[SlingShotUK]

Right, well finally it seems that stock of the 2008 50inch plasma range from Samsung to replace the 2007 PS50P96/97FDX models are being delivered to people. I therefore think it's time for an owners thread so we can all discuss our latest purchase and get to the bottom of any uncertainty in specs etc.

I'll update this thread to link to relevant supporting information and specific posts on the forum that address issues that affect our set as they appear.

Specs
This particular model has three versions: A556, A557 and A558.
The only difference as far as I know is in the colour of the bezel. The A556 has a black one, the A557 has a silver one and the A558 has a titanium one.

Reviews
There are currently no online reviews for this model but the nearest US (and Europe) equivalent is the PN50A550. CNet did a review of this a few months ago. There is some debate as to how closely this matches the A556 etc as it has a contrast ratio of 30000:1 whereas the A556/7/8 has one of 20000:1. AvForums member Flash3D has bought one of these in Holland and it seems to share alot of commonality with the A556 etc (even down to the blur/focus issue discussed below).

CNet review: http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-t...-32887581.html

Related Threads

• My first 12 hours of usage which caused some nasty retention problems (though probably quite normal as I had the settings too high):
  Brand new Plasma - Retention that won't go. Really need advice.
  
  
• Problems with the Sammy's 24hz mode and judder on a PS3 1080p/24hz movie
  PS3 BluRay - 24hz 1080p but judder on new Samsung
  
  
• Potential judder problems on PS3 when running in 720p - but not when played in 1080p (on game GTA 4)
  Judder / stutter when scrolling, spinning Niko's view?

FAQ

• Does this model handle true 24hz playback of 1080p material?
  
  This is far from being clear yet as the above thread will show. However, for now it seems that while the set handles 24hz as an input format it may not be outputting pure 24fps - instead potential employing 3:2 pulldown - as judder is being experienced when using a PS3 and a BluRay DVD with 1080/24hz output. We are still trying to establish what is going on here, although recent tests with the same disk with 24hz output disabled is showing no judder at 60hz.
  
  
• Does this model suffer from the same blurring / focus problem that the series 5 and 6 LCD's suffer from?
  
  Yes it does annoyingly and while the LCD models have had this fixed in a firmware update the plasma's haven't. However, the good news is that Samsung are working on an update that will fix this issue (could be within 3 weeks from 08-June-08).
  Thanks to Doodyspudding for contacting Samsung and Curry's to confirm this.
  
  
• Can I access the 'Service Menu' on this set?
  
  Yes you can, BUT if you do decide to do this please remember the following:
  
  ALL YOUR TV SETTINGS WILL BE RESET WHEN ENTERING SERVICE MODE!
  
  To access the service menu and view your usage in hours do the following:
  
  When off, using the remote control: press info, menu, mute and power
  
  To get out again you'll have to turn the tv off and then on.
  Make sure you don't play with any settings to be safe.. If you adjust something by mistake you could screw up your set.
  
  
• How do I view the total number of hours my set has been on for?
  
  This information is available in the service menu. You can access this using the information above, but please be aware that all your settings will be reset to factory values as soon as you enter service mode.

[Flash3d]

Ahh, there it is
Sling, you could mention this review: http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-t...1.html?tag=pop

It's the us version, but basically the same.

And some us user reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-PN50A5.../dp/B0015AD2JK

and finally some pdf (in german) with the specs: http://www.samsung.com/at/products/d...talog_2008.pdf

[SlingShotUK]

Originally Posted by Flash3d

Ahh, there it is
Sling, you could mention this review: http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-t...1.html?tag=pop

It's the us version, but basically the same.

And some us user reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-PN50A5.../dp/B0015AD2JK

and finally some pdf (in german) with the specs: http://www.samsung.com/at/products/d...talog_2008.pdf

Aha, yeah. The only reason I'm a little weary of linking to the A550 is that it is a different spec - it has a 30,000 contrast ratio whereas the A556-8 models only have a 20,000 one. Due to this I wonder if other parts of the electronics may be different. Be interesting to find out what is the same though.

