Official Samsung LNXXB650 Thread - Page 9

Good to know that the Luxia has only 8-bit, as its PQ is more than adequate for me (darn the flashlights). After having a 58" PN58B650 in the same room as the 55" 6000, I would say screen size is very critical. I really wanted the plasma because of its size (PQ is great too), but the "bees" inside the panel just keep buzzing, driving me crazy even if Ii sit about 12 feet away from it. I may have to jump ship to the 55B650, but hate to be such a flip floppers , and not sure what kind of issue I'll get with the B650. But I don't see myself keeping either the Luxia or the plasma because of their issues. If I were to choose, I'll probably take the flashlights over the buzzing.

Btw, Fry's has the 55B6000 and 55B650 side by side for few weeks already. I've looked at them many times, and the PQ is very comparable in the store. However, I've learned that what we see (or hear) in the store doesn't mean much anymore.

yeah the pq does seem comparable in the store between the b650 and the 6000 - minus the dark spots that appear in the corners of the 6000.

i'm with you as far as not wanting to flip flop goes. but the way i see it is.. this is a very significant investment for me and i've got to live w/ this tv for a good amount of time. therefore, i want to get something i'm going to be very happy with.

as far as my chosing between the 52b750 and the 55b650... i'm probably just going to have to get one and be done with it. lol

I just got the 55b650 from Amazon yesterday and it is really incredible. The NBA games last night looked amazing, the best picture I've ever seen. I custom set the blur and judder on the AMP to 7 or 8 on both. I didn't know all of the technicalities of what I was doing but the smoothness of the games and American Idol were great. Games on the PS3 were great and without issue as well.

How do you like the asethetics of the B650 compared to the B750? I've pretty much narrowed my choice to either 55B650 or 52B750. Just don't know if I will like the look of the B650 (though it will give me 3" more screen) compared to the B750. Is the picture between these sets pretty much same even though some of the technical numbers seem to be different on paper?

I can't find the 55b650 in stores, but my local BB has the 46b650. It looks awesome... just as good, if not better, than the 46b7100 sitting next to it (with the same settings).

The 55b7100 looked very good, but if the picture of the 46b650 is any indication, then I actually think the picture of the 55b650 is just as good as the Luxia. And I'm a little worried about the relatively new LED side lighting. I'm not hanging my set so although the super thin 7000 (or 7100 at BB) looks pretty wild, it will do nothing for me.

I was also looking at a great closeout deal on the 52a650, but I think the 3" on the 55b650 and the better specs, as well as how amazing its 46" little sister looked in the store, have gotten me. I'd like to hear from others that have purchased the 55b650, and thanks to you all for your outstanding insights here at AVS (this is my first post).

Sears said the 55b650 was going on sale for $2600 on Sunday, but there are still better on-line deals I'll probably take advantage of. Since the 55b650 is so new, I wonder if prices will drop much over the next couple of months?

If your data sources are HD you should really be using a disk that is designed for that rather than DVD. The AVS calibration section has at least one free HD disk. Other options are Digital Video Essentials etc. The color gels you get with DVE are useful for setting colours making it worth while to spend $20. If your buying a new set and the store you are buying from has a copy tell them to throw it in when you buy. Worth a shot.

I chose based on screen size. I wanted the 3 extra inches. I didn't think I could really tell the difference between 120 and 240 TV's from various different makes in the b&m stores. I had never seen the 55b650 in person before I bought it. I went on a hunch that it was going to be a good unit and also there were some favorable reviews in regards to backlighting and black levels. I did see the luxia 6000 in the store and really liked it until I went to a store that had a dark room and saw the flashlighting. I could not spend that kind of money on a tv and completely obsess about the light shadows in the corners. I know I made a good choice with the b650 and the picture is definitely as good as the Luxia.

Well. I think my search is over, hopefully. After having issues with UN55B600 (flashlights) and PN58B850 (buzzing sound), I picked up the LN55B650 from Fry's for a pretty good price. Thank god it has very minimal flashlights and clouding issues, and no buzzing of course No IR to worry too. I watched some blu-ray and DVD. Looks pretty good.

I have one question regarding blu-ray watching. Should I have the player output 24fps or 60fps? I tried both, and felt that it's more blurry with 24fps (and that happens with the Luxia and plasma as well). Seems smoother with 60Hz, even with AMP off.

Can some of you B650 owners put up some pics of the tv on as well as off to help us undecided folks.

Just hooked up Xbox with VGA and seems a little better than the component inputs. Don't have HDMI option. With the VGA it has a lot less picture options to get messed up.
I agree seowfun with the Blue Ray Settings. Still not sure what is going to be the best? 24fps just looked to jump or not real.

The only way I can get rid of the blur is to set AMP to standard. Setting it to clear does little to nothing. Havent tried setting blu ray to 60fps. I'll mess with that tonight.

I am a little surpised and confused about the assertion that the B650 panels are 8 bit. If the A650 was 10 bit with 12 bit processing behind it, why in God's name would they up the specs of everything else on the set but go with a lesser panel? Also, in my experience with my LN46B650, it actually has LESS banding than I noticed on my LN40A650. Shouldn't it be the other way around? I calibrated my new set with the Blu-Ray of DVE and the color looks incredible. As I mentioned in another post, the blue of my PS3 menu screen no longer shows banding in the blue gradients that slowly go from dark to light. It looks buttery smooth. If this panel truly is 8 bit then I have to say 8 bit should be more than enough for my needs. And I'm a picky SOB.

