Samsung PN50A550 / PN58A550 Owners Thread - Page 3

Exactly.

Out of the box, Samsungs come in their Dynamic mode with all black enhancement features turned on, which causes alot of shadow detail crush. You need to turn all those features off or change it to Movie mode.

Why would turning on the black enhancement features crush the shadow detail?
so are you saying the black enhancement feature does NOT enhance the blacks?

why don't they just call it the "shadow crush feature"

Probably because "shadow crush" doesn't sound very appealing. Changing the black level setting on the new Panasonics to "Dark" does the same thing. It doesn't actually make the blacks darker, but just makes MORE black in the image, losing a lot of shadow detail with it.

thanks Pibbo, saved me some typing.

BTW, I haven't seen the A500s yet but I saw an A450 and wow was the black level bad! Walking to the TV section, it was getting put up and I immediately noticed how light grey the screen was with the set off. I knew trouble was coming since that would be the blackest the set could do. Not very good! It looked almost like the bad Hitachis under it!

Looking at the set in person is always the best way to judge, but most stores are terrible places to evaluate black level. All the bright overhead lights wash out all plasma screens I've seen.

The first time I saw the 46PZ85U on display I wasn't very impressed because the screen looked grey. I put my hand horizontally on the screen as to cast a shadow and I could see it was actually much darker. I then put my face right up to it with my hands above my eyes to block as much light as possible and it was nearly pitch black.

But understand that all sets where under the same lightning conditions and it came nowhere close to the pannys, sony bravia LCDs or even samsung's own LCDs. Worst thing about it? An embarrassing 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio sticker! Just plain ridiculous... BTW, I did see it running.

Oh, well that's understandable then. It's possible though that in a dark room it could look as black as the Panny's. Could any A450/A550 owners comment?

I saw the TVs you mentioned in a BB where the overhead lights were turned off in the TV section and the Sammys black levels appeared to be about the same as the new Pannys. The Sony Bravia definitely did not have as good blacks but the Samsung LCDs topped them all. I must confess though that no remotes were nearby and without them nothing is 100% certain.

I saw the 50" 550 at futureshop today.. I went in the morning to look at TVs, came back in the afternoon with a friend, and they where taking the 550 down, when I asked one of the salesmen why, he said that it developed a green fuze all over the screen.. Is this normal for sammys or for plasma's in general? I am looking at getting either a 50 or 58" and can't decide if I should go sammy or panny. I always have perferred the PQ on the samsung, however I have been told that the repair rate for samsung is alot higher then panasonic, is this true?

looks like Samsung doesn't want to hurt there LCD sales.

by coming out with a Plasma TV that is not much better than last year confirms this.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

where are the reviews?

I am falling asleep myself.

I will delete the flop part because I was jumping to conclusions.

but so far... most people don't think the Samsung for 2008 is anything special.

so yes.... you can sleep zzzzzzzzz.

Yeah where the hell are the reviews or owners lol
The TV's should be in most stores by now. Maybe there are too many Panasonic fanboys to bother with getting aything else

no one is buying it because the price of the LCD 46" just keeps dropping like fly on amazon lol

The only place locally I could find the 550 at was Best Buy. Circuit City, Ultimate Electronics and Americans(all the local stores to me) did not have them yet. I just purchased the 5084 at a pretty good price but am coming up on my 30 days so I went to the local Best Buy to take a look. They had it set up right at eye level and the clerk gave me the remote and let me go to town on it. The set is much thinner than the 5084 and weighs about 15lbs. lighter, speakers have been moved from the side/rears to the bottom now and the chrome bezel on the side is gone. The menu is still similiar to last years but looks a little cleaner and has some new options. There is a setting for cell lighting which from what I could tell controls the brightness of the panel, also new is a seperate color setting for flesh tones. With the crappy feed at Best Buy it was hard to get a good feel for how much these 2 settings actually do. There is a new favorite type of button which gives you one button access to your most used menu settings. There is now single button remote access to turn the game mode and sports mode on and off. A reduction from the 5084's 2 year warrenty to 1 year now. The set seems to run much cooler than last years, it had been on all all day and the top of it seemed pretty cool still at least compared the 5084 which runs fairly hot. I had heard that Samsung had combined the seperate X and Y Sustain boards on to one single board now which helps it run cooler and reduced weight and thikness. I felt that the set is definatly brighter than last years but the blacks didn't look any different to me. I really like the new design and styling changes that they made but other than the brightness I could see no difference in picture quality, and least not enough to make me take the 5084 back and spend $400 more on the new set.
I really wish I could take it home and compare it with the 5084 side by side with a good quality 1080p feed. It's so hard to get a really good idea on these sets with the feeds in the stores.

They also had the new LN52A550 LCD right above it and it really looked excellant. I am a plasma guy but the 52A550 really looked great, if it wasn't out of my budget range I would seriously be looking at it!

I was literally within 2 days of pulling the trigger on the FP-T5084 when this thing came around. I read in another thread here that this isn't meant to be a replacement for the 5084, but is meant to replace the 5064. I'm surprised at the lack of reviews/owners, which is giving me cold feet yet AGAIN after 6 months of research and biding my time.

I was unsure between 5084/50A550 - but am even more unsure between 50A550 and 50A750T. I really don't like the red tinting on the 7 series though. I think that would influence the perception of the picture. /headspinning

gizmodo.com/341087/samsung-high-end-plasma-series-7-getting-ethernet-and-amber-tinged-frames

The color in person is actually really, really subtle and hardly a deal breaker. Check out the 6 series LCDs in person to get an idea of it. Pictures make it far more pronounced than it is in person.

