Official Samsung 2011 PNxxD8000 Thread [No Price Talk] - Page 18

I just purchased one of the D Plasmas and I am trying to figure out the best way to set up. I currently set it up having the cable go through the receiver but I seem to be getting a little bit of a lag. Is there a better configuration that would help stop the lag? I thought about connecting the cable box directly to the tv but I was not sure if there is a way to get audio back to the receiver.

Thanks.

Got my set yesterday via delivery by Best Buy. I came down stairs just in time to see the two delivery guys try to put the stand on the tv by putting the stand on the floor and lower the tv to it while trying to get screws in. They broke one of the tabs off the stand but managed to get it screwed on. I'm on the phone (on hold forever with Kennny G music) with their delivery department to complain.

I got a 63C8000 last year and the stand was already on. The instructions for this set say to lay the tv on a flat soft surface (face down) and attach the stand from the rear. Apparently these guys had no inkling about that. Otherwise the set is great with no buzzing. Samsung has improved quite a few things and I'm glad I upgraded even though it was only one year. One of the things I noticed was that there is nothing in the audio menu for turning off the sets speakers. Turns out the whole thing is automatic. When your audio system is off the tv speakers turn on and when your audio system is on the tv speakers shut off. Also I was reading the manual and they have an interactive eManual built in the set that not only lets you read but let's you got to the menu where the item is and let's you make changes. Didn't have time to check out more but like I said very interesting set. I'll be checking out picture settings next.

I also checked out the 3D and in comparison with last year models there are big improvements. Picture is brighter, no synch issues, glasses (starter kit) are lighter than last years freebies and there is verification on the tv screen when glasses are dialed in and in synch. A few folks here were saying that there is a voucher in the tv box for two more pairs of glasses. I did not see that and would like others to verify whether they got it or not or if it's specific models that have the voucher. Thanks.

I just got off the phone with BB and lodged a complaint. I will have to call the store I purchased from if I want to exchange the set. It may sound like a minor thing but I'm thinking about my peace of mind. I don't like to have brand new stuff broke or not set up right so I'll be exchanging it.

At long last, I received my replacement plasma this morning. My C8000 had the blinking issue (both Netflix and the more insidious blink), as well as buzz. I am still setting the TV up and have a lot of work to do getting it back on the wall, installing bias lighting on the back, etc. However, I have seen a little bit and wanted to share my thoughts. These come from someone who doesn't necessarily mind not having the lowest black level, as long as the picture looks great. I haven't tested 3D because I don't have glasses yet (replacement sets do not come with them).

Appearance - The TV is a stunner. The bezel looks nearly the same color as my C8000, and of course is slightly slimmer. This thing looks good with NO picture on. The stand is not as awful as I thought it would be, but it's going to be in my attic soon anyway.

Remote - Not THAT bad. I prefer it to a touchscreen so I can click buttons without having to look down. I will be using my Harmony One primarily, but this will come in handy with the internet apps. I did notice that the IR beam seems to be weak, because often I would have to click a button twice for anything to happen. I am about 10 feet away.

Picture quality - fantastic so far. I am running break-in slides and have tooled around in the menu looking at stuff. No stuck pixels, and NO BUZZ. My old TV had a buzz I didn't mind that much, but this one is silent unless my ear is almost touching the glass, where I can hear a faint buzz. The black levels are improved. I don't have a meter, but you don't need one to see that they are better on this TV than the C8000. It is not in my head - they just look darker, pure and simple.

Apps - pretty neat. Although I cannot get Netflix to work properly (keeps making me register on my computer, which I do, and then go back to my TV and it has not taken), or Facebook (similar problem), the apps are quick to load. I like being able to watch TV while using Facebook or run the browser at the same time. I didn't think I would use the internet apps, but I am reconsidering.

Network - It wouldn't connect to my living room router, which is connected via Cat5e to the router/modem in my home office. I don't know why, but it did connect directly to the office router without problems. I plan to use the living room router to have a wired connection for the TV.

Edit:

This thing is putting out a lot of heat. I can feel it two feet back from the glass, and the top of the display is close to being too hot to touch. I currently have the set in torch mode running slides; it's been on for several hours. I hope when I have it calibrated in Movie mode, it doesn't put out this much heat, because it seems strange. My C8000 was not nearly this hot.

WTF. You saw the delivery guys damage the set/stand and you still accepted it. Dumb move.

Congrats, should get my d7000 next week. It was mentioned in another thread that the netflix issue is due the the set being so new, it is not being recognized by netflix (according to samsung). Hopefully that will be resolved soon.

