Official Samsung LNxxA650 Owner's Thread - Page 243

I wonder what it'll take to make this thread stickied...

We should have enough posts, right?

Well, it's an award-winning television, it should be stickied because of its popularity.

What is the problem if the InfoLink says "Fail to connect with service"? Network test says all is well though.
Has anyone had a problem with setting the SRS TruSurround XT on and when you turn TV off and then on again it is set to off again?

I played around with it last night:
The settings I've typically been using are backlight 3, brightness in the mid 40s, dynamic OFF, HDMI black level greyed out, power-saving off (though I'm now tinkering with LOW, see below).

The issue for me is not that the haze is purple, it's that it's THERE--in my case it's more blue. It is not gone on-axis (and this is annoying me), and it is quite noticeable even 10º off-axis.

The reason I say it's haze is that I notice it on black bars or blank screens, as opposed to poor black levels in a picture image (though those cannot get darker than the haze of course).

Things that lower my haze on a black screen:

Major:
1) Turning down the backlight.
2) Turning on energy saving (gets better as you go higher)
3) Turning on Dynamic Contrast (BIG drop in haze at "LOW", slightly better at higher settings but unfortunately over-contrasty on pics with detail loss).
4) Movie mode seems to be better than standard or dynamic mode
Minor:
4) Decreasing gamma: very slight effect, even at -3.
5) Decreasing color offsets in the white balance menu--slight effect.

Things that do NOT decrease haze:
1) Turning down Brightness
2) Turning on or up black level adjust.

Because of these observations, I've been tinkering with as low a backlight as possible and last night I decided to turn energy save mode to LOW, and compensate for crushing by turning brightness up a bit. Like I said above, dynamic contrast to LOW made a big difference, but I lost shadow details...

Based on my tinkering last night,
AGREED.

I found the c|net settings very sepia in tone, mainly due to Warm2, but also because of their white balance adjustments. I also wanted a tad more color (and I usually turn down color gain on my TVs).

After I changed to the c|net settings, I started tweaking it to my taste, and guess what? I ended up very nearly right back at znutz' settings with warm1, and a bit lower blue offset.

That's when I started working on trying to reduce haze and the best I came up with was to go with Energy Save LOW and up the brightness and contrast a bit.

Now I must get an HDMI cable to rule out that my relative haze is just due to better black levels on HDMI. If there is no improvement then I can ask for a Big River exchange, which I really don't want to deal with. I wish I could see IN PERSON someone's A650 who reports no haze, so I can tell if the difference in posted images is real or due to camera differences.

Yea I saw that however there are alot of elegible dealers you can work for, you may know a friend that works for one to get it in his name, or you can just try it and see what happens, its $400 off the 52650, you never know!

Pointless, though. You have to buy it from your employer, and we all know that buying something from somewhere other than that rain forest big river place is not going to be cheap....

Try rebooting your router and modem, I had the same error message and rebooting my router and modem solved the problem. Make sure you power up the modem a few minutes before powering up the router (if you have one). If that doesn't work, try a new cable.

I don't use the speakers on the tv so I don't have an answer for your other question.

I think you will see an improvement with an HDMI. I set the HDMI black level to Low I believe. I can't recall the setting on this actually but I believe you have 2 choices, low and normal. I set it to low and it makes the letter-box bars completely black and I think makes the overall picture pop more.

Stupid question, but where is or what is the website for this Big River place I keep reading about?

Mihalis

true. well i just applied to bbuy and ccity just to be elegible then i will quit.
I was at bestbuy yesterday and they had their regular programing running on the 650. I asked them to hookup blue-ray to it, and they did, I set the automotion to high and I kid you not, 10-12 people gathered by the tv watching in awe. One of them brought over a bbuy representative and bought the 52" on the spot. I was proud of myself.

it just pisses me off when I walk into these electronic stores and they have the crappiest sources hooked up to these high-end tv's, loses them potential buyers.

I just purchased the 40" 650 model on Amazon! The current price is too good to pass up. I was torn between the LN40a650 and the 50 inch 550 plasma. Ultimately, I'm moving in to a studio apartment and the 50 inch was just too big. I'll post my thoughts as soon as it arrives (ETA May 12th).

