Samsung LCD series A950 LED

[CheesyPuff]

Originally Posted by mark0077

OK Thanks for that. Apparantly you can use 120hz mode with some setting in the service menu but its not labelled "120hz" its some obscure name, I will have to find out.

As for 60hz being fine. I would say 24fps over 60hz does not depend on the tv at all. It would depend on the player thats feeding the display 60 frames, made from 24 frames, nothing to do with the TV at all in my opinion.

To be honest Im no expert, I was just quoting this:

"The good news is, sending a 1080p/60 video signal to the HDTV solves the problem easily: because the Samsung LE55A956 is one of the very rare flat screen televisions that can properly reconstruct 24p from 1080p/60 signals, the resultant picture is free of telecine judder and dropped frames."

from here: Samsung LE55A956 Review

but you could be right and they're wrong?

[mark0077]

haha unlikely, but I have been playing with this HTPC business for a while and things like judder are not an issue anymore. In my experience this is never because of the display, its the software methods used to get smooth playback, or in many of your cases, the hardware player you are using to feed your tv.

I will report back in any case.

[CheesyPuff]

Originally Posted by mark0077

OK Thanks for that. Apparantly you can use 120hz mode with some setting in the service menu but its not labelled "120hz" its some obscure name, I will have to find out.

Just realised which 120hz setting you mean, think its under something called LD Scanning (Pureffm posted details on it earlier in the thread)

I did try turning this on but could see no difference other than the screen being darker overall, I hadnt noticed the frame drop problem then so I may have to try it again to see if it effects this, thanks for reminding me about it.

Edit: Just for clarity when I refer to dropped frames I do not mean 24p judder, I am talking about frames being dropped for about a second at a time at 10-30 second intervals on all inputs with various sources at 24p,50hz and 60hz.

[mark0077]

Initial report on my new 46" 100hz Series 9.

AMAZING!

I have updated to the new 1010 firmware. I have a few problems however. I am connected using a PC.

Problem 1: 100hz Motion Plus: The 100hz mode even set on low looks very good in movies, but I can't believe the artifacts that it creates. Some movies look like they are interlaced when this is turned on and to show how unpolished it is, playing a movie on the left side of my tv, and having a folder open on the right hand side, with the 100hz mode on low, the folder on the right of the screen starts flickering and showing blocks around letters etc. Definitely needs work before I would use it. I honestly think they can improve upon this in a future firmware, fingers crossed because it looks gorgeously smooth.

Problem 2: Smart LED - This looks fantastic, pure black. But its flawed badly. When I move my mouse around on any darkish website or page, the white of the curson is such a dark shade of grey I can barely see it, absolutely nowhere near white. This is obviously happening in movies also where small bright objects will appear very dark, but only in dark areas. I suppose this might be called black crush? Or maybe even white crush! Not very smart in my opinion. If I can get my screen calibrated without this on I will leave it off. Any opinions on how I can compensate for turning it off?

Problem 3: Calibrated Settings: I have tried various "Calibrated" settings from this and other forums and sites including tweaktv, cnet, avsforums, and they all look completely different. I am surprised they use Smart LED in the calibrated settings. I think this should be turned off for anyone that considers themself a videophile. It would be great if they had a medium mode for this, instead of just on and off, because I have to admit, the pure black is amazing, pity everything around the black gets brought down with it.

Problem 4: Clouding: I notice some slight clouding effects in areas of the screen when I put a pure black image on the screen. I see alot of people saying they have this on theirs too. Is it a defect or something I should just leave as is? Almost impossible to notice in general use.

My biggest concern is the Smart LED, it destroys bright images that are surrounded by dark, their brightness is destroyed..... is there any way to get around this problem with Smart LED? Otherwise I might have to leave it off unfortuntely. One of the reasons I got this TV was the LED backlight. If I turn this off does that mean I am completely ignoring this feature? Maybe I can solve it with some service menu fiddling but that might be a last resort.

Amazed in one sense, but disappointed in other ways. Still lots of calibrating to do to get this screen to the way I want though so any inputs would be great.

PS: Does anyone have a European version of this TV? I am hoping to get some calibrated settings for a European model as some of the service menu settings do not lie in the same range as the American version. Also if anyone has a Euro version maybe we could compare service menu defaults, I forgot to write down one of my service menu settings before changing it.....

[CheesyPuff]

Originally Posted by mark0077

Initial report on my new 46" 100hz Series 9.

AMAZING!

I have updated to the new 1010 firmware. I have a few problems however. I am connected using a PC.

Problem 1: 100hz Motion Plus: The 100hz mode even set on low looks very good in movies, but I can't believe the artifacts that it creates. Some movies look like they are interlaced when this is turned on and to show how unpolished it is, playing a movie on the left side of my tv, and having a folder open on the right hand side, with the 100hz mode on low, the folder on the right of the screen starts flickering and showing blocks around letters etc. Definitely needs work before I would use it. I honestly think they can improve upon this in a future firmware, fingers crossed because it looks gorgeously smooth.

