Official Samsung LNxxA550 (Series 5) Owners Thread NO PRICE TALK! - Page 32

Speaking of which, I CANNOT decide on a 40" or 46". Seating distance is between just under 5 ft (secondary seating) to 8 ft (primary seating). Seeing as how someone will always be in the secondary seating position, I worry that 46" is too large, especially for SD. But then I also worry that 40" will be too small for 8 ft, especially with 2.35:1 DVDs/Blu-rays... AHHHHHHHHHHH. Anyone care to share their opinion?

The price has finally stopped plummeting on Amazon and seems to be staying within a certain range.

I know most Best Buy's won't match online stores, but has anyone been able to get them to match Amazon? I heard there might have been a few success stories.......

I was in the same boat as you. I came from a Pioneer Plasma and was sick of having to deal with image retention.

Let's try to keep the OCD early adopter nastiness syndrome to a minimum.

Just got my 46 inch today. Man is it a big difference going from a 27 tube. Everything seems great so far except I can't get the audio out to work. It's probably my PC speakers I'm trying to use... I'll try a different set tomorrow.

I just got my 40550 hooked up and calibrated according to the 1499 post. It looks gorgeous. no dead pixels. No problems. The only thing I am wondering about is how to get the blacks a little darker without changing the beautiful colors that I have set up. I don't really know what does what in the settings, I just followed instructions.

Call of Duty 4(ps3) looks more beautiful than I ever imagined. It brought a little tear to my eye. I'll wait to judge cable tv until I get my hd box, and it is all hooked up with HDMI.

Unfortunately I don't have a digital camera, so I can't upload any quality pics(I am just an old stickler for a traditional film camera)

General rule of thumb when I was working at CC, was 2 and a half times the size of the set was the desired seating. IE, 50" tv means you should be roughly 125", or 10.5 feet away. If you are too close, your eyes shift a lot, causing headaches or whatever. Like I said, it was rule of thumb. I have a 52" and for xbox I sit no more than 3' from the set, otherwise I am around 12 '.

remeber, if the audio output is COMING FROM a HDMI source, the OUTPUT will be only 2 channel (per manual) (and even says for higher quality surround sound, connect directly to an external receiver).
I wish they could just make a nice pass through 5.1, but none of the Tv's I had did that. Oh well.

does anyone know a way to effectively mute the tv with a harmony remote? i usually just watch the tv with the built in speakers, but i also have a button to use the tv with my receiver if i want better sound. problem is that if i use the mute command, it has the mute icon on the screen. is there any other way to lower the volume to zero or something with the harmony?

thanks!

its the "antenna" input

Hm it is coming from an HDMI source (PS3) and coax from teh cable box. I don't get sound from either. I'm thinking its just the PC speakers... the set I have plugged in now is a 4.1.. but I'm only using 2 speakers. I have a 2.1 set that I'll try tomorrow.

Oh also checked it doesn't seem to have any dead pixels. Any other checks I should do?

Actually just got my speakers to work.. a lot better then the built in.

You're right. I apologize.

Justin

It all depends, I went to my local Best Buy and I asked them if they price match amazon, the guy I asked flat out said NO. I turned around and walked right out of the store. Next I went to circuit city, I asked them the same thing and they were much more willing to listen to what I had to say. I endedup getting the tv for a decent price at CC...so screw you BB, lol. Like I said it really all depends, plus a lot of the people working at those stores are real morons. I knew more about the tvs than most of them. The one guy who eventually rang me up at CC tried to tell me that my check card was being declined and was making bad faces at me like I didn't have any money or something. I kept telling the guy I KNOW I have money, its my checking account, like I'm gonna go to buy a $1500+ tv with no money in my account. Well, it turned out he was just doing it wrong or something because some chick came over and schooled him in how to work the register. Heh, those people really piss me off sometimes...sorry for the rant.

Also try:

http://myhometheater.homestead.com/v...alculator.html

- courtesy the Sammy A650 thread.

46A550 arrived yesterday AM. Still running tests, playing with the huge numbers of settings, modes etc... will post some ridiculously long analysis later I'm sure.

Ran the TVBlink DVD test I found referenced elsewhere on AVS - good stuff. Ran it the night before on my Vizio 37 LCD to have a reference. Quite the difference especially in the 'bleed' and the 'BW antialiasing' tests - of course one might expect that given the significant differences in specs - duh.

ANYWAY - very pleased... (honeymoon phase) more later including my thoughts on the sound.

Oh, BTW, the Ceva/Eagle guys had 32! deliveries to make yesterday covering some 75+ miles from their warehouse.. SO... they were anxious to move along quickly but were patient while I tested everything with the DVD, which was queued up and ready to roll.

I got one of these. It is called the ln40a550p1f. I live in Korea. This is my first LCD TV. Sad thing is that the dam menu is all in Korean and there isn't any option to change it--so is the manual.

Are these TVs firmware upgradeable? Maybe if I call samsung they will help me out. Maybe change the firmware?

Can someone post a shot of what their TV menus look like?

I noticed that mine has touch sensitive buttons.

m.. .

Edit: Saw some screen shots, the menu style looks the same.

I noticed that Fireballz linked to a manual DL site. The a530 is listed with "p1f" & the a550 is listed "p3f" He noted that the 530 didn't have the wiselink. However my does, and it has the touch sensitive buttons. I see that the pictures posted have got a silver line across the bottom, but my has got it across the two sides. What does the 530 have for trimming? If the 530 has got the same silver trimming, maybe that is what the "p1f" refers to? But , then again mine had the touch sensitive buttons

Finally opened the box and set it up last night. Hooked to Directv HD DVR and PS3. The PQ out of the box is awesome in my opinion, noticeably better than the Sharp. Even my wife, who thought I was kinda crazy for going through the hassle of returning the Sharp and getting this one, agreed that this set is much better. I haven't tweaked the settings yet -- will probably start with post #1499 and work from there.