[SlingShotUK]

I have just come across something on my set and I'd like to know if anyone else see's this behaviour as well.

I was just trying out GTA 4 on my PS3 and when first loaded it up the PS3 was outputting it in 720p. I checked this output using the info button the set and it showed 1280x700/60hz.

Now, when the game started I noticed that it had more judder than it should when moving around - especially when spinning the view. It felt like the framerate was abit dodgy.. Definetly not the kind of stutter I would expect.

Anyway, I then went back into the PS3 menu and forced it to only support 1080p. I reloaded the game and it loaded up in 1080p without a problem. I then noticed that the judder and stuttering were gone!

Now this raises a worrying question as to the quality of the set's 720p output. Could it have problems outputting 1280x700?

I'd be very interested to hear if anyone else is seeing this in 720p.

[golden void]

I will post a full report of my first evening at home with my PS50A556 sortly. For now I was curious whether people consider the following settings "safe" for breaking it in over the first 200 hours...

Overall Light: 7/10 (I haven't been able to see this setting make any difference yet)
Contrast: 50/100
Brightness: 50/100
Colour: 35/100
Sharpness: 50/100 (can't see any difference when I change this one either)
Dynamic Constrast: Off
Movie mode: Low (no idea what this does, can't see any difference when changing it)
Power Saving: Off (setting this on at any of the levels offered really dimmed the picture to an unsable level)

At these settings everything looks OK to me, though I will be cranking up contrast and brightness once the 200 hours is up. Colour = 35 is where I will keep it. Any higher is simply garish to my eyes. If I had wanted a picture that garish, I would have bought an LCD.

[SlingShotUK]

Originally Posted by golden void

I will post a full report of my first evening at home with my PS50A556 sortly. For now I was curious whether people consider the following settings "safe" for breaking it in over the first 200 hours...

Overall Light: 7/10 (I haven't been able to see this setting make any difference yet)
Contrast: 50/100
Brightness: 50/100
Colour: 35/100
Sharpness: 50/100 (can't see any difference when I change this one either)
Dynamic Constrast: Off
Movie mode: Low (no idea what this does, can't see any difference when changing it)
Power Saving: Off (setting this on at any of the levels offered really dimmed the picture to an unsable level)

At these settings everything looks OK to me, though I will be cranking up contrast and brightness once the 200 hours is up. Colour = 35 is where I will keep it. Any higher is simply garish to my eyes. If I had wanted a picture that garish, I would have bought an LCD.

That's not looking bad at all mate. I think cell lighting is useful in various lighting conditions - i.e if the room is too light or too dark etc.. It is a very subtle setting I think.

Only thing I'd change is sharpness. I have mine set to 8 for freeview and 0 for anything HD. Sharpness is the devils tool especially on high quality sources - it just introduces nasty artifacts into the picture.

I know what you mean about colour. This set has very powerful colour intensity so I keep mine quite low as well.

[golden void]

Apologies for the length...

Two months ago, my beloved Toshiba rear projection home cinema system bit the dust in a thunderstorm. Gutted as I was, the insurance paid out handsomely, and hence I found myself in the market for a large flat screen TV as a replacement. Even though I was losing 10 inches on what I was used to, I decided that a 50 inch full HD was all I could afford with the insurance pay out. Hence I found myself spending about 4 weeks researching which TV to go for

I managed to rule out LCD very quickly. I think anyone who gets a shop to place an LCD and equivalent plasma side by side showing the same HD source would arrive at this conclusion, if they are being objective. I did this a lot with several models. There is simply no comparison to a fussy-eyed viewer like myself. LCD to me looks fake, almost garish. Almost like a computer rendered image of the real world. In fact live action footage on an LCD reminds me a bit of watching Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within. Everything looks “almost real”, but not quite. So plasma it was