I am like you. I almost went for the 5084 and now waiting for CC to get 50A550 to make a decision.

They are replacing my s5053 and have offered the A450.

I am trying to decide between A450 or upgrading to 5084/50A550.

Just curious, but I too am in the process of getting my s5053 replaced too and also thinking of A450 or A550. What was your issue with the s5053?

my 1st s5053 was a "buzzer" that got replaced

my current s5053 has tiny green, blue, and red "sparkles" that you see on the darker images and is worse when the screen 1st turns on

the repair guy thought it was a voltage issue and called Samsung to replace the bad part

the part was on indefinite backorder and with a $900+ repair estimate CC offered the replacement

what about you?

Wow, this is my first replacement. The TV starts off fine but develops a buzz that sounds loud enough to be electric hair clippers. They tried replacing the x-board and the power supply and as soon as it was changed, I got your "sparkles", then 30 seconds later, BAM, lights out! The buzz still didn't go away. The repair guy said it was the screen. $1,700+labor... so BB offered a replacement.

I am seriously considering the A550. I finally saw a BB store that had them on display and WOW, the picture is amazing! I'm just waiting for reviews. Decisions, decisions...

Hey guys! First post here on the AVS forums. Great site! You guys really know your stuff.

I, like a previous poster had mentioned, was about a week away from purchasing a 5084, until I heard about the 50A550. Now, I'm back to square one, and my head is starting to hurt again. But, I guess the question I would pose to you guys is: Do you really think there's a chance that the 50A550 would be a worse option than the 5084? I could see it being on the same level, but could it be at all possible that the 5084 is a better set?. Should I just go ahead and buy the 50A550, or is it really best to take a wait and see approach? What would be the biggest concern with just saying the hell with it, and buying the 50A550?

I swear I've spent more time researching tv's, than I ever did when I was considering proposing to my wife!

The Panny 80U had better blacks than this! its a shame because this sammy looks nicer than the PAnny.

OK as we know so far there is two series of the 2008 plasma's the PN50A550 and the PN50A750T...and that the 750 series are the top of the line elite models. Now there could be considerable picture quality difference to want to make you jump from one or the other, still no word on the price for the 750 series it will be more then the 550 series how much more between the two series may expose quality difference the 750 holds. So far specification wise what I know straight from Samsung is that, panels are the same, verified twice, contrast the 30k, brightness same, and all other specs, Two new feature on the 750 called - Transparent Opeg Color Processand it will have ACE-2- silhouette editorand will not have the 3D feature that the 550 will carry, Now that makes me question just how valuable or good is the 3D option, to not even Qualify? (OH I hope the 550 is not bad), into the 750. WHY would they not just make it 3d ready why, that answer must be answered by questioning the 3D feature. Is it a handicap for the display? is the 550 as good as Samsung showed it to be in CESshow? Is the 750 just a small upgrade with a not so popular color red design around the outside edges like the lcds
And yes the price difference will tell all. - now the 550 is selling at 1600 on the internet with 400 delivery. Best buy 2199. now if the 750 -release date may-comes out at 400 more that can still make me want to stay with the 550 and the 3D with the plane black on the outside rather then the red design. But if it come out at 900 more to higher, that will make me think of jumping ship or at least take the new features it has into more consideration. Final.

"Samsung's Series 7 plasma HDTVs incorporate several new premium features including the company's self-described "Touch of Color" bezels and Ultra FilterBright anti-glare technology that is impressively effective at minimizing the appearance of ambient light reflections. The Series 7 plasmas also offer improved video processing, 4 HDMI v1.3 ports, and an Ethernet port for local network access of multimedia files as well as access to RSS-based content. Available in April 2008, the Series 7 Plasma HDTVs will offer screen sizes of 50 inches (PN50A750T), 58 inches (PN58A750T), and 63 inches (PN63A750T)."

maybe the Series 7 will do 1 to 1 pixel mapping?

I believe the series 5 does 1 to 1 mapping just like the current 5084 does. You pick "just scan" for your aspect ratio and that is 1:1 mapping. So I am sure that 7 does this as well.

Just bought a PN58A550 from Best Buy. They price matched Cleveland Plasma's shipped price and gave me the 3 years/ no interest financing offer. I had to pay sales tax but I got some Best Buy rewards points.

It will be delivered Tuesday, April 8th.

I have never seen this TV in person, so hopefully it doesn't suck.

This is my first Plasma screen. I suddenly got tired of the lousy black levels on my aging Westinghouse LCD so decided to pull the trigger on something bigger & better.

Recieved my 58A550 on Tuesday and set it up yesterday. This is my take on the set. I am a non videophile and first time HDTV owner. I spent six months researching this purchase.

The PQ is fantastic on HD. I have it set to movie mode. I can't imagine a better picture. Blacks are excellent, whites are fine. Ona a five star scale I rate it a 5 for HD picture quality.

SD- My provider is TWC. Though getting better their HD availability pales in comparison to the sattellite services. This was an area of concern for me, but I am quite pleased with the SD quality. Rate it a 4.

Will be the weekend before I can do any serious viewing and will report back next week.

Great set, very bright, little glare. Excellent price/value relationship.

Gary S