Care to share your settings for one of the new Samsung plasmas, like the 5053 or 4243? In my opinion the incredible contrast ratio makes a comparison to other brands (or older Sammy's) a waste of time. Here are my latest settings:

Contrast: 90
Brightness: 48
Sharpness: 30
Color: 30
Color Tone: Normal

Dnie: On (I've spent a lot of time in demo mode watching different content, and for now I'm leaving dnie on). I have a feeling that the demo mode was not included on the previous models and so a lot of assumptions were being made about what dnie does/does not do. I have to say I'm impressed with the way it enriches the blacks/whites.

Don't know exactly what you mean by that "contrast ratio" thing bacause the panels, glass and the panel control are exactly the same as with the 2005 models... Samsung has updated the video processor from Trindent's SVP-EX to SVP-PX. It is however unclear, if this was a progress or a step back... The enrichment of blacks and whites caused by DNIe is just cropping the blacks and whites causing lost of detail in either situation. Do not exactly know yet if the algorithm has been changed, my first tests claim it was not. Try to look at black-level adjustments in dark scenes, this was the buggiest feature the 2005 DNIe implementation had...

I see! I should have been more specific. What I meant was that many older models have much lower contrast ratios, so trying to compare settings would be rather pointless, imo.

Do you have a 10,000:1 set? Care to share settings? :)

I have the hps5053 finally made the decsion on fathers day to get so still tweaking and so far very impressed. Using HDMI cable from dish box using these settings:

DNIe off on all settings: Once in a while I'll use it.

Movie mode:
contrast 48
brightness 56
sharpness 20-35
color 33

color tone cool 1

Using standard mode

c 43
b 79 may back off when using dvd player to 65
s 30
color 32

color tone normal

Seems these modes have way different brightness level so this may be why some have way higher brightness levels cause of using standard mode. When using dve disk i had to climb up on brightness to barely see the inside bar on brightness test.

Using dynamic mode

c 51
b 68
sh 40
color 34

tone normal

I really like the crisp image that standard and dynamic provides but could tend to strain the eyes but I usually watch in movie mode unless going to impress some visitors :-)

Also when setting your settings like on movie mode w/ hdmi input is it suppose to effect movie mode settings on the s video input thought it had input settings memory? So far to fix this Ive made my custom setting dedicted to s video. The others I carry over pretty much to componant input.

Is there any tweaks anyone know in service menu to dial down the reds a bit.
Any way these are my settings let me know what you think.

Do you have a 10,000:1 set? Care to share settings? :)
Yes I have the PS-50P5H which is the 2005-2006 european "in-between" version fitting somewhere between HP-R5072 2005 u.s. model and the new series HP-S50XY. All Samsung panels up from 2005 have that claimed 10000:1 contrast (real ANSI black-white about 1300:1 which is still much more than the competion)..

It appears that Samsung has changed the internal calibration for this year's sets. All owners of the new Sammies (european and us) end up with much higher brightness setting that I've expected... Settings as follows (consider that on my set there is no difference between the modi, i.e. movie, standard, etc are just names no specific functionality behind it...)


DNIe off on all settings
Movie mode: (HDMI 576p signals)
contrast 56
brightness 53
sharpness 25
color 38
color tone warm 1

Standard mode: (HDMI 720p/1080i HD signals)
contrast 57
brightness 54
sharpness 25
color 38
color tone warm 1

Custom mode: (RGB 576i signals)
c 55
b 50
s 25
color 31
color tone warm 1

Paul,

Thanks for posting. About the contrast settings: I have not run any of the calibration DVDs, but when I choose some dark scenes from my own DVDs, I find I see much more detail as I raise the contrast. Are you seeing all the detail with the contrast set where you have it?

Thanks,

hltr

Yes I am. Calibration DVDs are quite good for that since it is difficult to judge "by eye" what the viewer should see in a specific scene... I have actualy set the contrast value higher than necessary (=than the value the calibration yielded) because this combination of values (55/50 for RGB analogue) seems to be sort of "sweet spot" of the panel yielding the best colour reproduction and least colour banding... Be careful with "colour" setting: This value definitely depends on chosen contrast/brightness relation and should be set after you have found the best values for the first two...

Settings as follows (consider that on my set there is no difference between the modi, i.e. movie, standard, etc are just names no specific functionality behind it...)



That interesting, because on my 5053 there is a very noticeable difference between the different modes. For example, with the exact same settings applied to the different modes, movie mode gives a slightly softer picture in addition to noticeably reducing picture noise. This is the mode that I use with my HD cable because of the noise reduction (and while the picture is slightly softer, there is no loss of detail that I can see. Overall, a very pleasant and natural looking picture)

"new" is a poor name for a thread. Use the series name or something else.