Problem 2: Smart LED - This looks fantastic, pure black. But its flawed badly. When I move my mouse around on any darkish website or page, the white of the curson is such a dark shade of grey I can barely see it, absolutely nowhere near white. This is obviously happening in movies also where small bright objects will appear very dark, but only in dark areas. I suppose this might be called black crush? Or maybe even white crush! Not very smart in my opinion. If I can get my screen calibrated without this on I will leave it off. Any opinions on how I can compensate for turning it off?

Problem 3: Calibrated Settings: I have tried various "Calibrated" settings from this and other forums and sites including tweaktv, cnet, avsforums, and they all look completely different. I am surprised they use Smart LED in the calibrated settings. I think this should be turned off for anyone that considers themself a videophile. It would be great if they had a medium mode for this, instead of just on and off, because I have to admit, the pure black is amazing, pity everything around the black gets brought down with it.

4

My biggest concern is the Smart LED, it destroys bright images that are surrounded by dark, their brightness is destroyed..... is there any way to get around this problem with Smart LED? Otherwise I might have to leave it off unfortuntely. One of the reasons I got this TV was the LED backlight. If I turn this off does that mean I am completely ignoring this feature? Maybe I can solve it with some service menu fiddling but that might be a last resort.

Amazed in one sense, but disappointed in other ways. Still lots of calibrating to do to get this screen to the way I want though so any inputs would be great.

You seem to have the same initial impressions that I do, generally impressed but is let down by a few niggles.

The loss of brightness/detail in dark areas I havent experienced, infact I would say mine is excellent at picking out bright detail in dark area's. It was however something I was on the look out for when I first got the set as somewhere on the forum there was a side by side comparison of the same dark scene displayed on a kuro and a 9 series and the problem you describe was very obvious on the samsung.

I know you have tried various settings but have you tried Pureffm's from earlier in the thread? I am using them and the backlight setting is on max, Im wondering if that might help bring out the brighter details in dark areas?

Haloing was the worst artifacting I could see with 100hz on but not as bad as your's sounds, 100hz on mine just screwed up the motion.

Have you experienced any intermittent frame drops? So far I only know of 55" sets doing this and although it has been discussed on another forum only a couple people here seem to have noticed it. I think my unsmooth/unnatural 100hz performance may somehow be connected to the dropped frames.

Have you tried the 120hz setting yet?

[mark0077]

Thanks for the reply.

I am making up a big list of forum links to calibrated settings, and pureffm's settings are top of my list to try tonight when I get home. Also interested in this link Translated version of http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1194&t=29888861 which shows one of the guys there trying nearly all combinations of settings, including Smart LED on and off.

I have not tried turning 120hz mode on yet but havn't noticed any lagging. I have my PC connected to the TV in 50hz mode. PC lists all sorts of refresh rates like 22hz, 23hz, 24hz, 25hz.....

So for me my todo list is
1) Try pureffm's calibrated settings
2) If happy with those, look more into smoothness of video (although I havn't noticed any problems yet, I will try and create a few test videos for myself, like 24fps test vid, 25fps, maybe 50fps test vid. I will try and make tests with something like a small white box moving accross the screen.
3) I need to find out, when people say they have professionaly calibrated their settings, what that actually means. Because I am using a PC I need full levels coming out of the PC, aswell as have the PC convert all non-full range content like DVDS etc, to full range. ffdshow allows conversion to full range in either Rec.601 or Rec.709 mode because the conversion would be different depending. Upcoming versions of ffdshow may try and automate the selection of Rec.601 or Rec.709.

What I am wondering is, if I was for example to use someones settings that has been calibrated for Rec.709, would that by definition make Rec.601 be uncalibrated on my TV.... In essence I suppose what I am asking is, is it possible to have a screen calibrated once to some standard, and have all types of content therefore be calibrated on it.... Still confused a bit about the Rec.601 and Rec.709 standards and calibrating towards them.

I will report back with all results anyways and my 2c on some of the calibrated settings I have tried. I may have to leave Smart LED on as it hides the slight clouds I see with it off... I have some video clips on the pc that I have used down through the years to check brigness levels, and make sure things like DVDS are converted from their 16-235 range, to full range 0-255 before leaving the pc. In the black level test I have with HDMI black level on normal, the levels seem to be correct (I can't see the blacker than black blacks's which is correct) BUT the dark grey levels that should go from being barely visible, to being a light shade of grey actually look almost black....... I hope pureffms settings get around this, because I never thought I would come accross this type of crushing...... As I say its not just black crush, its everything crush...... For the moment my conclusions on Smart LED are that although it might get around the problem of poor black levels on LCDS, it adds its own share of problems which we have to weigh against each other I suppose... Just the idea that something on the right hand side of my screen, can actually influence the brightness of an object on the other side of the screen by an enormous amount kind of annoys me......

