Samsung PN**B450 Picture Settings - Page 24

ABC broadcasts 720p.

I picked this over an X1. I did like the picture on the x1 a little better, but since I primarily use a htpc for source the VGA and hdmi/dvi inputs on the Samsung were the deal breakers. Also that silver strip looks silly.

I recently purchased 42" B450 four days ago I calibrated it using stereomandan's break-in settings post #50, btw movie mode looks good on these settings.

I decided to setup up the ps3 through HDMI cable to see how good the picture quality looks in High Def, set Display Settings on Auto 1920x1080@60hz.

I'm seeing a (light) grainy pixel dotted dithering type distortion or interference over the whole screen at 0 to 6ft while viewing the ps3 XMB display or watching Blu-ray Video. This is really annoying and being 1080p High Definition I'm highly disappointed I expected better performance than this.

Are any of you experiencing similar picture type distortion from screen? (check if you can see it from 2 ft away, like I said it's light.)

Or is this light grainy distortion normal at close distances w Plasma Technology? And I should view the screen from a distance of 7 feet or more.

At first I thought it might be the quality of HDMI cable (Monoprice ) causing interference of some sort w power strip being to close. I decided to try out $100 dollar THX certified Monster cables from BestBuy, but no difference at all same problem.

Can anyone recommend advice on how I might solve this issue or make the effect less visible i.e. settings, configuration of some sort that I might be missing?

First off, as the B450 is 720p, so it will scale down 1080 to it's native resolution. As for the distortion, it sounds like it could be a connection. I know people have had problems with HDMI cables in the past. They swap out cables and problem is solved. I would test all hardware that's hooked up to the set before troubleshooting the tv itself.

Ya I swapped out the cable w Monsters, but unfortunately light grainy dotted distortion did not go away, looked the same.

BTW, (I'm using 10ft. Monoprice HDMI Cable 1.3a Category 2 Certified Certified CL2 Rated net jacket w gold plated connectors)

I tried a dvd player through composite and I couldn't see it. I wonder if there are some settings in ps3 menu that could help solve the problem.

Hello guys. I saw somewhere in another topic that the following settings would be reccomended for the break in period,when using hdmi




ATTN:SETTINGS FOR SETS WITH LESS THAN 125 HOURS ON THEM! MODERATE LIGHT and DARK/LOW LIGHT ROOM APPLICATIONS ONLY!


HDMI input settings:

Mode: Movie
Contrast: 64 (58 for dark room/low light settings)
Brightness: 36
Color: 48
Tint: G 54/46 R
Sharpness: 0
Color Temp: Warm2
DNR: OFF
DNIE: OFF
Dynamic contrast: OFF
Black level: OFF
Edge enhancement: OFF

HDMI black level: LOW (IRE 0) (Regular DVD or upconverting DVD players with HDMI output will only output 16-235 signal.Standard on HDMI Black level. So this feature may be blacked out.


My detailed settings:

Colorspace: WIDE (Rec. 709)
Gamma: 0
White balance:
R offset: 13
G offset: 15
B offset: 15
R gain: 13
G gain: 15
B gain: 15

My color control: default settings until I figure it out.



But I noticed something strange. This configuration makes the screen be very dark (which is not the problem right now). The strange think is that when i use these settings, every time I'm watching a movie and the screen goes black (for a change of scene, or when the movie ends) the screen kind of goes black and blink at the same time. So, I turned the settings to default and this didn't happened. Does anyone know if it's some of these settings who does that?


And thanks a lot for this thread, so much information here.


Ahhh, and other thing. I bought two of b450 42'' yesterday. One for myself and one for my mother.

Mine is working fine. But when my mother turned her tv on today, it only played the sound. It doesn't show any images. Tomorrow we're going to the store to change it, but does anyone know or had this problem?


Cheers!

I heard you can setup your current Picture Settings as default in the Service Menu.

Does anyone Know where to find this in the Servie Menu?

I've tried looking for it, but can't find it.

Can someone help me with their standard settings? I just bought the PN42B450B1d yesterday and I would like some ideas on some good settings.

I do see small amounts of random noise throughout my test patterns, but I doubt I could see it from more than 3-4 ft away. Try reducing sharpness to zero. I keep mine at 5 for HD content like the PS3. Also your brightness might be different from what I have listed below depending on how you have your PS3 setup.

You might want to try these settings once it's broken in. These are what I've settled on.

