Samsung PNXXc550 Owners Thread *NO PRICE TALK* - Page 5

Hello, as you say in cinema mode looks green image, especially skin and dark scenes, here in Europe is exactly the same, it seems that Samsung has made an international **** its plasma c550. We are trying to fix it or changing the model of the C560 c550 or c590 its USA version or in the internal menu calibrating the white balance. But for the moment, nobody managed to solve, and is a more serious problem if we consider the problem of brightness and screen noise, but the latter could be natural.
If you can fix you out there, please write and because we walk around here also lost.
Greetings!

Hello, as you say in cinema mode looks green image, especially skin and dark scenes, here in Europe is exactly the same, it seems that Samsung has made an international **** its plasma c550. We are trying to fix it or changing the model of the C560 c550 or c590 its USA version or in the internal menu calibrating the white balance. But for the moment, nobody managed to solve, and is a more serious problem if we consider the problem of brightness and screen noise, but the latter could be natural.
If you can fix you out there, please write and because we walk around here also lost.
Greetings!

It seems like some people are saying that you can go into the service menu and essentially turn your C550 into a C590. If that is true, which I would like to know for certain, what would be the advantage of spending the extra money on the C590?

Also, if this is true, how exactly is this accomplished?

The C590 has what Samsung calls a Crystal HD Engine and Cinema Smooth. After these changes are made does the C550 have this?

Appreciate any help from someone in the know on this. Thanks.

.

But for what it is worth here is the thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1175569

OK, lets take a look at this idea, for a moment lets say that the C540/C550 and C590 are all essentially the same (or at least very close). If the physical hardware is present in all three models and making selections in the firmware allow access and the ability to turn on these features, you may in fact be able to enjoy C590 features on the C550 or possibly even the C540.

Will Samsung support this practice, I doubt it, will they confirm that this works, I doubt it, could it void the warranty, possibly... Should you try it, that is up to you. Remember, you can try this at home but YMMV, and you are on your own.

Reports are in these threads about the results, options that weren't there are now available, do they work as Samsung intended, they appear to, but this can only be confirmed through observation.

I understand what you are saying but ...

I can't believe that something you can do with your remote could ever void the warranty. This just makes no sense whatsoever.

I just want to know if it works? How you do it? And if after you do it, do you for all intents and purposes have the Crystal Full HD Engine and the Cinema Smooth Feature that Samsung markets on the C590?

In other words, are those features in any way related to hardware that the C550 doesn't have?

Cool, then to fill in some details(in order):

Voiding the warranty, I wouldn't want to ask Samsung, however, you cannot make any of these changes within the "USER" menus areas, they are found within the "SERVICE" menus. Does going into that area void your warranty, I don't know for sure, but I do know that you won't find the procedure on the Samsung website for use by the general public... tells you something doesn't it?

The procedure appears to work...

How to do it? Did you read the thread I provided the link to, it answers this directly.

As for "do you for all intents and purposes have the..." , from my previous post:
"missing hardware, C550 versus C590" This was my point regarding 'observation', unless someone is willing to open up their C550 and locate the specific chipset responsible, for example the "Crystal HD Engine" you could only observe the changes made by the now available menu choices and surmise the presence of this hardware.

Curious, do you have any of these models?

I was strongly considering the PN58C550 from S@@@s. The guy was going to get back to me on some kind of Friends and Family deal that combined with a 10% discount using a their store card would get me 20% off their 1799 sale price.

A price that would entice me to do something now.

I was impressed with the TV for the most part although I thought it was a little dark. I'm hoping that when I get it into the house that it won't be as noticeable. I've always had to darken the LCDs I've owned to get the most suitable picture for my taste, so I'm thinking it won't be that much of an issue for me.

I've been wanting to try Plasma for some time and was kind of sold on the Samsung but ultimately chickened out because of all the reviews on the buzzing issue on last years models.

Anyway, if I could really turn this TV into a C590 for all intents and purposes, that would just be one more plus for me as far as I'm concerned with this TV.