@Shurenuff

You've got the S-5053, right? There, the "movie"-mode is indeed something special with separate set of parameters in service menu... As far as I could compare this, the effect is very similar to switching off DNIe on my set yielding an overall smoother picture...

Paul,

Yesterday I got my DVI to DHMI cable and hooked up the DVI out on my Moto 6200. It was interesting because in comparing DVI and Component outs I was able to back down contrast and brightness considerably on the DVI side.

So, I guess in comparing settings we need to include the type of output being used eh?

Anybody else having trouble finding goog settings for the football games today? Seems as though no one setting works good on every channel.

I have the 4253. Evertime I make setting changes to dynamic, standard, movie or custom I'll check later and the set has reverted back to some other settings. There is no indication that settings have been saved. What am I doing wrong?

I have the 4253. Evertime I make setting changes to dynamic, standard, movie or custom I'll check later and the set has reverted back to some other settings. There is no indication that settings have been saved. What am I doing wrong?

I haven't seen that. I find that movie mode seems to be the best overall picture for me, but it's a little soft. I'm trying to get all the details out of the picture. I tried the Avia disc, but I guess I'm to dumb to use it properly. I came out worse than when I just used me eye to judge what I was doing. Ugh!

I just talked to the guys at Tweeters and they said that the "53" series had a problem with the settings not saving and reverting back. Said this problem was fixed with the "73" series.

They are also claiming that the picture is much improved. That's interesting as the specs for the 53 and 73 are identical except cable card. They are telling me that the PQ improvements are not being broadcasted as Samsung doesn't want to deal with all the customer disatisfaction. Afterall, the 53 series was always considered a temporay model (4 months) between the 42 and 73 series. I saw the 73 series today and the PQ is fabulous. It ABSOLUTELY blows away every Panasonic and is barely under the Pioneer 940hd.

I've only seen my settings getting reverted when I access the Service Menu. Even if I do nothing in Service Menu, all my changes to Out-of-Box settings will be reverted to back to the originals.

Here is my numbers after running DVE;

Contrast 77
Brightness 33
Sharpness 20
Color 50
Color Tone Normal

Thats as close as I can get it. Looks great in a dark room.

Jon

. They are telling me that the PQ improvements are not being broadcasted as Samsung doesn't want to deal with all the customer disatisfaction. .
whats your take on what they told you? im not buying it

Here is my numbers after running DVE;

Contrast 77
Brightness 33
Sharpness 20
Color 50
Color Tone Normal

Thats as close as I can get it. Looks great in a dark room.

Jon

In what mode?

I'll just copy this from the "old" Sammy video settings thread:

HPS4273

I have four different modes for various viewing pleasures:

We have a really crappy digital cable company and an old box so SD tv only, but it actually looks pretty good. This is wired up via S-Video component.
Movies on DVD look GREAT and it is only a Toshiba DR5 via HDMI.
Here are my settings:

All of these have DNR and DNIe "Off"

Standard:
Contrast "50"
Brightness "50"
Sharpness "50"
Color "50"
Tint "Center"
Color Tone "Normal"

Movie:
Contrast "75"
Brightness "45"
Sharpness "40"
Color "55"
Tint "Center"
Color Tone "Warm1"

Custom:
Contrast "75"
Brightness "58"
Sharpness "55"
Color "60"
Tint "Center"
Color Tone "Normal"

Dynamic:
Contrast "85"
Brightness "50"
Sharpness "60"
Color "67"
Tint "Center"
Color Tone "Warm1"


Last night I was watching "World Trade Center" on DVD and it is a really dark (also not that great IMO) movie so I bumped up brightness on dynamic mode from 50 to 60 and that seemed to help out.

Please could someone help me out by telling me how to access the service menu on the 5053 - thanks!

tandk_1, don't be in such a hurry to bugger up your set - stay out of the service menu!

Repost your problem or whatever it is you're trying to fix, over in the calibration section - they'll be able to help you out over there.

Take care.

It's not actually calibration I am initially looking for really - although I will want the service menu for that too so anyone who can help with that - please reply.

Actually it's because I emigrated from the UK to the US and brought my PAL PS2 (that I bought in the UK) that I want to look in the service menu of the Samsung 5053 to see if there is any way to get it to accept a PAL signal.

Anyone out there who can think of an alternative (as I suspect other than adjusting the calibration there will not be an option to accept a PAL signal) - like running the PAL picture through a cable box or DVD player or Amp to convert to NTSC or any fancy little gadgets or cables anyone can think of - would be much appreciated.

I know of the PAL to NTSC converter boxes but they cost $150-$200, which my wife is NOT going to let me buy just to run my PS2!!!

Please help!

Any takers?