Movie Mode, Warm 2 setting
Cell Light: 10
Contrast: 85
Brightness: 50 (this can vary from 48 to 52 depending on what input or source you are using)
Sharpness: 20 for standard definition content. I use 5 for HD content (Blu-Ray, or High Def Channels)
Color: 38
Tint: G42/R58

Advanced: Everything off or zero except:
Gamma: 0 (or -1 if you like)
Color Space: Auto

White Balance:
Red Offset: 21
Green Offset: 25
Blue Offset: 15
Red Gain: 25
Green Gain: 0
Blue Gain: 27

Dan

hey stereomandan long time no read. How ya been and a happy late thnaksgiving to you my friend I see you changed your settings again, i'll give them a try, since i'm using the old ones. Have you ever tried the cal-day and cal-night ones yet. It's wierd I'll put your settings on movie mode and cal-night and cal-night will be brighter. So i'm not sure if the -cals- are working right, when i switch colorspace from native to auto on them there is no change at all not even a little. You can change all settings except colorspace, dark tone and dynamic contrast on the -cal- modes. Anyone of those three when you go into them and change from low to medium to high to off,you will see no change at all. I never use dark tone or dynamic contrast but for the fact that they dont work makes me wonder if they are stuck on like with Dynamic mode. just something to ponder Once again dan thanks for taking time to post new settings

Hey Kanpol. Thanks for the reply. Yeah, Thanksgiving went great, but went by way too fast. Back to work...

Anyway, these new changes shouldn't be too dramatic from what you had before. Just some fine tweaking.

I have not tried the Cal-night/day options in the service menu. Since I do my critical movie watching on my projector, this 42B450 is mainly for everyday viewing. I do love to watch OTA HD sports on this plasma though. (like the football games on the network stations today). I did buy another Blu-ray player this weekend though (for this TV) so I may do more critical viewing on it now. Before I would have to swipe my PS3 from my projector to watch Blu-rays on the 42B450.

These settings are probably what I'll stick with from here on out...

Dan

Thanks stereomandan for your response on the dithering effects on B450 model and your final settings posted.

BTW, you wouldn't know how to set your calibration settings as default in the Service Menu?

Something weird happened to my TV last night. I turned on my PS3 and use my remote and press the power button for the TV. Nothing happened. I tried it for several minutes and only the light flashes each time I press a button. I thought my TV went dead so I just unplugged everything and plugged it back in again and everything work. It had me worry there, but I still don't know what happened. I've only had the TV for a little over 2 months.

Did you check the batteries in the remote? I would swap them out with some fresh ones.

1080i in my area

real quick guys cuz i know this is a owners thread for calibrations and stuff.

i just got an ln40b50 lcd 1080p 60hz from some black Friday sale thing. I’m on a budget so thought it would be a great deal. Well, this set sucks due to the horrible image blur that is very noticeable. I started looking at 120hz-240hz models but they are a lot more expensive and still have some problems with image blur..i guess I am more sensitve to this. After seeing the pn42b540 for the same price I started wondering about it. Found this thread and was impressed with all of your enthusiasm about this set. Know I know this is 720p set but will it be a big difference from 1080 at this size? I really am leaning toward taking the LCD back and getting this plasma. What do you guys think?

Thanks for any feedback you can give me

You'll most liky never notice a difference in resolution at this size unless you sit within about 3-4 feet of the tv, which to me is far too close. At a "normal" 8-10 foot viewing distance the difference in resolution will be indistinguishable. However the blacks, the color accuracy, and the much wider viewing angles of the plasma will blow the lcd out of the water. The picture on an lcd normally degrades significantly with only a small offset in viewing angle; the b450 plasma OTOH looks as sharp at 45 degrees or more off center as it does head on. I have been very pleased with my 50" model. I had the 42" and exchanged it for the 50" just because I wanted a bigger display, and I normally sit about 8-9 feet from it.

thanks!!

after checking out a bunch of sites i've came to the conclusion that this plasma is probably the best buy for this amount of money?

no I haven't, but nothing tells me that it was the batteries. After replugging the TV back in the TV remote works fine.

If it was the remote would the small flash on the TV still flash when a button was press on the remote?

Greetings,
I'm quite new to the world of HD as well as plasma TVs.
I have decided to get A Samsung PN42B450 from Best Buy for the holidays!
After reading through the rest of this thread I have a couple of questions.

Best Buy is selling their calibration service with two of the same TV side by one calibrated one not. . .
I must admit the calibrated set looked quite a bit better.
I have worked in print production for quite a few years and I am familiar with the technique they use for calibration in the service they offer, in that it is the method we use in-house to calibrate our computer monitors for color accuracy.

. . . my questions are. . .
Will the DVE calibration disk allow me to perform a calibration that is on par with the "Geek Squad" servive Best Buy offers?

Should I run the Break-In Disk on the set to "harden" the phosphors?

I don't want to get a blue ray player until I can get a PS3 (February). . .
Can I run the calibration disk and/or the break-in disk on my "regular old" DVD player using component video cables?

lastly, I as a newbie I welcome any advise.
This is, for me, a big investment and I'd like to care for it as best as I can so that it will last for a good long time.

Thanks for the Forum!
. . .and thanks in advance for any advice.