I can't agree with you more. I couldn't even get the Rep at BB to talk with me! I walked out and got mine on Amazon. If they don't want my business, that's fine by me.

Yah, I like the 46" pricing on there, too. However, I'm holding off to see what the competition can provide before seeing how well this shapes up.

Thanks n1ghtpr0w1er that worked.

Mihalis,

Big River = Amazon

Does the 1003 firmware fix the difference in AMP off jittery picture AMP on strange look? Or if I have no other problems is it best to leave my firmware alone?

I just couldn't hold my water on this!
After checking out LCD's for a couple of years, I finally found one for sports where, for instance, NBA players charging the lane don't look like a transporter beam was starting to lock in on them When viewed side by side with XBR4/5 & Sammy 71F and A550, only the 46A650 had it nailed. no "jaggies" on diagonal lines and no "creep" on panned backgrounds, like the floorboards. Mine's coming down the river, for under 2K!

Thanx Jazzer, you're the 2nd or 3rd person to say that, so I am crossing my fingers. I was gonna get a nice HDMI at Blue Jean, but now it seems I need one right away for test purposes before my time is up. I think I'll pick up the cheapest one I can get at a B&M, then test my set. If it substantially reduces my perceived haze, then I'll get a nice one at Blue Jean, and I will be able to report on cable differences

Thanks

It's pretty awesome, isn't it

Last night I was watching the basketball game on TNTHD and man, does this TV show things you would never see with regular TV.

Example; The scoreboard ads and lights reflecting off of the hardwood, wow, never noticed that before. The sweat rolling down players faces, the details in the fans even when they aren't the ones the camera is focusing on, just WOW.

Mosh~~

I picked up a cheap belkin HDMI from Target when I got my set and then returned it when my better cable for less money came in. I definitely think you should give this a try ASAP and let us know what you find.

Ya know, I never bought this set for AMP (I wanted the nice CR and sleek look), and never thought I'd use it, but I had it on low for some DVDs initially. When I reset everything while I was testing, I turned it off, and the judder during camera pans--even though it looked more cinematic-- started to distract me! So I admit I've become a fan of low AMP.

Were you able to make it switch to difference picture modes with the Harmony? I run everything through my receiver and let it do the switching, but I want to have different settings for TV, Xbox, DVD's etc.

Speaking of remotes, has anyone successfully programmed their Timewarner/Comcast universal remotes (for use with motorola dct6416 iii)?

I've got an Atlas DVR1055 remote and I can't get the arrow keys/OK button to work... power works, video source menu's appear fine, though; I just can't navigate or select anything. Reading the wiki on this remote didn't help, unfortunately.

I totally concur. I was watching the game last night and kept commenting, "wow, that player has baggy cheek bones", or "I didn't know she had scars on her chest". Stuff that just would have blended in with a non-HD source and you never realize you're not seeing until you see it.

Watching SD sources at my friends houses is going to be difficult now.

Well here's part of my problem: My DVD player was very fancy for a few years ago, but apparently it only will put out component and VGA. Being a total noob to HDMI, I didn't realize this (VGA) is analog video, so I can't even hook up to HDMI with this DVD player. Ouch. I learned all of this on Blue Jean's very helpful site.

Bottom line; I knew I needed a new player for Hi-def formats, but I had no idea I may not even be outputting 480p optimally. So to even test the effect of HDMI connection on my black screen issues, I need to get hold of a device that puts out a darn digital signal, and right away. And I always buy things after careful consideration yada yada. Dang.

Alright, terrible thread for this question, but what do you guys think is the best blu-ray source out there that can also put out digital audio via coax? Preferably it should also be able to read redbook CDs and computer-burned CDs. Help!

Kineahora It does not have coax but I keep getting the response PS3. The other thing I keep getting is wait for the next generation? I ordered a PS3 and now am waiting on it. I am also waiting for the next Generation. I might be listening to the wrong people but they all are saying the same thing. Just my 2 cents. I also do not have a next Generation surround yet either so it will not make me a huge difference until that point if I did my choices would be different. The new surround processors have different processing. Picture is very good on all BD I have seen. Hope that helps.

Ok, I don't get it; why do you people refer to Amazon as Big River? why not just call it "AMAZON"?