This is my first plasma, and I was curious about break in slides. I have read how they are used to get through the first 100/150 hours so that can calibrate correctly. But where can I get the slides?

Thanks!

Since I'm apparently in the habit of answering my own questions: it turns out I'm not crazy, just susceptible to the "rainbow effect"

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=167

I see that rainbow effect too if I look quickly from one side of the screen to the other. I see it on all (or at least many) plasmas. It's one of the downsides of the technology but it's worth it to me to avoid the awful smearing / motion blur I see on many LED/LCD TVs (which is why I returned my UN55C6300).

Has anyone successfully set up their Social TV app? Mine is stuck on the registration screen for Google Talk. I do not want to register, but I am unable to leave this screen, no matter what buttons I press.

And how about the Samsung Apps? In the "Register Service Account" menu, I cannot get it to take my username (The one I use to log into Smart Hub) and that password, or the default 0-0-0-0 password. Am I doing something wrong?

Yeah, it appears some people are more prone to seeing it than others. So far, I can only notice it in high contrast scenes, in a dark room, and if I look side-to-side. I suspect it's something I'll get used to and forget over time.

Oh, and in case anyone is curious, I checked for buzzing.

In my normal seating position I get no buzzing. However, if I lean forward of my couch I can hear a moderate amount of buzzing. It seems to be very positional. I can put my ear right next to my set and not hear a thing, but there's a certain zone in front of the screen where it's noticeable. My seating is right outside of that zone for whatever reason.

I could imagine if your seating area was in that sweet spot, it could be somewhat disconcerting.

I'm curious though, if someone did notice buzzing, that if they tilted their tv slightly down (assuming it's wall-mounted and tilt-able), if it would go away entirely for them.

Dumb? I will have a set to watch till April 9th when they come to take the one away and replace it with another. You should choose your words with some type of wisdom.

Same here, first time plasma and I'll be searching for break-in slides.

Man! I cannot wait for my 64D to get here already. BB told me yesterday 3-4 days til it's in the warehouse then he can put in an order for it (since this one's not a Magnolia BB they won't have direct access to it) and then another 3-4 days for delivery. Ah! I am too impatient to preorder things. Plan on running this thing 24/7 with the break-in slides (when I'm not using it that is) until I can get it calibrated. "Operation Shut In" soon to commence.

Here is a link for slides. Just unzip the file and put all the photos on a USB drive and plug it into your TV. Click "Source" on the remote and access the USB drive. It defaults to video mode, so click on the top of the screen and change the option to photos. Click on the first photo in the group and click the PLAY button to start the slideshow. make sure you turn off the screen burn protection (screen saver and pixel shift) while running slides. Turn it back on when watching regular TV.

I am running slides right now while I work. I will run them through the night, too, and tomorrow while I work.

You can still watch TV - just try to avoid SD channels that have black bars on the sides and channels with bright, stationary logos, and definitely keep it out of torch mode, for the first 100 hours or so. I also recommend not playing video games for a week or so (it was hard for me to skip Call of Duty that long on my C8000, but I did it, and ran about 50 hours of slides in between watching TV for a week, and never had even a trace of IR, even after playing Call of Duty for 6 hours straight).

http://www.eaprogramming.com/downloa...kIn_Images.zip

Thanks a lot man. It's gonna be tough not to play CoD but I picked up some new must have BluRays that should help the initial pre video game time go by fast... and I've been an HD snob since '04, I can't stand SD channels so that part won't be a problem. I'll try to upload some pictures of my setup in the right forum section when the beast gets here.

I figure normal viewing with suggested break in settings plus slides for the first 2 weeks or so, then straight up normal viewing with optimal model specific settings from cnet or whereever it might be til the first months over, then get calibrated... oh and tons of research on this site too.

Getting to know all the features and reading in here is a lot of fun, but don't get sucked in by the "Oh my god, the mll isn't .002 like Samsung said? I can get a Panasonic with better black levels than that!" kind of talk. This picture looks fantastic, and the black level, regardless of what it actually measures out to be, is noticeably better than what i had on my C8000. Your friends are gonna be jealous!

Yeah I don't plan on getting that crazy with details. I know this set is way better than anything I've owned, will be among the top 2 performers for the year, and I'll be blown away by it's performance. I try not to get sucked into the hype of all the little details for TVs enough to argue about, that's what I got car forums for. I just want to find the best setup and settings with the equipment I have.

Nice try. It's dumb to accept a set that is obviously damaged unless some allowance in the purchase price is made...period. I said exactly what I meant.