Many hours of reading later I decided on Samsung’s 50 inch P96. Seems like I made this choice just as that venerable model hit end of life. Curry’s (where I was forced to shop because the insurance paid out in credit vouchers, more on that later) could not order one for me. The single shop-soiled model they had left, when reduced to a stunning £999, was very tempting, but since I was (sort of) not spending my own money, I resisted and instead went for the next gen Samsung model, the PS50A556. I chose this blind, on the back of the extremely positive reputation and reviews the P96 enjoyed. Yesterday it finally arrived

A word on Curry’s. I had to shop there (in a physical shop not their website) because the insurance payout was in the form of credit vouchers. I wasn’t happy about this, but there was little I could do without risking a lower payment if I insisted on cash. The Sammy came in at £1599. All credit to Curry’s though, when it fell £100 on their website a few days later, they refunded me this amount without batting an eyelid. And their delivery was exactly when promised, and went completely painlessly despite my serious worry about the very steep and narrow stairway that leads up to my living room. They were up the stairs and asking where I wanted it placed in 30 seconds flat! Kudos to Curry’s, their service was awesome. And they didn’t even try to sell me an extra 5 year guarantee either – those I suspect they simply forgot to ask

I have now spent one whole night playing with the TV. Now it must be stressed up front that right now I have no way to watch an HD source on it yet. I plan to buy a Blu Ray player this weekend with the change I had left from my vouchers and the £100 they gave me back. But for now I have only viewed Freeview (courtesy of the built-in box inside the telly) and a couple of DVDs, via my old player (Scart socket and all).

FreeView TV

Tuning in the channels was just like any other FV box…painless and easy: push button, watch progress bar fill up. I actually use a tabletop portable arial with cute little antennas that you can twiddle (1950s style) as my RF source, but it works well enough as I live atop on of the tallest hills in eastern Scotland. Just like my external FV box (now discarded) the Sammy’s didn’t pick up Film 4 during the channel scan. I expected that. Other than that, every channel was FAR better than my old box managed, with an 80% full or better signal bar on all fronts, and no break up that I have seen, though it hasn’t rained yet.

Picture quality scaling up from SD looks awesome to me. At least as good as it did on my Toshiba, and probably better because a rear-projector always has “overall light level” problems. I am however sitting more than the recommend 3 x your screen width distance away from the TV, so perhaps this is to be expected. Up very close (a few feet), I could see the grain. All in all though, I was extremely happy with the FreeView result. Painless, easy and stunning. I then watched the Dave channel for an hour because it has a fixed logo constantly in the top left corner and I wanted to test for retention. I had the TV set to do 4x4 pixel-shifting every 3 minutes. After the hour I could see no trace of the Dave logo whatsoever, and I looked hard. Worth noting that I had already turned the settings down to those I mentioned in the previous post.

DVDs

I now loaded up the DVD player. Being interested in looking for judders, I began with the Fellowship of the Ring. Lots of big pans over large vistas after all. With SD and Scart I saw no judder to speak of. Perhaps once every 10 minutes when the camera panned fast I saw perhaps a one frame stutter, but no more than that, and I was looking hard. I am not even sure if judder should be a problem viewing SD over Scart, but I checked it anyway on the back of SlingShot’s earlier post. To cut a long story short, I watched the entire movie, and ended up totally satisfied with the Sammy’s SD playback capabilities

Next I switched to watching Hallowe’en, a film that is almost entirely set in the dark. The blacks looks great. Deep and rich, despite the low settings that had been forced on me by the 200 hour gentle break in. And believe me, in Hallowe’en there are plenty of different blacks on display. Again, I came away very very happy indeed - especially since I had recently watched Hallowe’en (yep I love that movie) on my dad’s LCD (42’’ Panasonic Vierra), with very unsatisfactory results in both the blacks department and the “looks artificially rendered” factor - almost ruined one of my most beloved movies. Really, the only thing I’ve seen looking good on an LCD was Finding Nemo, which looks awesome when viewed garish, overly bright and shiny.

