Samsung PNXXB850 & PNXXB860 Owner's Discussion Thread - Page 6

Nope, it is not 2" thick. Only one very small portion of it is. If you look at the specs it is 3.4" thick.



IMO Samsung is destroying Panasonic in the thin factor and I am heavily leaning towards a V10. I just don't understand why PAnasonic needed to make that set so thick...does it take that much room to improve the blacks?

This review has definitely solidified my choice to buy the 63B550. I think the whole minimum black level output thing is always blown totally out of proportion. Like someone said earlier, if I was only worried about how black something could get I would just buy a gallon of black paint and stare at a wall. Im coming from a Mits 52625 DLP anyways, and that might have the worst black levels known to man. Color accuracy, motion resolution, screen uniformity, and many others are more important to me anyways. And no where else am I going to be able to get a 63 inch plasma for under $3k. The Panasonic G series doesnt have anything above 54, there arent any LCD's above 55 inches, and the 65 inch Panasonic V series will probably cost a small fortune. Thanks Chad, this review was all I needed to pull the trigger on a new 63 inch Samsung Plasma.

@Chad,

Would you be so kind to post or PM me the settings of the Samsung B860 (I own the B850, European / Dutch model) after you callibrated the set? Thanks!!

And with regard to the picture quality... I'm not a 'cinema-purist', neither can I perform measurements. I did however watch several displays in a side-by-side comparison amongst them the Pioneer 600M and the Philips 21:9 Cinema (LCD, yes...).I felt that the Pioneer did the best job of mastering the blacks while revealing details at the same time. On the other hand, when it comes to motion, the Samsung beats the Pioneer. Pan-scans are just smoother on the Samsung.

Besides all discussions about picture quality, the B860 is a good display, user friendly and easy to set-up. That goes for multimedia (USB, DLNA support), as well as the internet widges. It works, and is easy to use.

For those of you who are thinking of a set-up with a Yamaha receiver, I had trouble with the display quality at first (vertical stripes, noise. After updating the Yamaha firmware (RX-V3900) to version 1.07 the problem was solved.

Can you post the settings you used?

Yes, the 850/860 series still isn't quite as inky black as a Samsung LCD in bright lighting conditions, but it's better than any other plasma that I've seen in that situation.

I definitely agree! while it would be nice to have inky black blacks, I'll take the trade off for a better "perceived" picture with light in the room since I do not have a dedicated theater room.

It's going to be different from one sample to another, even the same model; I have seen the variation time and time again. Also, there are variations in source components, connections, etc. I might come up with very different settings than a different calibrator would; that is because a good calibration is both art and science.
As the sole breadwinner in my household and someone whose only income is from calibrating TVs (I don't make any money writing the reviews), I am hesitant to publish the settings for fear that too many people will put them in, believe they will have a calibrated set, and then not have me or another top notch calibrator out to get it done right. They could very well then be looking at an inaccurate image, and I would be hurting myself, other calibrators, and even them because they are not getting the most out of it. I am not trying to be mean here, and I hope you will understand my concern.

Ok guys, maybe we can just let DocuMaker have his last words. It seems as if he really just wants to keep these debates he carries on going and I for one am getting annoyed with having to scroll through all of his posts just to participate in the rest of the thread. I know there have been some valid points made but this really is "The owners'/potential owners' thread" and I really do not think there is anymore need for this type of debating when we just keep coming back to the same points.

Hope I am not out of line here, but I am sure some others will agree

I agree, its kind of getting old. Im all for a good debate since they can be very informative, but a lot of this has gotten out of hand. First it was the Samsung 2009 thread that he hijacked, now he's showing up in the owners threads. If he wants to open up a thread and discuss this I'm all for that, but lately its seems he's been on a holy crusade of sorts against the tyrant that is Samsung plasma owners and will stop at nothing to convince them they have bought inferior televisions. I think if people stop replying to him he will eventually go away.

Yeah. Even in the dimly lit magnolia rooms, so long as there is any light the room the G10 (and other plasmas) still show their grey screens to my eye.

I agree with this 1000%. I like the Panasonic build quality and their contrast ratio in a very dark room. But the two things that really irk me about their plasmas are their horrendous designs and their AR filters. Both Samsung and Pioneer plasmas are so much better at preserving a deep shade of black with ambient light. Even in a Magnolia room I've noticed the pz850 panasonic has a light gray/green haze in letter box bars, whereas 2008 Samsung and Pioneer plasmas maintain a solid inkiness. Maybe not bezel black, but solidly inky nonetheless. And at the end of the day that's all that matters to me: whether a plasma looks black or not in my living room. That's why I like Samsung's plasmas this year and the promise they hold for future years' plasmas. Pretty much the only thing I can fault them on is not having a raw minimum luminance as low as Pansonic and Pioneer. Everything else is great.

That is what is making me think about the 850/60 over the V10, since my wife doesn't like it when I close the shades

Does anyone know what this is for? FYI I am running break-in images from a usb drive...

Fair enough, figured it was worth asking. Question though - Can you explain what the "cell light" setting is and if it should be messed with at all, as opposed to just using brightness/contrast? There's a thread about it but it's long degenerated into childish bickering (deja vu...)

You know, I have the same light on my 850 that I noticed when i was investigating my buzzing. It almost always seems to be on no matter what I am watching. I figured maybe it is just some kind if indicator light when the TV is operating, hopefully nothing bad. If anyone else could dig up an answer for this that would be great.

see attached pics...

When enabled, it shows "1920x1080 @24Hz"

can that be right?

The tv seems to think it's on, but toggle between Cinema mode on and off while the credits roll at the end of a Blu-Ray film and see if there's a visual difference. If you can do that for us, and if you can see a difference, then we can finally put this Cinema Smooth thing to rest.

There is a lot of talk about black levels and reflections. I´m coming from a high-end CRT-set. Could I expect lesser reflections and better blacks on a Samsung -09 plasma?

I'm really not sure that I can detect a difference.

Can you?

nope:d

Probably not.

me neither but thanks for doing this video...now if someone with an 860 could compare on/off on credits just like you did and tell us if it's better or similar to your video that would be nice

or better if someone could film a scene with on/off making a difference (especially on an 850 to confirm it works)...would be nice!!!

Per BB Magnolia tech - B850 does not have cinema smooth, but the B860 does in fact have that feature at 96hz. I believe the TV's are essentially the same. The fact that one can find Cinema Smooth labeling within the B850 adjustments must only mean Samsung simply disabled the feature on the B850 without changing the directory.

Regarding Blacks - the B550 has settings for Black - normal, dark, darker, darkest and another setting HDMI Black level for screen depth. Assume the Series 8 also has these controls. If the test were done with normal settings, would be interesting to see if the results were different with other settings.

Agreed and exactly. Thanks for doing this video delta_23. Either Cinema Smooth doesn't actually do anything once enabled on the 850, or Cinema Smooth just doesn't look any different. It would take an 860 owner performing the same before/after test to confirm.

There is a huge difference if you turn cinema smooth on and off, it is noticeably smoother, still not perfect but there is definitely a difference.

And the video with the credits is pretty pointless

+1