Sounds like a great deal on that model, even without making a change to the model number I think that you would be impressed!

I watch programing mainly in the evening and find that there is more then enough brightness to suit my needs, if you like to darken and LCD then you should have no problem with the C550.

But, if you like to watch it during the middle of the day with the sun shining into the room you might be in trouble.

With just a few adjustments in the User menu I find the picture to be quite satisfying and very smooth, this is where a plasma excels.

Good luck.

I agree with you about the whites. They just look gray to me, especially when connected to my laptop and browsing the web.

Does anyone have issues with the image be too large for the screen when connected to a laptop/computer via hdmi? I have the res set to 1080, but my desktop goes off the screen. I've checked the picture zoom and it is set correctly (16x9)

I asked this question in the AllShare and Internet@TV thread... any takers?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...2#post18562312

So nobody else notices any audio/video sync issues?

I think the differences in panel calibration values from the user accessible menus are not going to be VASTLY different from TV to TV of the same make/model. A good set of configuration options based on a set that has been tweaked to "correct" values on another set of the same make/model will still be vastly better than the preset values available out of the box. Not perfect... but for the money ($free) it's better than nothing at all. While I would expect studio/reference quality calibration including gray scale adjustments to require the services of a professional I don't think it invalidates the concept of sharing calibration values to improve their set's performance versus the god awful factory defaults on the PN50C550. Using the Avia or HD Video Essentials, etc.. discs would certainly be better but also requires a small investment and some additional time and energy that someone just looking for "good enough" might not care to invest.

I was poking around Amazon to look for reviews of this set and found calibration numbers for the C550 based on the previous model (same panel) that I validated with HD Video Essentials and required almost no tweaks to provide a vastly improved picture on my PN50C550.

White Balance Settings:
Red-Offset: 22
Green-Offset: 25
Blue-Offset: 12

Red-Gain: 33
Green-Gain: 25
Blue-Gain: 33

Picture Settings:
Picture Mode: Movie
Color Temp: Warm 2
Brightness: 56
Contrast: 90
Cell Light 8
Color: 53
Tint: G35/R65
Sharpness: 10
Black Tone: Off
Dynamic Contrast: Off
Gamma: 0
Colorspace: Auto
Flesh Tone: Off
Edge Enhancement: Off
Digital NR: Auto
HDMI Black Level: Low
Film Mode: Auto

These features seem to work fine on a PN50C550 configured as a 590 via the Service menu. This WILL reset your user configured settings so make note of them before you proceed. The procedure is: from the remote hit mute - 1 8 2 - power - Options, Model, select 590, hit power to exit... if you blow up your c550 as a result or void your warranty you were warned.

According to Samsung both the C550 and the C590 offer many of the same features and contrast ratio; however the C590 offers both smooth playback of movies with Cinema Smooth and expert picture quality with Calibration Mode over the C550.

Can "Cinema Smooth" be activated once the C550 is configured as the C590, are the above calibration numbers for the "Calibration Mode" and is Crystal Full HD Engine engaged after the switch.

Have you read post #126 in this thread? Or for that matter the post just before yours?

Assuming you feed the TV a 24 FPS source (usually a configuration option in a Blu-Ray player, for example) you will get the Cinema Smooth option in the video configuration of the TV for that source (confirmed on my 550 configured as a 590) - it's a subtle difference but *seems* to be working on my set in some quick A/B testing with it enabled/disabled using the same content.

Disclaimer - I've only had the TV for 3 days and had about 4 hours worth of watch/test time... I have no instrumentation with which to measure the effect of Cinema Smooth working or not besides my eyeballs after a beer or two.

Curious,

Do you have a PC connected to the same subnet as the TV...

Have you tried AllShare (Media Play) yet to playback Videos yet?

Thanks!

Thanks for the response YuppieJr, I missed the thread with the answers:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1175569&page=1

hey guys big problem, i just got my c550 from amazon and there is a definite buzz, i can hear it with the mute on and can hear it with the volume on as well. What should i do? return it? call samsung?? please this is urgent!!
update----->btw the picture quality for hd is great compared to my 37 inch vizio 1080p, i called samsung and the lady said they would call me in 2 business days or something ARGH

Same here, but mine calmed down considerably by just putting on 50 or so hours. Run some slides, let it play, see if it calms down.