Next port of call was a Nightmare on Elm Street, mostly because I had just picked up the special edition that day for 3 quid!! It’s another very dark shot movie and again looked dark, rich and deep. It was 3am now though so I lasted about 20 minutes into that before passing out on the couch. And thus my day ended.

If I have one complaint thus far, it is this, I believe I could perceive a very slight delay in sound during DVD playback. As if the visual and audio track would go out of sync every so often, for a few milliseconds. Absolutely minuscule it was, and only now and again. But it did annoy me, on and off, the whole evening, though admittedly I was viewing with an overly critical eye. It was definitely only when watching DVDs; I never noticed this at all on the Freeview channels. Can a TV have a problem like this, or is it more likely my DVD player at fault? It’s certainly never done it before, that I’ve noticed.

Well that’s it. I am in a completely positive mood regarding the new TV right now, though I’ve only seen its SD capabilities. My HD adventure will begin this weekend when I pick up some HD disks, and will possibly give the Xbox or PS3 a spin as well (despite promising the wife I would avoid video games till after the 200 hours break in period). I shall report more then.

[Flash3d]

Nice review void!

Everything i read about this set is very positive, the lip sync issue is something i also had on the ps50q91 samsung and easly fixed by my receivers delay settings.

Also very interested in your hd tests and especially the 24p judder tests .
Seems that the ps550A550 will be more available and viewable in the stores over here in Holland next week.

Then it's time to post my own review

[golden void]

I didn't notice a delay setting anywhere. However the manual with the PS50A556 is incredibly bad. It just states the bloomin obvious with 1 million screen shots. Just diving into the menus yourself and reading the on-screen help is superior!

Oh, one setting I forgot to mention that might be vital....I set the gamma correction to +3. This is probably offsetting the low contrast and brightness - am I being naughty doing this during the first 200 hours?

[SlingShotUK]

Great review GV!

It's worth pointing out though that your test for judder on not related to 24hz output. This is only something that affects BluRay DVD's output at 1080p/24hz mode.

Be great if you could test this when you get your new BluRay player.

Regarding gamma I'm not sure how it'll affect the run in, although it's boosting gamma within the confines of the contrast and brightness settings so may not have an adverse effect.

[SlingShotUK]

I'm interested to know about this lipsync issue.

I've only tried on DVD so far - 24 and played it upscaled on my PS3.. I did kind of feel the lipsync was out..

What causes this?

I need to do some more tests.

[SlingShotUK]

I think I may have a potential problem with my set - specifically in 50hz modes.

I've noticed since getting the set that Freeview has a kind of purple / pink tinge to the colours - it just doesn't look right. I put this down to the set not being calibrated yet and perhaps it being the Freeview reveiver.

However, I've just tried a DVD on my PS3 and it was output in 50hz along with the purple / pink tinge to the colours. This doesn't happen in any 60hz mode!

I need to do some more tests but it doesn't seem right and I wonder if I may have a fault in the set..

If anyone else sees this please let me know.

[golden void]

Any idea why my PIP option is always disabled?

[SlingShotUK]

Originally Posted by golden void

Any idea why my PIP option is always disabled?

I had a look at this last night. It appears that you can only use PIP when on a different source to the one you want to PIP. I.E I was on HDMI 2 which my PS3 is on and could activate PIP for DTV. It's possible to change DTV channels using the menu. You can only view one other source at a time it seems.

[SlingShotUK]

A potential tip for you guys to try. When running something over HDMI - i.e PS3, Xbox, BluRay player etc - look for the option HDMI Black Level in picture options. I turned this on last night while playing GTA 4 on the PS3 and WOW! It makes black levels incredible - really inkey and as a result everything looks vibrant.
I haven't seen black levels this good so far and was taken aback. A game like GTA 4 is full of atmosphere and detail and this adjustment really enhances all that.. One of the built in picture processing options that seems to really offer something valuable.

