Samsung PN50A550 / PN58A550 Owners Thread - Page 9

i would never pay that much for a cable...first of all I'm just way too cheap and secondly, i've done too much research on them.

I've just seen a few selling for under $5 and wondered if i there was anything to be looking for. The PN50a550 has 1.3 inputs, but there doesnt seem to be a lot of difference in what they offer. Just wasnt sure if anyone on here would reccommend 1.3 only etc.

question: do you need a mount to use TV? Or can you just use the stand that it comes with?

Hello all -

I just recently moved up from a Samsung DLP HLR5067 W to PN50A550 (thanks to the best buy warranty no lemon). I have had it for a week, but one thing I have noticed is some speaker humming, especially during base. Now my dlp would absolutely crank and would sound great, this tv seems to have no low or high ranges. When I have the sound set to entertainment, dynamic off I can hear some significant distortion during lows. When I have it set to movie, most of it goes away. Anybody else notice this. Am I just being picky and all plazma's have poor sound like this? Do I need to return the tv, I don't think the speaker is blown?

most tv speakers suck with lows, if you have problem with clarity on the high's then i would return it because thats totally unacceptable this day n age. The reason lows usually suck is because you can't fit anything but tiny speakers on flat screens, tiny speakers are for highs

you could always go to bestbuy and check out some of the sound on other tv's or the same one

Thanks for the quick reply. The highs are there, normal tv viewing (speach, etc) I can crank and there is no distortion, actually it will get pretty unbarable around 60. When I put it on the musak channels (R&B, Gangsta rap), the base is absolutely not there and it sounds like a cheap boom box with some distortion. I will take you up on your suggestion, go on a tuesday afternoon when the store is quiet and crank my same tv and see what happens. Was hopeing someone else here had the same tv and could tell me.


Overall the TV is very nice. This is my 4th HDTV, 2 DLPs (52, 50") one LCD 32" and now this Sammy 50" Plasma. The picture is definately better than the DLP in HD. In SD they performed about the same.

Also, I was always told that the DLPs were brighter than the plasmas, but this TV is just as bright (and I have contrast and brightness down to 60 each).

You are better off simply sending your audio signal to an external AVR of any kind with any typical HT speakers than expecting a TV attached speaker system to be the quality you are looking for.

Agree. These are $2000+ TV's, but they all use 25$ speakers.
Just hook it up to any basic stereo or a full HT system if you can.

Yep, I didn't wait long enough on the break in dvd. The very first one I made works perfectly. Love this tv so far. Should be mounting it on the wall this weekend.

I just bought the pn50a550 yesterday. I read all the post before going to buy. I want to thank everybody that helped me decide on this TV. I replaced a Sony KP51WS500 rptv. I can't believe how much clearer the HD picture is. I thought the sony had a good picture but the plasma is better.
If anybody could give me some advice I'd appreciate it. My Sony died on me and I don't know if it's worth fixing. The screen will flash bright green and then the tv shuts off. It will turn right back on but will only stay on for a short period. The colors are starting to be off also.

I have been told that you can donate it to the Salvation Army, they fix them and give them to people. You then get a tax deduction for it. Hope this helps, if you decide not to fix it.

Thanks. That's a good option. Still hope somebody has an idea if I should fix it.

Hi ! Could actual owners of these new sets please post reviews,pictures, opinions, comparisons to other brands etc. Thanks

I'll give it a try. I had a sony rptv, and bought the plasma last night. Setup was a breeze. It has an automatic setup that did a good job. I just had to go back and delete a few weak channels. I had an external HD tuner for the sony and I get more channels with the samsung tuner. I live out in the country so was suprised with this. The remote is on the big side. It seems to be set up pretty good though. You have a button for source,picture size and picture mode. It has other buttons that some might be interested in but these were the most important to me. The menus seem to be well set up. I'm still getting used to it but haven't had any problems doing what I want to do. On to the TV itself. I haven't watched a blu-ray dvd yet. I have charter cable with HD. It's an older box so had to hook it up with a DVI-HDMI cable. I don't know if this makes a difference or not. The picture in SD is better than it was on the RPTV. Actually it's better on everything I've tried so far. I couldn't believe how good the picture was on OTA and cable HD. The depth and clarity was amazing. I played Oblivion on the PS3 and could tell the difference from the RPTV. So far, I am totally pleased with this TV. I turned the sound off and could hear no noise coming from the TV. I hope this helps. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them. This TV does have PIP but I haven't got used to using it yet. It does work but I haven't tried different inputs yet. I know it works with my cable and OTA signal.