After having the set for about 2 weeks I finally came up with some settings I am pretty happy with for now. I have a 58C550 and a B550 before this set and I can tell you right now, copy and pasting settings from the 09's is not a great idea.

My room gets a decent amount of light in it during the day. I play a lot of blu rays and games. I did all this through my PS3 via HDMI.

Mode: Movie
Cell Light: 15
Contrast: 72
Brightness: 68
Sharpness: 3
Color: 48
Tint: G50/R50
All advanced settings set to off
Gamma: 0
Color Space: Native
Color Temp: Warm 2

I am not 100% on the color temp. I know Samsungs are generally known with having Warm 2 to be the most accurate but maybe a few calibrated reviews can set that straight with these models.

If it were me, I'd return asap to Amazon. I wouldn't bother with Samsung.

ok i called amazon and they told me to call samsung, but ive read samsung techs cant fix this problem, so ill probably call amazon again pretty soon and just say that samsung is taking too long, amazon themselves admitted this is a DEFECT(buzzing) so i wont be charged anything extra, Ill be getting the same tv via an exchange but if I get the buzzing again, i think ill get the LN46C650/630 instead eh, btw the plasma picture is really nice ARGH
----thanks for the advice hawk, ill return to amazon very soon

This TV is in a room where it's very dark. I went ahead and bought a calibration disc and my readings were almost spot on with yours. Only thing that I changed was contrast to 90, sharpness to 0, and Tint was G51/R49. So for you guys who watch Blu rays in the dark then try his settings. One blu ray that I used to check darkness/brightness in a movie is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. That is one dark movie and with his/or my settings I was able to see the details in the dark scenes. Thanks for sharing your settings.

I picked her up last night>>>God bless Korean electronics!

Needless to say, I dropped my Avatar bluRay into the Pio. 320 brp and I was blown away!
The 24fps was startling! Color dazzling, motion was smooth.

This set doesnt buzz, has nice blacks, and was so much cheaper than the C7000 I originally set out to buy (blacks looked grey compared to the C550)

I performed the SM tweek with success. It thinks its a 590 now.

It's my first Flat Panel, I am glad I chose a Plasma at this time.

I like the feature that displays what your Res. is after each channel change.

Out of the box it is very nice, but I want to grab a cal. disk to tweek a bit more.

I am getting a C540, would it be the same function to enter the service menu? Would I follow the same instructions as mute, 1, 8, etc. on the 540 or would there be a different method?

I just went to the Samsung site to check for a software update for my C550, it wasn't listed , just the C540 and the C590?

SAMSUNG PC Share Manager

http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/t...il&tab=support

Thanks for that , I guess what I meant was firmware update.
Strange how Samsung doesnt even recognize a 58" C550.
It only shows a 58" in a C590....could be the same model after all.

I bought a 50C550 a week ago and it has about 20 hours on it. I have discovered a problem with the picture that I would like to share with the group.

When watching the hockey games on TSN or CBC the tv is having a random picture "stutter" that lasts from about half a second to 1.5 seconds and only happens during play and not on commercials. I have not noticed it on any other programs or on the PS3. It is annoying enough that I will be returning it to Costco unless it is a setting that I can change. The tv is running a Bell satellite SD signal and weather/signal strength are not a concern. It is a completely random occurence but if I had to average it out between events, probably every 7-10 minutes.

My level of plasma/HD/tech knowlege is probably about 2/10 so any suggestions or help from any experts out there would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

ps no buzz whatsoever

I have been watching alot of hockey too lately, I have not had your problem.
I do have an issue withe hockey commercials though: the Ice is so bright sometimes it's like a great whit sea of glare?
I am not sure if thats a probem or just bad video reproduction quality.

During live game time it seems to be fine. I can't watch hockey in dynamic, for it looks like an LCD.