I'd love to hear what others thing of this..

[golden void]

Originally Posted by SlingShotUK

I had a look at this last night. It appears that you can only use PIP when on a different source to the one you want to PIP. I.E I was on HDMI 2 which my PS3 is on and could activate PIP for DTV. It's possible to change DTV channels using the menu. You can only view one other source at a time it seems.

That makes some sense, however I was about to post that the PIP that was woefully missing was the one in the top left corner when you are in the Freeview TV guide that is supposed to show the channel you are currently watching while you scroll the guide. I swear that was missing the day before, though it was there last night!!

Two more issues I have spotted.

I am getting speaker buzz, though only on BBC1 and only when a loud or high pitched sounds comes through. Sometimes people speaking with great inflection can do it. Hmmm. Only that channel though.

Also, the tuning for the Freeview is *extremely* sensitive. I was trying to stop Sky 3 (another channel I had issues with with my old FV box) from breaking up, and was only moving my ariel a tiny amount, yet I lost about 1/3 of the other channels in the process.

As for the lip sync. I refrained from mentioning this to the wife, and she has not noticed or mentioned it yet, even though I can still see it. Possibly I am being overly critical, but now it appears blatantly obvious to me. Still, I am going to keep quiet to see if the wife mentions it.

Sling do you know what the Movie Plus option in teh picture settings is meant to do? This is the thing that you can set to Off, Low, Medium, High and Demo. The manual says something about it making fleshtones more realistic, but I can't see any effect. Demo mode splits the screen in two and put this feature on on one half, and off on the other, but I still could detect no difference.

[SlingShotUK]

Originally Posted by golden void

Sling do you know what the Movie Plus option in teh picture settings is meant to do? This is the thing that you can set to Off, Low, Medium, High and Demo. The manual says something about it making fleshtones more realistic, but I can't see any effect. Demo mode splits the screen in two and put this feature on on one half, and off on the other, but I still could detect no difference.

It improves smoothness of moving shots in films etc. Seems to work quite well but I'm not sure where to really use it yet. Maybe useful for NTSC DVD's which are juddering perhaps.

[Scorz]

Originally Posted by SlingShotUK

A potential tip for you guys to try. When running something over HDMI - i.e PS3, Xbox, BluRay player etc - look for the option HDMI Black Level in picture options. I turned this on last night while playing GTA 4 on the PS3 and WOW! It makes black levels incredible - really inkey and as a result everything looks vibrant.
I haven't seen black levels this good so far and was taken aback. A game like GTA 4 is full of atmosphere and detail and this adjustment really enhances all that.. One of the built in picture processing options that seems to really offer something valuable.

I'd love to hear what others thing of this..

Yeah i have this on the Q97 and i dont like it as it crushes the blacks it goes to far...in the same way as having RGB set to full on ps3 does.

i suppose its ok for games but for moives you will lose out on alot of shadow detail take a dark movie like Beowolf on Blu-ray find a dark scene pause it on a scene where its dark then turn it on/off you will see shadow detail there that was not present with it turned to FULL .

Alot of q97 owners had this turned on aswell as RGB full but when i calibrated mine from the perfect vision settings i noticed how bad these 2 options were also on the Q97 setting Gamma at -2 offers a far better handling of dark scenes.

Anyway im hoping to get mine replaced with 1 of these in the next few weeks anychance of some pics?

[SlingShotUK]

Originally Posted by NISMO GTR

Yeah i have this on the Q97 and i dont like it as it crushes the blacks it goes to far...in the same way as having RGB set to full on ps3 does.

i suppose its ok for games but for moives you will lose out on alot of shadow detail take a dark movie like Beowolf on Blu-ray find a dark scene pause it on a scene where its dark then turn it on/off you will see shadow detail there that was not present with it turned to FULL .