I love it when people post stuff they have no clue about

I can actually get the 50 inch 550 for cheaper than the 5084 right now? That is the correct decision right?

Thanks,

Nick

Hi folks,

I noticed that this set has an optical audio out.

My question is: Should I be able to run my PS3 and HD DVD player into this set using HDMI and have the set shoot the optical audio back to my receiver?

My Yamaha doesn't have HDMI in or out, and I'm running out of opitical in with the addition of my HD cable box.

Has anyone else done this or think that's the way it should be able to work for me?

I'm looking at upgrading the yamaha this summer so I can enjoy all the great lossless audio, but right now I need a quick fix. The TV will be here Wednesday and I can't wait.

thanks for any help,

Scott Brooks

Absolutely. I went to BB this morning to buy the 5084 but was out of stock. The whole time I was there stared at the 550 - they were on the wall beside each other - and kept trying to convince myself to spend the extra $500. My initial thought was spend that $500 on a sammy BDP but when the sales rep came back without a set I splurged and got the 550, and BDP. Couldn't be happier with the decision. If you can get the 550 for the same or less as you say I'd be all over that like a fat kid on a smartie.

APC makes products with the most content for the money - no-nonsense, well engineered. You can't spend too much, but you can spend too little.

All your components should be protected with power grid problems as serious as they are. And if you are in an area with lightning... a nearby strike can disable your washer, dryer, refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, alarm system, etc. etc., etc. because only the most basic models come without computers these days. Whole house surge suppression is a worthwhile investment. And whoever recommended the Square D whole house surge suppressor made a good recommendation. But that alone isn't enough protection for your expensive video displays and audio components... I'd still use an APC product even with whole-house surge suppression.

That's a bit over-simplistic. 1s and 0s don't merely move down any old wire on any old cable without problems. And the digital signal looks nothing like anything you would remotely identify as 1s and 0s either. There are bandwidth issues, there are cable length issues, there are cable construction issues. Excellent, high quality cables can transmit HDMI 40 feet or so without problems. Poor quality HDMI cables can begin getting into trouble at 10 or 15 feet provided there aren't serious construction problems. Cable durability can also vary considerably between a cheap cable and an expensive cable. That said, www.monoprice.com sells very inexpensive HDMI cables that work fine as long as you aren't planning to step on them or otherwise abuse them.

Audio is as important or more important than video. Many of us have 3X or more the cost of our video display in our audio systems just because TV speakers suck -- it can't be any other way or you'd think the TV was too expensive and buy something cheaper with worse speakers. No matter how good the speakers were in your previous TV, they sucked compared to even modest separate speakers driven by an AVR.

I've had the 58A550 in my home for 4 days now. I am extemely pleased with the set and have had no issues occur. Today I watched Finding Nemo, playing on my Panasonic DVD Recorder, which upconverts ordinary DVD's to 1080i (I'll have to get a 1080p upconverting player soon) and it floored me. I am trying out some of my old DVD's and just finished watching the GodFather Part I. I've seen this film a number of times, but I never saw it look so good. The set has average black level for a plasma I would say, but terrific contrast and a very sharp image with wonderfully vivid and also subtle color rendition. The sound from the bottom-firing speakers are very good indeed. It has a pseudo surround sound output that had me fooled a couple of times into wondering if there were children in my yard playing before realizing it was coming from the TV audio. It does a decent job with standard (non high-def) input from my DirectTv satellite receiver, but it shades towards green too much for me. I won't bother adjusting it, because I am having a high-def DVR and dish installed tomorrow and then we'll see. I'll post what I think after I see it. Very nice remote control on this set, and it lights up all the buttons when you press any button. I find the on-screen menus very easy and intuitive and they give instant feedback when making adjustments. More later.

