product is just what you should expect. I purchased the Samsung Surrond to compliment the Large Screen, and if you want to save more time and money, purchase the Optical and HDMI Cables OnLine as well, the Local dealers Are more expensive , including the delivery charge (if there is one online from Amazon). Consumer Reports substantiated my homework as well in recent issues. Thank You Amazon & Samsung .