Alot of q97 owners had this turned on aswell as RGB full but when i calibrated mine from the perfect vision settings i noticed how bad these 2 options were also on the Q97 setting Gamma at -2 offers a far better handling of dark scenes.

Anyway im hoping to get mine replaced with 1 of these in the next few weeks anychance of some pics?

Aha, nice advice. I'll certainly play with those settings. It was just last night when playing GTA the blacks looked absolutely amazing. I had to increase brightness slightly but the whole game felt a lot more vibrant and stunning. The blacks just looked inkey with the setting on though I havent played with gamma. In fact I think I may have it on +3 at the moment due to the lower brightness and contrast settings.

Lots more experiementation needed. Though I still impressed with HDMI Black level.. Should get my DVE disk next week so will calibrate then and see where it takes me.

I also have RGB set to full on the PS3. Why is that a bad setting on our sets and what does it do?

I intend to take lots of pics this weekend and will post on the thread. I was just waiting for better conditions to take them - maybe in the evening etc...

[Scorz]

Originally Posted by SlingShotUK

Aha, nice advice. I'll certainly play with those settings. It was just last night when playing GTA the blacks looked absolutely amazing. I had to increase brightness slightly but the whole game felt a lot more vibrant and stunning. The blacks just looked inkey with the setting on though I havent played with gamma. In fact I think I may have it on +3 at the moment due to the lower brightness and contrast settings.

Lots more experiementation needed. Though I still impressed with HDMI Black level.. Should get my DVE disk next week so will calibrate then and see where it takes me.

I also have RGB set to full on the PS3. Why is that a bad setting on our sets and what does it do?

I intend to take lots of pics this weekend and will post on the thread. I was just waiting for better conditions to take them - maybe in the evening etc...

Look forward to the pics mate...i have an engineer coming out to me tuesday for the football issue on my samsung and i dont think its fixable so i will be looking to get one of these.

Once your set has bedded in and you can really go to work with calibration you will find that when you get the brightness/contrast/gamma etc perfect you will not need to boost the black level.

Look forward to the pics anyway.

For games though i dont see a problem with it as like you say it makes the colours etc POP...but for movies imo its best left off.

[SlingShotUK]

Originally Posted by NISMO GTR

Look forward to the pics mate...i have an engineer coming out to me tuesday for the football issue on my samsung and i dont think its fixable so i will be looking to get one of these.

Once your set has bedded in and you can really go to work with calibration you will find that when you get the brightness/contrast/gamma etc perfect you will not need to boost the black level.

Look forward to the pics anyway.

For games though i dont see a problem with it as like you say it makes the colours etc POP...but for movies imo its best left off.

Brilliant - sounds good to me. Once calibrated I'll certainly turn it off for movies etc.. I really do want the best representation of the source material as possible. I just have to decide on the screen mis-alignment issue. I'm going to pop to Currys this weekend to see if their screens look like mine and GoldenVoid is going to check as well for me. If it is wrong I imagine they'll just swap the set unless it's fixable by an engineer - though it's still in the 28 days.

No problem on the pics. I'll make sure I get them taken this weekend. I'll try to get as many angles, perspectives as possible. It really is a gorgeous looking set.

[Scorz]

Nice one some screenshots aswell would be good mate

If you look here My setup theres some pics of my samsung most taking at night just to show you how good you can get the blacks without using the black boosters...i took them at night and you can not see the bezel of the tv but i have bundles of shadow detail aswell

Theres also one taken in a lit room where you can see the blacks of tv near enough match the bezel...so id expect your set to achieve better blacks than mine without the need of the HDMI booster as your contrast ratio is slightly higher.

[SlingShotUK]

Originally Posted by NISMO GTR

Nice one some screenshots aswell would be good mate

If you look here My setup theres some pics of my samsung most taking at night just to show you how good you can get the blacks without using the black boosters...i took them at night and you can not see the bezel of the tv but i have bundles of shadow detail aswell

Theres also one taken in a lit room where you can see the blacks of tv near enough match the bezel...so id expect your set to achieve better blacks than mine without the need of the HDMI booster as your contrast ratio is slightly higher.

