Samsung PNXXc550 Owners Thread *NO PRICE TALK* - Page 82

Well, scrap the LCDs for screen size alone. I'd say either of the 50" is good value.

Hey guys what are the differences(other than 3D) with the 680 and the 550 or 590?

Does the 680 show better 2D than either 500 series? I don't care about 3D, but I just came across a great price for the 680. I figured it may be better in other areas.

I've had my eye on the 550 for a while now, but the 680 is cheaper as I type this.

I have the exact same problem on my 63pnc550. Ordered it in Feb. 2011. Have you found any resolution or tried to get samsung to fix it? I'm leery as I would only be able to show the tech at night. Can't see it during viewing at night, but during night time viewing and scenes that fade to a totally dark background, I find it very annoying.

Regards,

JJ

Allright, I've had this set for quite awhile now, at least 6 months.
Have got it set up right as I want it etc, network streaming via serviio bla bla no problems whatsoever..
I've tweaked it to a 590, then back again, I'm really pleased overall I must say.
But there is this one thing.. This Gaming mode. This mysterious thing, never seen it
not anywhere...

Does it somehow pop up in the settings, do I need to use a certain input, DVi, HDMI or what? I know, it really wont do any magic. If it gives lower input lag, then it would be nice.

Help me with this 'cos I really don't get it. If it helps, I have an European set ( like that would matter)

Cheers!

I went with the LG 50PK750. I'm sure I'll like it.

Same here. I've only had it a week so I was hoping maybe it would fade over time, but it's not looking like it is. Getting a tech to see what I see will be the fun part. I was going to give it another week, but I think I'm just gonna put in for a service call now.

It is hidden away, which is a stupid design decision on Samsung's part. They should have put it under the "tools" button on the remote or under "display" mode. But instead, they hid it here, along with PIP mode...Press Menu button, scroll down to "setup", then select "General" menu.

So my THIRD replacement Samsung gets another dreaded black line

This must be the worst TV ever or I just have really bad luck.

Sorry maybe my eyes are vrot but where's the black line?

Hello everyone,

I own a PN63C550 and have a question I was hoping someone could answer.

I've been using the USB port to play my 1080p movies and recently the TV has been freezing up completely during playback. Now granted I've watched a good 12+ 1080p movies this way, without any freeze up. I do, however, seem to get minor glitching and sporadic stuttering during the movie, but this usually only lasts a few minutes.

Does anyone else use their USB ports to playback movies?

I'm running an optical cord from the Samsung into my audio receiver, in order to render Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS HD sound from all my .mkv movies on the USB drive.

It's gotten so bad lately that the last 2 movies have just stopped dead, and the TV won't even shut off. It takes a good 3-5 minutes for the TV to shut off, then I can turn it back on and get the movie to work again. It's very similar to a computer and 'not responding' mode.

Anyone have any idea how to fix this?

I searched this entire thread but couldn't find any issue relating to mine.

It's running horizontally across the bottom of the screen.

Have you tried checking the hard disk for errors? That would be my first guess. It sounds similar to playback issues on a DVR with bad sectors.

Agreed.

Yeah I did, it's brand new for one, and secondly, all my other movies have played back fine........ a few minor glitches, but nothing major.

I did another search on this problem, and I guess it's pretty rampant:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1301420

I'm convinced the problem is with Samsung's software/firmware and particularly in the USB playback functionality. Someone mentioned it here:







I've played about 15 different 1080p movies, the first few were .m2ts and other 2 were .mp4

Since then, I've been using .mkv's exclusively because they are the only ones that seem to allow me to utilize DD5.1 and DTS HD sound.

This problem is really getting annoying, yesterday I was watching a movie and it froze twice during the movie, rendering the TV completely useless, it wouldn't even respond to the off command. This has happened before and it takes a good 3-5 minutes for the TV to shut off. It's just like when a computer goes into 'not responding' mode and it locks up the OS, same thing here.

What worries me is this has happened 3 times on the last 3 movies I've played via my 16GB 'Lexar Retrax' drive. So the problem is becoming worse.

I could tolerate the minor hiccups and screen glitches before, but when the movie completely freezes during playback and renders my TV useless, that is a major problem.

I've tried playing the movies through my HP Envy 17'' via HDMI out to the Samsung, but I cannot render DD5.1 or the DTS HD sound through the receiver. This is the only reason I play the movies through the USB drive, cause that's the only way to get surround sound. And lets face it, it's not worth watching without surround sound.

I'd love to try my Roku XDS, but it cannot render mkv files, just mp4

I was checking out my brother's Panasonic Viera 50 inch plasma over the weekend. I was specifically looking for IR.

This TV has no IR. Nada, Zippo, etc. I was even using it as a computer monitor and I couldn't believe that it had no IR.

I was also watched MLB network and when I watch that channel on my Samsung I always see the MLB logo stay on the screen.

On the Panasonic I saw absolutely no IR. So I don't know why this TV has no IR and the Samsung suffers from it a lot.