Ran the TVBlink greyscreen test, which torments all us Sharp owners, and just sat there staring at the paused greyscreen, drinking in the screen uniformity.

The sound seemed fine to me, but I'll be running through my 5.1 most of the time anyway.

So far, I couldn't be happier.

Got my TV yesterday! Also got a new baby early this morning so I haven't had a chance to play with it the tv that is...

Does anyone know which reference level my 360 should be set to? Not sure if this was mentioned yet...

How did you all check for dead pixels? Also, what is that gray test Driffter77?


Any other tests I should know about?

Google TVBlink. There's a DVD download that you can run with a variety of tests. Those of us who suffered from Sharp's banding are particularly interested in the grayscreen test, which basically runs through various darkness levels of gray. It will really demonstrate screen uniformity. There are other tests too, ones that show just colored screens so you can look for dead or stuck pixels, etc.

does anyone know from a computer, if I convert a Svideo to VGA to tv improves image quality. The svideo to svideo sux. blurry.

Just a question. I see the LN32A550 at Circuit City located here but I do not see it listed on Samsung's site anywhere. Also, the link to the manual on the original post is the manual to the LN32A450 (not 550) even though the description says 550 on Samsung's site. What gives?

Found an interesting thread here regarding the 61f/65f series and xbox 360 settings, but doesn't seem to directly apply here... can anyone make anything of this?

----
Anyway, for Xbox 360 if you want the image quality to look outstanding, NO COMBINATIONS OF SETTINGS BESIDES THESE ARE CORRECT, it is the only way to use RGB colorspace with 360 and a Sammy LCD, giving you rich colors, great black levels, and accurate shadow detail:

ON YOUR 360:
-Plug your 360 into HDMI 1
-Set the reference level on the purple tab to "Expanded"

ON YOUR SAMSUNG LCD:
-Label HDMI 1 "PC" on the "inputs" tab along the left side of your TV menu
-Go to picture settings and reset them (last option), then use the following settings:

Picture mode: Standard
Contrast: 90
Brightness: 44
Sharpness: greyed out
Color: greyed out
Tint: 50/50 (may be greyed out)
Backlight: 3-6
HDMI Black Level: greyed out (normal)
Black Adjust: off
Dynamic Contrast: low or medium
Gamma: 0
Color Gamut: Auto
Home Theatre PC mode: On (this tells the TV to look for true RGB)
DNIE: On (I think it is greyed out)
DNR: off
White levels: default, all 15
color levels: default, all 15

You may have to power cycle your TV, but I found resetting your picture settings had the same effect, but the important things to note are:

-HDMI 1 is named PC
-Home Theatre PC "ON" (and NOT greyed out anymore)
-Xbox 360 reference levels Expanded
-some options get greyed out when correctly activated (sharpness, etc.)

PLEASE TRY THIS, YOU CAN PLAY WITH THE ACTUAL PICTURE SETTINGS, BUT THE 3 ABOVE ARE CRUCIAL.
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Okay, Justin, you can come out of your corner now!

Circuit City will put up anything on their site. Their info is usually correct. I knew a guy who was calling Samsung and the CR was talking all about the 7 series and prices and such, yet there was nadda on Samsung;s site. As far as the manual, generally 1 manual will be good for a series of sets. The manual will specify which sets it represents.

The dead pixels are usually obvious. Look at a black screen, like a loading or something, and if you look like you are seeing twinkling stars, there you have it. You have to look close, and from different angles. When I had mine on my 65, sometimes it was hard to find, even though I knew where it was, but it always showed itself.

Ah I see. Thanks for the response. I have been looking at the 32" 450-series equivalent from Samsung (I chose it based on the products listed on their website). I was trying to compare Samsung's "best 32" model" with Sharp's new G3PU TV, which is 1080p and was surprised Samsung website didn't have a competing model.

Then I noticed Circuit City had the 550-series TV and nobody else had it listed. I guess I should wait? The lower response time and 15000:1 contrast ratio of the 550 seems to be worth 200$. Plus Circuit City offers better financing on TVs over $999.

Any idea when the 32" 5-series will come out @ other stores?

Does anyone else notice a slight buzzing coming from the back of the set? With sound on I have to stick my head back there.. without sound I can hear it standing in front of the tv.

just got home from work. Ceva called up and said they would be bringing it in 30 min.

Can't wait!

Hey Nick,

I'm not a TV or electronic expert in any way, shape or form. For the most part on the mid range sets, not much in the way of praise has been said about 100hz/120hz. I can recall reading many reviews for various TV's and people/reviewers have preferred to have it off in some cases or hardly notice much difference. At the end of the day each manufacturer has it's own technology and some will implement the feature better than others. The best way to check it, is to see one and decide what works best for you.

On another forum i'm on (AV Forum), I was told that the new 400, 500, 600, etc sets are now popping up in Curry's, Dixons and Comet stores. If you check with your local you may be able to check one out. It's just crazy how it's available in the states so easily but in the UK it's near impossible. In fact I emailed Samsung trying to figure out what exactly is happening with the new models and why it's only available at 3 chains stores and there response was basically because it isn't out yet and officially released. No dates, no nothing...