Wow, those pics are fantastic! What camera did you use and what setting on the cam?

I'll do my best to capture how it looks with actual footage.. Will try GTA 4 and Casino Royale..

Man, I gave to get Transformers on BluRay..

[myomy]

Originally Posted by SlingShotUK

I think I may have a potential problem with my set - specifically in 50hz modes.

I've noticed since getting the set that Freeview has a kind of purple / pink tinge to the colours - it just doesn't look right. I put this down to the set not being calibrated yet and perhaps it being the Freeview reveiver.

However, I've just tried a DVD on my PS3 and it was output in 50hz along with the purple / pink tinge to the colours. This doesn't happen in any 60hz mode!

I need to do some more tests but it doesn't seem right and I wonder if I may have a fault in the set..

If anyone else sees this please let me know.

Hi,

do you still have this issue?

I notice it when I watch anything over my dvd player which is connected to the hdmi1 port of the sammy with picture mode on STANDARD.
When I have the mode set to MOVIE the colours look normal.

This first happened when I turned xvYCC on for the hdmi1 port and now I just can't get rid of this issue with the pinkish colour on STANDARD picture mode (no matter whether xvYCC is on or off).

I don't have this issue on any of the other inputs where I can't set this xvYCC at all. So it must be an issue with this option ...

At the moment it doesn't really annoy me, because I am using the MOVIE picture settings most of the time anyway.

But it still is

bye

[Flash3d]

Myomy,

how are your impressions with the samsung? except from your colour problem.

[SlingShotUK]

Originally Posted by myomy

Hi,

do you still have this issue?

I notice it when I watch anything over my dvd player which is connected to the hdmi1 port of the sammy with picture mode on STANDARD.
When I have the mode set to MOVIE the colours look normal.

This first happened when I turned xvYCC on for the hdmi1 port and now I just can't get rid of this issue with the pinkish colour on STANDARD picture mode (no matter whether xvYCC is on or off).

I don't have this issue on any of the other inputs where I can't set this xvYCC at all. So it must be an issue with this option ...

At the moment it doesn't really annoy me, because I am using the MOVIE picture settings most of the time anyway.

But it still is

bye

Hi there,

Yeah I'm still seeing this on Freeview and I think it was occuring on PAL DVD's via SCART RGB but I really need to do some more tests.

I've going to calibrate with DVE soon but am a little concerned that the pink isn't there on my PS3 so calibration may not help or even help to clarify the issue.

I was to determine whether this is a fault or like you say, perhaps just a setting.

[Scorz]

Originally Posted by SlingShotUK

Wow, those pics are fantastic! What camera did you use and what setting on the cam?

I'll do my best to capture how it looks with actual footage.. Will try GTA 4 and Casino Royale..

Man, I gave to get Transformers on BluRay..

Just a dodgy old 2 megapixel digital mate...the trick is to put the camera on a level surface.

Also yeah i cant wait till Transformers comes out on Blu just so i can test the difference....If you havent already pixars Cars on Blu-ray looks amazing.

[Flash3d]

Just visited a shop here in Holland which had the ps50a550 on display.
I took my popcorn hour media player and some hd movie samples on usb stick.

I tested with a sequence from Planet Earth: episode:3 fresh water, with a scene filmed from a helicopter camera panning over waterfalls.

The store employee was not really fond of handing me the remote. After asking again i got it and i checked some settings:
Tv was on standard mode, left it on that setting.
I didn't change any other setting.

The popcorn hour has 8 frequency options for 1080p. I only tested 3 frequencies:

1- 1080P@23.976: Lots of judder
2- 1080P@24: Lots of judder
3- 1080P@59,94: Judder free

I didn't try 60hz cause at the moment i didn't see 60hz option on the pch, when i came home i saw that the 60hz option was on top of the list in the video options of the pch, i just overlooked that one .

