Samsung S, A, C Panel Differences: 2009 LCD Line-Up - Page 6

I don't know anything about a lower contrast ratio... but if it is lower, then yes -- I'm loving it. It improved the overall picture quality, which is now WAY better than what I had with the CN01 panel. The fact that I'm looking to find the ultimate picture settings is called human nature.

Thanks to SoundsGood, I read your post few days ago then I went to Fry's and found one 55B650 with version SQ02. The saleman said all the 55B650 ship to the Fry's (FountainValley,CA) recently has version CN01, he surprises when I took the version SQ02 from the last shipment.

Thats ok. I'm not asking you too.
After all, I'm not buying anything based on your opinions, I'm buying based on what i see in front of me.

You can sit here all day long and quote samsungs mantra but in the end, those who see for themselves are going to find out the truth of it.

Sit in front of a CN01 panel and an SQ## of the same model and tell me that the viewing angle's are identical. If you say they are your either blind as a bat or you don't know what your talking about.

I have never said the PQ of a C panel was bad, its actually very good, I am only referring (in my case) to the viewing angles.

I am absolutely happy with the C panel as long as I don't MOVE from dead center.

As a home theater LCD that is unacceptable.

I have an LNT4042 that has an S panel. Its 10x better in the viewing angle department at ANY distance.

Stop being a troll for samsung and do some field research. Maybe after you see a few comparisons for yourself you'll see what we are talking about.

test,

Good enough.

Now you made me feel bad.


Look, I understand both thoughts on this.
I own a C panel. In fact just bought it.
I don't want to think I have a sub-par panel not at all.
At first, I defended my 55" and said it was great.
Then i moved off the couch.....

I will not be taking my 55" back. Its fine where it is.
I'm only saying I HAVE (Yes real life) have seen the difference between panels.

You just can't sit here an say there is no difference.

test,

When I see actual scientific proof I'll believe there is a "difference" in panels. Samsung, Geek Squad, Best Buy say there is no difference and I'm believing them for now.

Have you taken a glance at the title of this thread?

yes, why?

Ok let me say "actual scientific proof" of the difference in picture quality.

lol and you say there's no difference between panels
ha-ha

There isn't picture quality wise. Link me to your proof that there is.

LN40B540 is back in stock at local Costco (and online) but for $100 more than I paid early on Thanksgiving week. I had a look again, and the display unit, such as it was showing a store loop of some kind, still looked okay, with good off-axis viewing and such. But, every box I could see easily had a CN01 panel. What I couldn't tell is if it was the same display unit as before. Could be they kept the display unit in anticipation of getting more stock. That unit could be from the other batch that had the SQ02 panels. Of course, I don't know how many of the earlier shipment had SQ02; it was just luck of the draw for me that I pulled that one because I didn't start reading this stuff until after I had already bought it. Could be that most of the earlier ones and even the display unit were also CN01.

Just curious what to look for in here? is the C in the top right corner what you should be looking for? its always in that exact spot for all tvs?

With that being said I wonder (since Sony uses sammy panels) if the CMO and AUO junk will be found in the newest Sony tvs?

ANd am I the only one who is quite upset about this and actually think its very very fishy for Samsung to do this? Im guessing they did this cause of the economy? Very sneaky move if you ask me.

That's the wrong label.

Look at the small label on the side of the TV, not the back:

From what I can gather, this "problem" only affects the LCD sets, not the Plasma Samsungs. Is that correct?

Im looking at teh version right? So that one starts with an S im guessing its a SPVA? And Auo panels would start with A, and so on? Also is there a way to tell what panel the tv has from the box without having to open it? Dont think the store would like me opening all these brand new tvs.

Sorry if this has already been answered, just need to double check thx.

Sometimes.

Look at the box label below. In the bottom left hand corner you'll see that it says SQ02.

That's what you're looking for.

That's one way of finding it out, but it's easier just to check on the side sticker.
You're not the only one disappointed with Samsung this year...
I don't believe any other manufacturer outsources to this extent, yes they do, but not with the panel lottery on all their LCD lineup. I don't think Sony has any problems with Panel Lottery, well because there were news about Samsung ordering economies of scale from AUO and CMO - clear proof that they are using AUO and CMO panels on a lot of their sets.

Thanks for the pic bro, i saved it for future reference.


Well Im very upset and displeased about this all, very glad I read up about it first. Ive been a Samsung fan for many years now but what they have been doing for the past year or so is borderline criminal. Its just very fishy and a total slap in the face of the customers. Is this how they appreciate their customers? Seriously...Im surprised they havent lost any customers over this!

So since a lot of the 09 sammys have the cheap budget panels, I guess that would explain why it got rated lower than last years LNxxA model? Cause I know 4 people who have an 08 model sammy and all have said they all have the S panel. And a few of them have compared them to 09 models and have said the pic quality is better on last years model. That is so wrong, so basically customers this year are paying more for an inferior panel to last years.

But regardless, us as customers throwing down big $ for a TV should not have to be looking at boxes and tv labels for specific information. Not only is it stupid but its embarassing when youre in a big box store and looking at all the boxes and pulling out tvs here and there. We should be able to just grab a TV, take it home and be confident its the very same quality as every other one within that model.

With everything Im reading up on the Sammy panels, Im second guessing if I want to even buy another one. Im thinking maybe go with a Sony or Sharp instead. Only thing is Sony uses Samsung panels so im guessing you'll find a lot of the AUO and CMO junk in the newer sonys?

