Samsung PNxxD450/PNxxD490 Owners Thread - Page 26

Just like the title says I sold my PN50C490 with the glasses (Since they wouldnt have worked anyway), and bought the PN51D490 and 2 pair of bluetooth glasses for 699. Im being real careful breaking it in, and so far I love it. Once im done breaking it in I will use the picture calibration discs I have to get some good picture settings.

At first I didnt like the difference in the usb media player until I noticed that on this TV you have full control over picture settings, and on the C490 it was limited to a few basic settings. Anyway just wanted to chime in. Ill bookmark the thread and keep in touch.

Talking of the inbuilt media player - the one thing I DON'T like about my 43D450 is that I have NO CONTROL over size when using the media player - if the file is small the pic is small, only if its 720p or bigger do I get full screen. Using the media player the size buttons don't seem to work.
Am I missing something - is there a work-around?

Have you tried pressing the tools button and changing the picture mode?

Gam3r 4 Life - YOU DA MAN!
Thanks :-)

Glad to help. Im usually the one asking for help. Nice to contribute.

Hey guys,

Im new to the forum and I just bought a Pn51d490. When I play Black ops my iron sights are not aligned, ie its as if I am constantly aiming to the left just a bit. This problem is really killing my aim. I just noticed this problem after I hooked up my PS3. I was wondering if anyone had the same problems or had a fix for the problem. thanks in advance for your help.

Are you playing it in 3D? Because I noticed that when I play shooters in 3D (Black Ops being one of them) that aim up close seems ok, but not perfect, and then farther aiming is wayy off. So I usually end up switching back to 2D.

Ive played quite a few games in 3D, Killzone 3, Uncharted 3, Socom 4, Captain America, Black Ops, Crysis 2, and with every one I go back to 2D because the 3D is cool for awhile, but just gets irritating to me after more than an hour of playing.

So if its happening in 3D, go to 2D and see if it still happens. If your sights are still off I have no idea.

I'm playing 2d and it doesn't happen to me when I play Modern Warfare 2 so I don't know whats going on. Is anyone else having this problem?

Also, why does my tv go to 3d when I start black ops? Does anyone else's tv do that?

Maracha

I have a question for anyone who might be able to answer it regarding PC input over HDMI on a 51D450.

When playing games on my PC, connected with an HDMI cable to the TV, I can spot an unusual problem with picture quality, in particular black levelsand washed out colors.

If I increase the resolution in the in-game settings to higher than native of the TV, say 1366x768 or higher, the black levels are great and the picture looks as it should. Obviously, the image will be stretched and cut off. And the TV reports 1080i resolution, likely because it is confused at the greater than native resolution it is being fed.

Now, when I drop the game back down to the TV's native res, the picture becomes quite washed out and the blacks are more grey. It's not terrible, but very noticeable compared to the higher res.

Does anyone know why this is happening?

tia

Well got this tv yesterday from dell(PN51D450) opened the box and the screen was cracked. Now dell is telling me I have to contact shipper and all this other BS, will only buy from Amazon from now on.

Hi all. I've just finished reading through all 26 pages and have to say I've learned quite a bit!

I purchased the 43d490 the other day from Best Buy for $549 with the 2 free pair of 3D glasses.

And a big thanks to Grimmy84 as I've been using his settings with great success.

Having a Panasonic P50G10 in the living room for the past 18 months I wasn't expecting miracles with this set but have been pleasantly surprised. While not quite on par with the G10 it more than holds it's on for a bedroom TV.

The only issue I'm having is that this set has a lot of the "dithering" problem. I believe that is what the problem is anyways. It looks like colored dots or snow and is especially apparent in dark scenes.

I've seen a couple people mention it but it doesn't seem like it's a big issue so I'm wondering if maybe my set is a bit defective. I'm easily able to see this when within 5ft. I'm about 8 feet from the set normally and don't notice it at that point but it's so prominent that I definitely don't need to be right up on the TV to see it.

Anyone else have this issue as I honestly can't see any on my G10 unless I put my nose right on the set basically and even then it's faint?