Like Slingshot tested with his ps3 with the 24hz/60hz option, this Samsung won't process 24p like the competition (pana & pio) in a multiple of 24hz.

Is it a disaster? nope, for this price (about 500 Euro cheaper then the pana 50pz80) and the for my eyes good handling at 1080P@60hz, its a buy for me.

Almost forgot , i only spend about 15 minutes with the tv but the pq quality is very good, it's comparable with my previous samsung ps50q91 (ps50q97hdx) only better in the in the darker colour area.
Should be the 16 against the 18 bit colours.

[Xtro_1975]

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and I registered mainly for information on this TV. I already have a Samsung 42" Q97 and would want to know which are the improvements in this new FullHD set.

- To the owners of the PS50A556, do you see some dithering in the picture when you are close to the TV? The Q97 does have quite a bit of dithering very easy to notice in plain colors, is like the 65536 shades of grey it has are generated "artificially" by the engine.
- Does it record the settings individually for each input? I will have different settings for HDMI_1 DVD and HDMI_2 PS3, so I don't want to set the settings each time I use a different source.
- The Q97 did not a good joob with the motion cinema ehancer (I'm spanish so I don't know the english name for that function, is similar to IFC in Panasonic TVs) you could see artifacts every now and then, mainly when you feeded HD sources. It felts like the TV processor could not keep with the job of "inventing" intermediate frames. Do you see artifacts when enabling this function?
- How do you rate the SD scaling of the TV, mainly for watching digital TV or DVDs?
- Do you see ghosting/phosphor trails? I do see them in Sin City with the Q97
- Under light the antireflective screen of the Q97 made some "lines" (curtain effect?) appear on black areas of the image, do you see that on the 556?
- Have you tried feeding 1080p through component or VGA? I plan to connect the Xbox 360 via VGA.
- Have someone compared this TV to Panasonic PZ85? In USA they say that Sammy's is a better set in nearly every aspect to the Pana, but the European model of the PZ85 is better than US version.

Thanks for the info, and excuse me for my bad english

[golden void]

Originally Posted by Xtro_1975

- Does it record the settings individually for each input? I will have different settings for HDMI_1 DVD and HDMI_2 PS3, so I don't want to set the settings each time I use a different source.

I THINK you can do this. You can store a full set of settings for each of three selectable vision "modes": Standard, Cinema and Dynamic. Not sure if the names mean anything. Anyway, I am sure I have a slightly higher brightness set for DVDs (coming in through Ext1) versus that set for FreeView, and I am pretty sure both are on "Standard" mode. I will check for you tonight.

Also there are three "entertainment" modes which have pre-defined settings that you cannot change. I found all these useless, as the colour was far too high on all of them.

- How do you rate the SD scaling of the TV, mainly for watching digital TV or DVDs?

This is all I have watched so far, and I rate it extremely good. Better than I saw *any* TV do in Curry's, though of course the quality of their SD sources is questionable. If there are typical problem issues with SD that I could look for, let me know and I will check them specififcally for you. As is, it looks perfect to me. Please note I am sitting about 15 feet away from the screen at all times. Up close (a few feet) you can see the graininess.

- Under light the antireflective screen of the Q97 made some "lines" (curtain effect?) appear on black areas of the image, do you see that on the 556?

This model lacks the anti-reflective screen as far as I am aware. On the downside, you can see quite a lot of your room reflected during daylight.

- Have you tried feeding 1080p through component or VGA? I plan to connect the Xbox 360 via VGA.

Why would you do that, out of interest? I plan to try my XBox tonight or tomorrow night, and it seems the best way to connect it is via the 5 "component" jack plugs at the back.


Finally, with regards to the screen alignment problem Slingshot mentioned. I have about 2 pixels worth of dark "gap" between the live picture and the cabinet. Seems to be uniform all round and at the corners, so looks good to me.