Mine's the exact opposite. I've got more color banding, judder and motion blur than my A650 had. I don't know if it's an 8 or 10 bit panel but it's being reported that they are using 8 bit in the B650's. My guess would be that it's all about cost, if they actually are 8 bit.

Maybe I just got a bad one......that happens you know.

Interesting that you mention banding. My old 6-year old 42" Samsung EDTV plasma has really bad banding. One of the 1st thing I notice about the Luxia and B650 are the lack of bandings. I couldn't see any of them. I did see some bandings with the PN58B650 plasma, but they are very minimal. For now, I can care less whether it's 8-bit or not. Even if the set has some minor banding, I'll take it over flashlights and other issues.

I had initially decided to purchase the Samsung 55"B650 but am waiting for the release of the Tosh 55"670U to be released to make a final comparison in both PQ & price. With a 17 Ft. eye to screen viewing distance I need the larger screen and the below link helped me visualize the difference:

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/focus.ph...&id=1229341408

I have already made a sidexside comparison of the Samsung B650 & B750 versus the Tosh 650U at Frys and the PQ is just about a deadheat to my eyes & other folks at the store.

If the Tosh 55"670U with its LED zone lighting produces better blacks and exhibits no defiencies in side angle viewing & the prices or close then it will make my decision final.

Regards

I went to Fry's last night and the LN55B650 was sitting side-by-side with the PN58A550 (top-rated Samsung plasma in Consumer Reports). I fired up both TVs, switched them to Movie mode and played around with the brightness and contrast settings (did not touch color or grayscale settings). The LN55B650 won the comparo, hands down. Black levels appeared deeper than the plasma without sacrificing shadow detail, and white levels were cleaner. Both TVs were in the back of the store, in a low-light environment. The only downside is the LCD's off-angle viewing, but I really had to stand way to the side to see performance deteriorate.

For the combination of price, screen size and perceived picture quality, this is the LCD I would get. At Fry's the TV was nicely discounted to nearly 30% off MSRP. I am actually torn between the LN55B650 and the upcoming Panasonic plasma TC-P54G10 (price is $500 less, and its 50-inch cousin is highly rated on Cnet).

Outside of the different TOC? Anyone

I picked us a LN55B650 last weekend from Fry's on the deal previously mentioned in this thread. I haven't had a chance to mess with the settings, so they are as they were in the box. So far I'm really impressed with the TV. I'm coming from about a 3 year old 46" Samsung LCD. I was hesitant about the 650's 'chin' as many have mentioned, but it really isn't that noticeable in real life. I think the image on the web is misleading because the stand is not displayed and the TV is against a white background. All that being said, below are some quick pictures I snapped.

I received my LN40B650 on 5/5/09 and have been experiencing the auto turn off/on problem since then. This seems to be similar to what the A650 models have been experiencing and which seems to have been fixed with a firmware update. Anyone else experiencing this with B650 model and/or know of any solution in place? A Samsung tech is supposed to come out next week to take a look but wondering if anyone knows of a solution in the meanwhile.

JKLCA what version are you running? I upgrade to firmware 1004 the other night trying to help with the motion issues that I am trying to get a handle on. But since upgrading I am have issues when going to different inputs. It acts like it has no signal and so I have to hit the power button a couple of times to get it to work. Thinking about trying firmware 1007 but doing that I would not be able to get back to 1003 that came installed. Anyone know how to get the files on to a USB drive?

I have version 1003. I checked the Samsung website under downloads (for the LN40B650 model) and don't see any new firmware version(s) available. Where did you find the firmware 1007 version?

It is through the TV. Menu..Support..Software Upgrade..
The problem is it only allows you to keep the last version and I started with 1003. I loaded 1004. Check again and they have 1007.

here are a couple pictures of my set.

couple things...

1. how do I get my usb wifi card to work? and how to i configure it? I went into the menu but the place where you would change the network mode from "cable" presumably to wireless is shaded out.

2. it was said in this thread that even if you input dolby 5.1 with HDMI to the TV and run optical audio out to your receiver you will not get 5.1 out and that the TV only outputs stereo. This is not true. I bought a receiver because of this that supported HDMI inputs and just hooked it up only to find out I didnt need it....

3. is there any shortcut to enabling/disabling game mode? I find that I do it pretty frequently since I use my ps3 for blu-ray and movies...

thanks!

Perhaps you can revert back to 1003 first, then upgrade to 1007 and see if 1003 will now be saved as the "alternative" firmware. I haven't tried it so I don't know if it will work.

SuperGoop, That is a good idea might give it a try but think it is a rolling firmware because 1007 was available right away after the 1004 upgrade.

Had some better results last night watching blue-ray with these settings not a noticeable motion issues or I am getting use to it.
Firmware: 1004
Movie: Quantum of Solace
Blueray:bp-1600
Frame: 24fps
amp: clear

Jasonx2k23 how are you hooking up your xbox to the TV? I picked up the VGA cables the other day and seem to look a little better. It seems to turn off a lot of the extra processing that the TV can do. The game mode is not available but I think it turns so many other things off that it seems to look pretty good. Lag have not noticed it. I sometime still have the turning on/off feeling off that someone else is have and it seems to be related to the signal not being found yet I am guessing.

I don't think it is a rolling firmware because I upgraded from 1003 to 1007. I didn't have to upgrade to 1004 first. In fact, 1004 was never available to me.

I just bought a ln55b640 yesterday; decent sale at BB
The only difference I've seen is in the frame. Grey touch
of color, no "chin". Gorgeous set, on or off.

Thanks....