It doesn't matter what the source is either as I have a PS3 and a desktop computer both hooked up as well well as an antenna to receive the local channels. I also only see it when a source is running. It's not present on the menu or a blank screen with no source.

I get this on my PN43D450, I'd never seen a plasma up close in my life so it stood out immediately. I thought it was static interference or something but I guess that's just how plasmas are. Your description is spot on with my experience.

Gregor: This is because video levels and PC levels are not the same and at 1080i (as it detects it anyway) your tv expect video levels. There are several ways to adjust this. Label the input as DVI-PC, change hdmi black level, or simply lower brightness until black is black.

poocano: These samsung plasmas dithers a lot more than Panasonic. Supposedly, this is to eliminate motion related problems that Panasonics tv's suffr from (especially g20 and g30). These are two diffrent kinds of techniques to drive a plasma image. The Samsungs have a lot more dithering and appear grainer - BUT (for my eyes at least) performs a lot better with fast movements (no green flashes...). I strongly prefer Samsungs dithering over the dowsides of Panasonics. However, it does make the screen totally useless when you are really up close!

However, if this is "not present on menus" but onlu on content, then something may indeed be faulty!

Hey guys. Im a couple hours from hitting the 100th hour of my 250 hour break in. Ive been MUCH more careful on my D490 than I was with my C490.

Before I got my C490 I had a non 3D 42" Panny Plasma, and didnt break it in and never had any burn in/ image retention at all. So I guess that spoiled me, because with the C490 I just hooked it up and went with it. Even using it as my main monitor for my laptop.

Well after about 5 months I started noticing images being retained for much longer, and a huge reddish spot that took up at least 1/2 the screen in the middle when the screen was black. I also noticed when I first turned it on for the day there was a lot of the red sparkles for a few minutes. All of this happened around the 4th or 5th month.

So anyway needless to say I have been careful (probably overcareful) with my new D490. Ive been using a mix of the built-in scrolling and a set of 120 plasma break in images that I run via usb as a slideshow of 10 seconds each, and looping it over and over.

So far so good. I started out at very low brightness and contrast (20 each). And every 50 hours I raise it +5. And when I reach my 250 mark Im going to use my 2 picture calibration discs, and/ or grimmys settings. Hopefully being so careful with break in I can reduce or eliminate the issues I had with the other.

Hi all.
Another question regarding the media player:
I find that a number of my files just stop playing at random points. One file played great until just over 2 hours in then stopped. I segmented the rest of the film into 2 and the first segment (which included the previous "stop" point) played fine - about 50 minutes. The last segment got about 9 minutes in then stopped again (at which point I gave up and watched the ending on my laptop!).
Does anyone have suggestions on how to get around this? FWIW many of these files were mkv's but I have in the past had the same problem playing avi's through my DVDs USB port.

Something I've noticed lately that's been bothering me is the audio going out of sync on movies played through the usb media player. When it happens I have to exit the movie and restart it and that fixes it for awhile but it happens again. Has anyone else had this? And if so did you figure out a solution?

I played FIFA 11 for almost the whole day
I can see some image retention on my Plasma 43D490. The menu is on the Screen but one can Barely see it.
How can i clear this Any idea guys

Gam3 4 life: Sorry about your C490, but it really sounds like a faulty set and not as if you did anything wrong. Did you get your money back?

Question for Grimmy84:

In your post you said "A final word of advice. Stay far, far away from entertainment or normal modes since they are awful in terms of picture quality."

In what part of the picture menu did you mean for this? Thank you

Have you tried running the anti burn scrolling feature for awhile? Its worked for me in the past. If you havent tried it try running it for an hour and see if that helps. Its designed to help erase stuck images.

Gam3 4 life: Actually standard works fairly well in game mode, but entertainment mode has a weirdly shapen gamma curve that crush details in both whites and blacks.

I take back what I said, there is dithering present in the menus, It just wasn't as noticeable so I did not pay attention. Looking closer though it's definitely there just not as prominent as when on source with a darker screen.

Not a deal breaker as I'm happy in every other respect, and being a bedroom TV it's only used a few hours a week.

Those who are picky might to take notice though before purchasing one!

I don't remember seeing this when going through the thread but can anyone recommend a basic tilting wall bracket for the 43D490?