The Best Buy calibration is actual ISF calibration so DVE will not give you the same results. I'm not a fan of DVE. I purchased the blu-ray copy and it gave me oversaturated colors and a wrong tint setting with the included blue filter. Blacks were also slightly crushed using their brightness test pattern. I prefer the AVSHD709 disc (atleast for setting brightness and contrast) that you can get for free here

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948496

I'm using stereomandan's settings right now with some minor adjustments.

Contrast: 92
Sharpness: 0
Color: 44 (oversaturated but DVE was giving me 50 and 44 was a good compromise for me as 38 appeared way to dull for my eyes)
Tint 46/54 (DVE was giving me 30/70 which made skintones unnaturally pink)

UPDATE:
I have been using 38 for color the past couple days and switched back to 44 today. The colors seemed too bright and unrealistic. I am now using Dan's settings without any adjustments.

Guys, I need a bit of advice.
I noticed some green bars visible only when a grey/dark white image is displayed, like those on the break-in DVD.
Here's the shot:




I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't for the images from the DVD, and now I'm struggling not to notice it

Now, should I try and return the set, is this a sign of a malfunction, or should I just live with it?

So I've been an lcd guy for a couple of years, between monitors and tv's. Last week I decided it was time for an upgrade so I opted for a 47" 1080P LCD, I was happy with it. Then at work I start reading a 2 month old playstation magazine article about how the game "Avatar" can be played in 3d. So I start researching 3d enabled sets. Then I find out that the Samsung PN**a/b450's are 3d enabled, pretty much the only sets under $1k. I had never considered plasma's, you know, crappy lifspan, highly reflective screens, burn-in issues. I start doing my own research instead of just reading the copy and pasted hearsay articles and decide to trade in my new lcd for a 50" PN50b450.

Maybe in the beginning plasma's had those issues, but from what I've read they're all nonexistant now, (except for reflective screen which I haven't found to bother me at all). This set in 720P easily blows away the LCD I had as far as picture quality, I thought the other set looked good, now I realize that it just looked good for what I was used to. I'm happy.

Since this is the picture setting thread I'll add my 2 cents. I went with Stereomandan's setting and they look great. In daytime with a sunny room, it's a little dark, but perfect at night when most of my viewing takes place.

Anybody use the 3d yet? From what I was reading PS3 is going to start making a lot of their games for it next year and there will be an update that adds it to most of their old games. As of now is it worth the money to buy the glasses and emitter and stuff, or wait until it gets better and cheaper?

Thanks soupnuts. The settings are what I've settled on, and I'm VERY happy with this set. To be honest, I'm not really sure what more I would go looking for now that I have this plasma. On my set, the settings I've listed are fantastic, with excellent contast, color, sharpness, and black level. I agree with you, that when the sun shines brightly in the room (I have a 9 foot by 7 foot high window right next to the TV) that the picture will look a darker than I would like, but its about the same as the 16x9 HD Sony CRT I had before in that spot.

The question you had about buying the 3D gear is up to you, but I would hold off until it is more common for the games. There isn't much out there right now. Prices on the hardware will come down at the point that 3D becomes more common. Having said that... If you want to be an early adopter, then go for it. I've been an early adopter, and was happy with the money I spent (Dolby Digital 5.1, DVD, Widescreen rear projection...)

Dan

Is there a big difference in the saturation of colors in rgb compared to ycbcr? My blu-ray disc (ycbcr) all look great with color set at 38 but video games (rgb) look too mute. Would 38 still be more accurate for rgb or should I increase color?

Ive had this tv for about a month and am new to this. But i do have a lot of burn in, im wondering if i am doing something wrong, and i what i need to know about the break in period. Should i have it on certain settings during this time? Id appreciate any help i can get.

Are you sure it's burn-in? It's probably just image retention which will go away after leaving the scroller on for a few hours. There is not really anything you can do about image retention other then avoiding channels with non-transparent logos and watching full screen content. You could also lower your contrast but it might reduce picture quality. I didn't break in my TV at all. Started using Dan's settings right away and hardly had any image retention. I think I actually get image retention more often now (about 400 hours) then I did when I first got the TV. I'm used to it though and it doesn't bother me.

I didn't really do any break in either, only had the set for a few days now and jumped striaght in with Stereomandans settings. When watching tv and there's a static logo I adjust it off screen, but the kids have spent a couple of hours playing the new Wii Mario and I've spent a few hours playing burnout paradise on ps3, both have static images and I havent seen any ir at all.

I've had this plasma less than 24 hours, and I'm having a problem with the set shutting itself off after a few minutes of viewing. Sometimes it restarts and sometimes it doesn't. I must have gotten a defective set. If no ideas, I'll be returning it tomorrow.

After switching back and forth between the rgb and ycbcr color spaces while watching LOST on blu-ray I found that setting color to 42 in the rgb color space comes the closest to matching 38 in the ycbcr color space. I guess I will keep my color set at 42 for gaming and downloaded video and switch to 38 when playing blu-ray disc.