That's interesting because my Samsung PN58C550 hasn't had a hint of IR yet. I've been gaming on it, with games that have bright white HUD's. But I did calibrate it using the Spears&Munsil blu-ray and use those levels for gaming too. "Pixel Shift" is also disabled, since I am using Screen Fit mode for everything I view. I suppose in the overbright Dynamic mode then IR may be more of a problem. Here are my current calibrated settings for low-light movie/gaming. These may be low for most people, but movie colors look very natural and games no longer are too bright.
Mode: Standard
Cell Light: 15
Contrast: 72
Brightness: 52
Sharpness: 32
Color: 35
Tint: G47/R53

The list of supported bitrates for each container(file format) is in the manual. There is a limit that the processor in the tv can handle. Also USB2.0 takes a lot of CPU time since it uses the processor for transfers, and only has 480mbps throughput, but it is actually less than that after taking everything into account. Plus the read speed of some USB Flash drives is lower than expected. Basically USB 2.0 is very limiting for video playback in a device like a TV. Better to just buy a PS3 or XBOX and transfer your files to it, or burn them to DVD/BD-R and play the disc.

Thanks for your input.

Yeah I'm done with USB playback.

The final nail in the coffin was tonight when I was watching another 1080p mkv file and the movie reset itself back to the Media Share root menu 3+ times.

I just hooked up my laptop to watch the rest of the movie and am now done with the ConnectShare function on Samsung's.

I guess I'm just asking too much from the television, trying to play a 12.5GB mkv file @ 1080p resolution + surround sound.

Problem is I don't have an XBOX or PS3, I have a Roku XDS with USB, but it can't decode mkv files, only mp4

I have to find a device that will allow for USB playback + allow me to utilize surround sound.

Well there are literally hundreds of those floating around. Called Media Players and the cheapies I guess are around $100.

Look at the Netgear NTV350 or similar.

I should have clarified, I'd like to get something capable of rendering 1080p playback and have the processing power to stream smoothly onto the plasma.

I'll have to research the bit rates more in depth and figure out what the best option is.

Then look at the Xtreamer range.

The Panasonics can suffer IR. Check out the VT thread. Both brands can have it. From what I've read, one is no better than the other.

I think I have my Cell Light at 19. Maybe I'll move it down and see what happens. I have some pretty bad IR. I can still see the scores of games during commercials.

Well I have some thoughts on this TV (58c550). If you remember a couple pages back I was on the second TV and Vann's was working with me on getting one that didn't BUZZ. Well...

I am now on my 6th 58c550. Let me start by saying that this TV does Buzz, every single one of them. The people who say it doesn't are lucky and don't HEAR it. Throughout this process I have had many people come over and view the TV's, out of about 30 people there were about 6 or 7 who didn't hear any type of Buzz at all. But for most of us, these things buzz and this buzz can be heard at 14 feet with volume off and a quite room. I have now had 4 tv's at my house and setup 2 in the theater room at Vann's and all 6 buzzed the same. I do believe that the buzz is something that I can deal with, because this TV has a great picture and the price can't be beat.

IR: On all 4 TV's that I have had at my house, I have watched SD, played PS3 and the Wii and I have not had any sign of IR, NONE. Now I did turn down the contrast a little to around 60 or 70, but zero IR. I did no breakin and all of those things (SD contect and gaming) have been done on this TV since day 1.

Just my 2 cents

^ yup, to the buzz. I could have saved you some time.

I'm starting to think that the 58 inch version has a better quality panel.

I've had my PN58C550 for about a month now and the buzzing is a little better. I had a Samsung tech come out to fix it, but he said it is within spec so he didn't replace anything.

I am just getting used to it somewhat, but am not so mad because the picture is so good.

I've gamed a lot and watched several movies with black bars on top and bottom. No sign of IR at all. That is a great relief.


J

Is it possible to set it to default, perhaps to the HDMI1 input or something? I have no TV signal, and when my blu-ray powers off, it auto sets the tv to TV input. I'd love to be able to set it to HDMI1 or something of my choosing, but don't appear to have seen that as an option.

UPDATE: So I've had my PN58c550 for a couple of weeks and I could not be happier.

Hum/ Buzz: Very slight and inaudible from viewing position, which is about 6 feet, which I know is close.

Glare: I have a fairly typical living-room; open to several rooms and with several windows all of which serve as points of ingress for light. I do try to keep the blinds closed during daytime hours and I don't have any windows that face directly east or west. Taking all of that into consideration I have no glare issues. My Cell Light is set to 15 so that level of brightness may help to alleviate glare issues, but I simply never notice glare.

Image Retention/ Burn In: None. not a trace. I have had letter-boxed films and BD menus up for hours on end, with a new plasma and cell brightness at 15 (out of 20) and I have never noticed even the lightest amount or BI/IR. I do have the pixel shift function engaged and I watch primarily HD content so both of those are factors, but I no longer have the fear of IR that I had coming over from LCD.

Black levels: They are indeed superior to LCD and it is quite noticeable. Not simply in dark scenes, but in every scene. One must remember that the gray scale influences many aspects of picture quality and so with a more accurate and diverse gray scale Plasma can't help, but look better than LCD.

Poor HD quality on Fox and other networks:Since my previous TV was 768p and only 32" so when AVS posters would complain about bad HD quality on Fox and other networks I would scratch my head. With 58" of TV real estate I now know what they were talking about. I was watching Fringe last week and it looked like SD quality, just horrible.

All in all I love my PN58c550.

Here is a picture of the weird bright line across the top of my screen:


020 by Whforde, on Flickr

I just got the TV back from service after a panel replacement and it has definitely been fixed. I can watch it again without getting upset. I'm pretty stoked even though it took a bit longer than expected. They had my TV apart in another city and it turned out Samsung had sent them a panel for the wrong model. I Had to wait a couple weeks for the correct one to come in but all is forgiven.