Well I got mine mounted today. Here are some pics of it. Running the break in DVD. Does anyone know how to get into the maintenance menu? I would like to be able to see how many hours I have on the set so far. Trying to get to 100 before I work on the settings. Not sure how to post the url and make it come up correctly. if you go to this link I have some pictures up. I have the PN50A550, Denon 3808CI, & Paradigm Studio 60 Reverence with matching center channel. I also have a PS3, Xbox 360, & Wii.



http://gallery.mac.com/smitty4ut/100008

http://samsungplasmatvfaq.com/index.php/Service_Menu

I am just using movie mode, and 50, 50 on the brightness and Contrast. I have everything turn down and all enhancement options off. I am going to try the CNET settings once I get past 100 hrs.

Anyone have any luck getting Circuit City to price match with Amazon? There is almost a $800 difference between the two for the PN58A550

They matched the price on my 50 when it was at 1869. I had to call 2 different stores to find one that would do it. I also got the 3yrs financing.

Yes, that should work fine, That's how I have my TV set up at the moment since I was short an HDMI cable to run it through my Onkyo.. But now those have arrived, and my new 58A550 should arrive this week.. yeah.. I'll have it all HDMI, cable box and PS3 ..

I got my pn58a550 on Friday.

First impressions are great. Good 1080i TV source via component looks perfect (with cnet HDMI settings). Excellent black levels and no reflectons on the screen, although my room is not very brightly lit. The bezel reflects stuff, but not the screen.
I am comparing it by memory with the 60 inch Pio pro plasma, setup and excellently calibrated in the dark Magnolia room - I can pick up no difference whatsoever besides size, but that is by memory, not side by side. Maybe side by side there is better black level on the Pio pro, but it has a $7K sticker at Magnolia, not final price of course. I am completely satisfied with the black level of the Samsung.

The can be adjusted to anyone's personal taste - from very bright and striking to eye-friendly and natural, with proper skin tones. I ended up using the cnet settings as I have not had time to eval the settings in greater detail and calibrate the TV.

There is a moderate dim light below the bezel and it can completely be switched off.

There are buttons on the right side that are totally unnoticeable. in fact i accidentally turned off the TV a few times - did not see the buttons and was trying to rotate the TV.

Sound is good for a TV speaker. I am connecting to external speakers so I did not play with sound options at all. Just found that there is a way to switch off sound completely from the menu - exactly what I will need.

SD quality varies greatly - with a good clean and clear digital cable channel it is perfect, with very low quality and noisy analog signal the TV is not perfect, and it is worsened by its size, every imperfection is magnified greatly. There are noise reduction options in the menu, they help a lot, but of course are not 100% efficient.

At the brightest default setting (Dynamic) the TV heats up to a good level. At the Movie setting and the CNET setting, it is warm-hot, closer to warm - very acceptable temp, I have seen hotter LCDs.

The TV is very heavy. The screen is actually slightly tilted back on its base, like 1-2 degrees. I guess the designers realized that when the TV is placed on a stand, the top stand shelf will "sag" a little, back to front, and the screen will become totally perpendicular to the floor You really need a good sturdy stand for this one, and I would never risk wall mounting it with a tilting/swiveling mount.

I have not connected a high def DVD source yet, and have not tried the 24 fps movie mode.

I have tried briefly for 10 mins, in the Dynamic mode, watching ESPN with static logos, then switching back to grey bar-ed SD channels and to regular HD programming - I did not see any IR. I will later try completely plain screen, not sure for now about IR. But in real life conditions (just watching TV) i do not see any problems.

I tried running this a a giant picture frame with an SD card with a bunch of 3mb jpeg files. The interface and menus for USB playback are excellent. The speed of rendering images is bottlenecked by the SD card speed.

Final thoughts:
I am happy I did not go with an LCD, was considering LCD only to be more energy efficient, but finally gave up and went for the pic quality.
The shiny bezel serves a double purpose - it also indicated the dust level in the house I did not know I had so much dust in the air, after one day lots of it clung to the bezel. I can't see it on the screen though - ether because the screen is so good swallowing light, or because the bezel just attracts the dust due to its material electrostatic properties.
After getting used to a 58 incher, I cant watch smaller TVs anymore

Yes, I have HDMI from PS3 and HDMI from Sat. Receiver both going to the 550. Then I use the optical out from the 550 to the AVR. Works great!

The CNet reviews sure made these look good compared to the new Pannies; I wonder why there seems to be so much more interest in the Pannies than these on the AVS forums?