W@lter

I had the same problem (see my post in other thread: http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?s=&...t&p=566808). In short, flicker was only apparent on bright parts of the picture on my 59cm Sony Wega CRT. It was not noticable on my 40" LCD. I ended up returning it and getting refund (as they all sold out). I now have Strong 5006 ($109) and I'm very happy with it. I also had issues with the first Strong I bought but the second one is fine (except for lost of heat being generated - something I hadn't noticed with Okano).

Another update. Last night as I was showing my wife how to use the receiver I found that the first digit (out of 4) on the display has lost middle segment (so instead of "8" you'd see "0"). I couldn't believe my luck. I mean seriously, now I had a valid reason to return it. Went to HN and they swapped it over without any probs - in and out in 30 seconds. Now, this new unit runs much, much cooler then the old one. Temperature of this one after watching TV for an hour or so is the same or less then the old one used to be on standby. When put on standby the receiver is now just touch warm - much better. I obviously had a faulty recevier before, that was eventually going to die from a heat related issue. Display was just first thing to go. Now I'm a happy man

I'll do that... Will post here if I get response. EDIT: Got response that leaving the unit on will not affect the lifetime of the receiver. So nothing to worry about (except your power bill

Just got an e-mail back from Strong. It looks like my unit is working as designed: Hi xxxxxxxxxx, The SRT 5006 will run fairly hot if either left on or in stand by. While in stand by the main processor chip is still running in order to display the time. This is why the unit is still hot in stand by. Kind Regards, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Strong Technologies

Does yours run hot as well? I just checked mine (after coming back from work) and it's very hot even though it's still on standby and hasn't been used since last night! Don't want to go back and look silly if HN say that's how "Strong" units operate. I mean I already returned Okano day before - 2 bad units in 2 days would be verry unlucky.

I got it for $109 @ HN Melbourne City QV. Ticket price was $199 and I tried my best to get it for $99. The guy said he couldn’t do better then $109 as their cost price was $107.50. I actually had bought Okano 1000 day before @ City JB. They had stacks of them (30-40 units). I took it home and was very impressed with picture quality, features and ease of use – all for $44. However, picture did flicker a bit on my 6 year old Sony Wega CRT. I hooked it up to my LCD and it was fine. Since I bought it for CRT TV I went back yesterday to swap the unit but they all sold out (in one day!!!!). All they could offer was refund and then I went hunting for Strong 5006… Anyway, using both for 3-4 hours my preference would be Okano (if it worked correctly with my CRT). Reasons being: Okano Pros: 1.) Less then half the price (Okano $44 vs. Strong $109) 2.) Easier to use GUI (Okano setup in 1-2 minutes; Strong took good 10 to get exactly the same setup) 3.) Heat dissipation (Okano run cool working or in standby mode; Strong runs warm on standby and hot when ON). Okano also has power switch button up front so it can easily be fully turned off (if required) but Strong has a switch at the back. I’m not sure about power consumption but cool should mean less power then warm/hot. 4.) More usable remote (both are ugly and cheap though) 5.) Signal levels for all channels were @ above 90% (Strong shows anything between 65 – 90%). This might be deceiving though as it might have different thresholds Strong Pros: 1.) No flicker with my SONY CRT (or should I say flicker is not noticeable anymore) 2.) Displays current time while on standby (nifty feature). Speaking of which, when it’s set to auto time, my on-screen time is spot on but as I put it on standby, the time on unit itself is hour ahead. The only way to fix this was to change it from “auto time” to manual set and now both are correct. Both excel at: 1.) Very fast channel changing 2.) Great sensitivity – all channels detected and working without any peobs

I couldn't find the way (or really haven't looked hard) to re-assign channel numbers. This is actually not required as all channels are labelled anyway. However, if you want to use Program Up/Down buttons to scroll through your channels in particular order and skip unwanted repeated ones then do following (from my memory as I'm @ work): Go to Digi Menu -> Channels Setup -> Favourites (or Mange favourites or something like that). You should get empty list. Hit the button (I think it's RED) to add favourite channels. Now, you'll get the list of all DTV channels in there. Just select the ones you want to use and star will appear next to those you select. Make sure you do it in the order that you want channels to appear in. Eg. I selected channels in following order as this is how I wanted to browse through them using Channel Up/Down: ABC HD; ABC; ABC2; Seven HD; Seven; Nine HD; Ten HD; SBS HD; SBS 2; Next, you go to channel manager and hit the coloured button that corresponds to favourite channels (I think it might be RED again). After you do this "soft key" label will change to "All Channels" (or something like that). This means that Channel Manager will now only use prevously configured Favourite cahnnels. Exit and you are done. Now when you use Up/Down keys you will only scroll through the favourite channels and in your preferred order. Hope this helps.... That'd be right... By the time I got my essay done somene had already replied

Unfortunately it has always been like this with Samsung models (at least going back to 51 and 61 series). You really can't mount them flush against the wall (unless you punch holes in the plaster).

Since no one answered your question I went and checked it out myslef. Unfortunately it’s a glossy black – both front and rear. However, it is not as bad as M61 as bezel is curved without sharp edges which gives it “acceptable” look. It doesn’t show imperfections in workmanship like M61. Also, like someone else pointed out, the blue pointy bit is very dark (unlike the web site photo) so I can’t even tell if it’s very dark blue or black. Overall I must say I like it better then previous model(s). It’s still nost as good looking as Sony or Sharp, but I would buy it. Picture quality was also very good (compared it to Sharp, Sony & M61). Definitely worth the money IMHO. P.S. You can see both 32” and 40” on display next to Sony and Sharp @ Harvey Norman – QV, Melbourne CBD. P.S.S. If you want to wall mount it will have to be fair way from the wall - stupid perpendicular connectors for inputs and power. Why couldn’t they make them come from underneath?