Really? Bait much? If they say they will replace it and he gets to keep the one he has until then (10 more days?) I don't see anything wrong with it. He gets that much more time to decide whether or not he likes it as well.

Those plastic tabs are actually pretty easy to break if you don't know what you are doing. I know on last year's PN51C7000 you have to lower it as well but the trick was you really don't need to hold it up while screwing the screws in. Just have someone hold it still because it is supposed to rest on the stand (while being held straight.) There are little slots on the base that the tougher bottom metal tabs slide into so that you don't have to try and be lowering it or holding it up while screwing it in. I think they tell many movers not to turn it on it's side with the plasmas (that is what they said at my BB anyway.) If the manual says do it then by all means do what the manual says. I am sure there are differences on the different stand on the D8000 though so you may not be able to let it sit on the stand while screwing it in anyway.

the wider distance between the legs is actually the front of the stand. so basically the two legs in front of the tv are longer than the back two legs. in terms of having the stand hang off the edge of a table or cabinet, that's unfortunately not possible, or a good idea. only the tips of the x (about 1" x 1" each) touch the table. the rest of the x is raised, so most of the stand doesn't actually rest on the table. i don't think i'd want to put the tv on a table or stand that is less than 15-16" in width. this is a really big and heavy tv, and a non-stable platform for the base could be disasterous.

Thanks for the clear and detailed reply!

i attached the stand to the tv myself, and it was not a pleasant experience. the plate slides into a slot on the back of the tv before you screw it in place. the main problem is that the screen is really really heavy. there's a high chance of the plate getting bent while trying to screw it in standing up, or the screws not getting set in straight. i had to lay the screen face down on my bed and attach the stand hanging off the edge of the bed. still having unpleasant thoughts of my experience unboxing and setting up the tv solo...

i tried the slides for the usb drive and was finding that there wasn't a noticeable difference in the color scale for each color set...ie, all the red slides looked the same, all the blue slides looked the same, etc. in addition, even on the slowest setting, each slide was only displayed less than 10 seconds. i ended up using the dvdr disc, which is displaying the slides more like i imagined it would...like 30 seconds per slide, and an obvious gradient in the colors. unfortch, it's probably taking years off the life of my blu-ray player . would much rather use the usb slides to save wear and tear on the br player. am i doing something wrong with the usb slides?

i believe that voucher only comes with the led/lcd model, unxxd8000. none of the plasma sets comes with a set of glasses. most retailers are including the 3d starter kit with the new tvs. some of the early run unxxd8000 models also came with vouchers for the qwerty remote. i think all the d8000 plasmas have the qwerty remote in the box.

Try copying the dvd files to your usb stick. I'm pretty sure the TV can play DVD files somehow since I think I heard people saying they could play blu-ray files copied to an external hard drive on their 2010 Samsung sets. I don't know if you'd need to copy it as an iso straight to the USB stick or copy the files from the mounted disk - video_ts etc.

I would avoid the wear and tear on the TV with the slides too.. I never broke in my C8000 and I game all the time.. No Ir or Burn-in

that's a good idea. i know that the tv can play xvids, mkvs, and dvds (video_ts) folder off a usb hdd. not sure how well it handles the dvd files though...seemed a little clunky, with the status bar popping up a lot (between video_ts files), but then again, i didn't just let the dvd folder play continuously. i tried a downloaded blu-ray directory on a hdd with the tv, and it didn't seem to work. will have to find more info regarding that. anyhow, if this works, my bd-c6900 thanks you!

to the guy saying that this break-in biz is a gimmick...you're probably right. putting wear and tear on the tv, and wasting electricity. unfortch, i've already had too many sips of the kool-aid from this forum ...

Anyone else having trouble activating Netflix on this TV? I'm getting "Sorry, this device cannot be activated."

I was able to successfully activate 2 UND558000's without a hitch, I don't know why this one doesn't work

yeah, same prob. someone here (or another thread) mentioned that samsung support indicated that the plasma sets might be too "new" for the service to recognize them at this time. i'm sure it'll get resolved with time or a fw update. hopefully it doesn't have that annoying "blinking" that my wireless bd-c6900 has with netflix.

Bummer, hope it gets worked out. Thanks for the info!

Next question, anyone know of a way to use ARC without Anynet+ enabled? It keeps switching my receiver's input to TV all the time.

I should have known it would still be there. After the TV has been on about 10 hours today without problems, I just had the screen go black for about 4 seconds. Same problem as my C8000. It's definitely the TV, as I swapped around the HDMI cables and still had the problem. Just great.