Do you have 120hz mode on? Some forum posts suggest it does more than just add another 20hz to the refresh rate......?

[CheesyPuff]

Would be great to hear your results from the tests, If I was competent enough with a pc I would do them myself. The frame drop is quite subtle and not that noticeable with the vast majority of content.

I really am surprised at your loss of bright detail though, I have watched Dark Knight and POC Dead Mans Chest the last few days and in my opinion the detail in dark scenes was outstanding. I should add that I have not yet run any test patterns as I was so impressed after callibrating to pureffm settings that I did not bother but its something I may do tonight.

I echo your hopes for a firmware update for the 100hz processing as potentially I think it could be amazing, it's just not quite there yet.

I did try the 120hz setting when I first got my tv but did not see any difference other than the screen losing some brightness so turned it off. At the time I was excited to get my new tv and wanted to watch some Blurays so did not spend much time analyzing it and could easily have missed something, it was also before I had noticed the frame drop so I plan to try it again this evening and see what happens.

There are details on how to enable 120hz in post 262 of this thread.

[mark0077]

Yes I tried the Dark Knight and WOWZER, I can't wait to see it after pureffms settings as I know mine arn't anywhere near perfect. But the black level test just shows how the Smart LED dims the screen significantly when most of the screen is been fed darkish images.... Also the black level test on the Star Wars DVDS, that has the THX with the THX shadow. With my current settings the thx logo is nearly invisible, nevermind the shadow behind it....

I shall be back with my results later anyways...

Anyone good on calibration targets? I can tell my Pc when playing a movie whether its using 0-255 or 16-255 (nearly everything I have), and whether its using Rec.601 (for my dvds and nearly everything I have) or Rec.709 for my blu-rays, and it does the conversion to RGB 32bit for me perfectly.

I do not know in this case what I should have my screen calibrated to, Rec.709?, RGB32bit? (is calibrating to rgb possible?). I assume from what I know that Rec.709 and Rec.601 are subsets of rgb32 so calibrating to rgb32 would be a good idea right? wrong?... So much to learn All in the name of getting closer to perfection.... :D

[mholgate]

Anyone tried to control their A950 TV with via the RS232 'Service' port?
If so, what are the commands?

I want to be able to turn the TV on/off and change between HDMI inputs using my HTPC's COM port (will be using Girder software).

[NaTT]

has anyone tried the latest firmare from the Samsung site?
FM/200811/20081117104658703/T-RBYDEU.exe
(size : 25794 KBytes / updated : 2008-12-16 )

[CheesyPuff]

Originally Posted by NaTT

has anyone tried the latest firmare from the Samsung site?
FM/200811/20081117104658703/T-RBYDEU.exe
(size : 25794 KBytes / updated : 2008-12-16 )

Yep, it improved scaling of SD.

[awakener]

Originally Posted by awakener

Thanks for all the comments so far and I have one question left before buying this LCD. I have a connected my PopcornHour and Xbox 360 to my Onkyo receiver and via my receiver to the LCD. If I use HDMI 2 on the Samsung and change it to PC mode can I easily change it back to another input or source? Because I don't want that the Popcornhour is using the PC mode, only the xbox360.

Nobody?

[mark0077]

Well I am using pureffms settings from http://www.avforums.com/forums/7813314-post200.html and am assuming he has things like power saving off, smart led on, black adjust off.

pureffm are you using the european version of the screen?

These settings look great anyways, but still get the white mouse arrow dimming to almost black on very dark web pages, not too much of a worry.

ONE BIG ISSUE
I have noticed ugly combing on my european version when watching some movies (yes progressive movies), sometimes hard to notice, but its enough to annoy me. This is when the screen is used at 60hz. I have moved it back to 50hz and reran all of the videos that showed the combing effect most and its perfect now. I assume any refresh rate thats not a multiple of the screen refresh is a bad idea for these screens. I will be sticking to 50hz. No combing on 24p either.

So in summary, my results on 46A956 (European model)
24p = No combing
50p = No combing
60p = Combing!

I shall move onto some smoothness tests now.

[new_age]

Hello!

I have a LE46A956 LCD and when I first saw the remote handler I was shocked. They have removed the Channel List and Picture Size buttons and replaced with INFO.L and CONTENT.

I daily need the CH.LIST and P.SIZE buttons so now I use my daughter's A656 remote handler. I would prefer to use the 956 remote but with CHLIST AND PSIZE functions.

Do anyone have any ideas or solutions? Probably a firmware hack/change would make it but I'm open to any suggestions.

[DaveC]

Originally Posted by mark0077

Well I am using pureffms settings from http://www.avforums.com/forums/7813314-post200.html and am assuming he has things like power saving off, smart led on, black adjust off.

pureffm are you using the european version of the screen?

These settings look great anyways, but still get the white mouse arrow dimming to almost black on very dark web pages, not too much of a worry.

Have you tried turning off the dynamic contrast to fix the dark mouse pointer thing?