Havent been following up to date with the quality of the recent Sharp panels.

Anyone own a LN32B650 that isn't an AA01? When shopping for mine last month, I never found any other version for the 32" model. I'm happy with my set even though viewing angles are just average but am curious if there are any other panels out there for the 32" B650.

I'm looking at getting a samsung ln40b640 next week, which display does/should it come with?

Hi bjf360,

I just bought the LN55B640 and it came with a CN01 panel.

To be fair and to be honest with you, I'll give an unbiased opinion on the C panel of the 640 series IF you happen to get one.

The PQ of the 55640 is fantastic. I am more than satisfied with it and for my use (bedroom LCD) it works because I watch it at night dead center from it.

I've looked at other 640's and 650's of various sizes and did not notice or feel the PQ was any better on a S Panel or A panel over the C panel.
They all pretty much looked great to me.

The only issue with the C panel i could positively dicern as being inferior was the veiwing angles.
The viewing angle on the C panel 640's is not so great.

As I said, for me it really doesn't concern me or effect my viewing pleasure at all because I sit in a dead center (sometimes a feet to the sides).

However, if this was a home theater LCD where most people would be "off center" it may be a concern.

Before you buy, think about how your room is laid out, and if viewing angles are going to be extreme.


test,

This is key. If you only watch from dead center you'll be fine with any of the panels.


Bingo. If you don't only watch from dead center you will notice a difference between panels.

I just got the BF special LN40B400 (model name might be a bit off, but you get what I mean). Its panel is "SQ01," and the viewing angles are extraordinary, vertically and horizontally. I have it set up in the corner of our living room, where it's basically the hypotenuse of a 90º triangle. Neither couch is set on-axis, rather they are set on one and the other walls opposite of it (square room). I have a chair that I sit right in front of it and scoot up closer when gaming, but TV/movies are watched on the couches, and there is no distortion moving from the dead-on center to either of the couches. That's at least a 45º angle from dead-center if I've not completely forgotten my geometry, and when I say there is NO distortion, I mean that literally - the picture is identical to on-axis, centered viewing. As far as vertically, I can stand up or lay down and the colors are the same.

I'm not sure if that means anything, but I thought I'd chime in with my experience with this, one of the lower end pieces of equipment.

Yes, I have the C panel and can report the same findings. The only uniformity issues I can make out are the same as described in the Cnet review of the television.

I can confirm SQ01/SQ02 is nicest panels, I can spot the differences on display while I was test driving the Panny G1 with my dvd player on component during returning the Sharp LED TV for store credit. I'll wait till march-april to see what's new from Samsung's.

Cheers, Wizard

Try testing it with viewing material that contains a lot of dark scenes and check the viewing angles there. With bright colored materials, it's hard to notice color shifting as compared to darker one.

I don't really notice that much color shifting with a screen full of colors, but with a image with half black (or dark colors)... I notice a huge shift with viewing angles. That's why blacks appear darker in the center (if you sit dead center) than the sides.....

Lets not forget, you really have take the Size of the screen into consideration as well.

I know from my own experience, the 55640 I have performs differently at not only viewing angle but distance as well.
You cannot stand 4 or 5 feet from the 55" and NOT expect a drastic shift in blacks if you move left, right or up and down. Its geometry. (And I don't pretend to know much about that...lol)

If you are 10-15 feet away, its not bad at all moving the same distance left or right.

I think alot of people get bent out of shape because they are not viewing at the correct distance for the size of screen they are looking at.

I have already mentioned I have an LNT4042 with an S panel and the angles are great.
However, the PQ and uniformity are no where near as good as the 55640 with the CN01 panel.

In my case I prefer PQ and uniformity to viewing angles.

We really do need some hard science on this issue to pin down exactly whats happening with the flavors of panels samsung is using.

To be honest, all the talk about panels without hard data is really useless.

The test conditions, size of screen, series number, panel type, need to be apples to apples ya know?

I have already chimed in and said I saw for myself the viewing angle difference but thats hardly scientific.

I am absolutely happy with the 55640 with the CN01 panel and I do consider myself anal about getting the best.

I just don't see how we can REALLY get to the bottom of things without hard data.
Personal preferences and expectations can always get in the way of whats real and what is not.

Anthropomorphic Global warming is a perfect example of that....lol


test,

My question is, why don't people complain about this?
I can understand if they want to do panel lottery on their lower models...they can jack up the price and put cheaper components in them, but doing this silly lottery business with their flagship line?
If I'm paying good money for a top line product, I would hope that I get my money's worth.

The whole point is we don't know what the differences are besides opinions from people who hate the panel they have and those who love the panel they have.

I have not seen ANY hard data at all comparing the 3 panel manufactures.

In fact, if it weren't for this thread, i would never have know there was an issue at all.
I wouldn't have been looking for the problems that supposedly exist between the 3.

Thats why I'm saying we need someone, somewhere to confirm using actual tools to test for things like luminescence at a certain angle, or hard science confirming 1 pixel geometry is better that another.

There is always a trade off.
If you have better viewing angles, maybe you loose PQ dead center.
Better PQ and uniformity gives UP viewing angles.

Is one panel better all specs than others?
Or, is there a trade off?

Thats what we need to know.

test,