My daughter (21 months) makes me very nervous when she's close

I checked monoprice but they have so many to choose from! It would be installed via studs in the wall and not concrete or brick.

I took the plunge the other day, bought the PN51D450, and had DirectTV set up today. I will have an Xbox360 for movies (I never play video games anymore) and Netflix if I want (but never really use).

I thought I read somewhere that this TV can search for media players (or MediaLink on my Mac), is this true? I'm pumped for the NFL games, and moving into my new place (when the kitchen is done, ugh)!

@ Gam3r 4 Life, i did that last night. & it works like a charm
thanks a million

SO i have had this set for a while now and love the pic quality for a cheap entry level plasma. I just have a question for grimmy or anyone else who might know. When I engage "game mode" it will not let me access any other picture setting than "standard." However, your settings call for game mode on, movie setting and most importantly Warm 2 setting. I would simply set all off your settings up under standard mode instead of movie mode, but in standard mode I dont have the option of warm 1 or warm 2 color. So....i just have all your settings set under movie mode, with game mode off. Hopefully everyone understands what i mean, and i apologize if this has been answered before. There is just no way for me to have game mode and warm 2 both on at the same time. THanks.

twibassa: Sorry if I was not clear enough. My alternative game mode on setting (in one of my earlier posts) is for standard because movie is (as you say) not available.

Hey grimmy. Thanks for your quick reply. I guess the point I am more trying to stress is that in Standard mode, my only color tone options are normal and cool. SO, there is no way for me to use your settings with game mode on because I am unable to set the color temp to warm 2 with my only picture option being standard. Maybe I have different firmware? Are you able to change color temp to warm 1 and warm 2 under standard mode? I dunno. ANYWAYS. I do however love your settings, I just wish i could try them with game mode on.

twibmassa: What is your input and what have you named it? That could be the reason. Also I think there is some diffrence between the European and the US version (I have the European). Further, the point of enabling game mode is if you think that you have a noise reduction bug that is, possibly, only present on the european models. My advice is to enable game mode and compare if you see any changes in level of fine grain detail. If not, then go for game mode off.

Of course if you want to play games than you should enable game mode.
You may also want to try changing the input name to PC for games. I am not sure which on gives the best input lag but you can play around with it. I have an Xbox 360 and then i send out 1366*768 which the TV then detects as PC (labeling it does not make a difference). In this mode i cannot enable game mode but since it is PC mode there is no input lag anyways.


If you want a correct greyscale in standard it is quite more complicated since red is little bit to high and blue is extremely high (like 30% above target). So you would need to lower red-gain a few points and then lower blue-gain substantially.

Unfortuneately it is easier for the eye to to get rid of a reddish tone than a blueish tone, since blue mostly appears as brighter. That is one of the reason to start out with the warmest mode.

Further, I am not entirely sure if the color-setting will apply with normal setting.

I think it would be best if some with an American setting could calibrate in game mode and post his/her settings.

Hey grimmy, first off Id like to say you have done so much to help everyone on here and this response was more detailed than I could ever ask for so for that I say thank you.. SO yes, I do have the US model, probably explains the differences in menu options. Im using HDMI 2 named "game" however i dont think changing the input name physically does anything other than name the input in my case. atleast i dont think so, i know none of the menu options change at all. I havent really noticed any noise issues so i suppose I could leave game mode off, but this was my input for the 360 so I was wanting it on. Further more i dont have a 1366x768 output on my 360, just 1366x760 which my tv doesnt recognize. There are some major differences in using the standard mode to calibrate as you said, i tried doing this visually with disneys WOW disc and it yeilds totally different numbers. But, i guess if there is a US person out there who could calibrate this guy with game mode on under standard mode, to the best of their ability, it would certainly be beneficial to me and many others here in the states. But then again im already pretty happy with what ive got and I could probably tweak around with it to get it where i would want it. But im really in love with the pic quality i get from this set, and I own last years cnet edit choice vt25, this set sometimes makes me wonder why i spent so much for that one, lol.

Anyways thanks again. I guess since we have different model versions you've done about all you can for me. But it has all been very helpful. Your settings look great for my blu-ray input!