Official Samsung LNxxD550 owners thread

Is this TV 60 or 120hz?

Glossy or Matte Screen?

Technically it is somewhere inbetween. Semi-matte or semi-gloss, whichever term works for you.

Would you tell me how it compares to the D6000 series in terms of PQ? Have u seen em side by side. Thanks a lot.

Hi there. I'm resorting to asking everyone here as I believe I've exhausted all my options.

Problem:
Receiving a 'Mode not Supported' message on full 1080p during PC to TV.

Setup:
Win 7, eVGA GTX550Ti mini-HDMI out to Samsung HDMI. I've set the resolution in nVidia control panel to 1920x1080p, 60hz (supported by my TV unit). 720p works fine, 1080i works fine, but 1080p fails to register a signal.

Unless there are extra settings within the TV i'm not aware of, or there are HDMI cable limitations (im using a 1.4 compliant cable), I'm lost.

Any thoughts? Thanks everyone.

Hi everyone!

I just bought the LN46D550 and am very happy with the display so far.

There is however one thing I have noticed. I notice uneven backlight on dark or black background. Basically, the screen is black and then there is a slightly ligher spot in the middle of the screen, from the top downwards. There are similar spots in the 4 corners but not as noticeable. I can see this with the backlight ranging from anything between 2 and 14. Is this normal for this display or do I have a bad unit?

Thanks for any advice!

Thanks! much appreciated!

I took and uploaded some photos with the flashlighting. Please let me know what you guys think

I don't think that's typical of a Samsung D550 panel, at least not in the earlier A (2008), B (2009), and C (2010) models. I would return it, try for another one and if it's the same, look for another TV.

Bottom line: I'm sorry to say that's some of the worst clouding on a CCFL backlit panel I've seen. Flashlighting normally comes from the corners, but some of the clouding is so significant, it almost looks like flashlighting. Very strange for sure.

Has anybody done any gaming on this panel? How is the lag? I know previous iterations of Samsung models have had terrible lag with gaming. I want to use this for my PS3 as well as bluray but the PS3 is more important.

I use this panel a lot for gaming. Just bought it a few days ago so can't give too much feedback but so far I am very happy (Xbox gaming). Will let you know more in a few days

Thanks for doing this!excellently stated and extremely comprehensive!

Could you do a lag input test using flatpanelshd input test?

I really appreciate it.

Tim, here's your description from the other thread:
The top middle backlight (the one pointing to the bottom right corner) is much brighter than the other ones. This is very noticable in a dark room in dark scenes. I have tried every setting. I can notice this one backlight even when the backlight setting is turned to 3 (it goes up to 20). I have tried the eco settings and brightness as well.

I'd describe your problem as clouding; flashlighting typically describes a flare from the corners toward the center of the screen. Since you notice the clouding in dark scenes in a dark room with your backlight set so extremely low at 3/20, I don't think it will go away. I hate to say it, but I'd return it and try another one.

I have a spectacular 3-year old LN52A860 which I could never part with. It came with clouding similar to yours, but milder. However, we never notice it on regular TV programming or blu rays, just on a black screen in a dark room. We use Movie with a backlight set at 3 (out of 10), which is 30%, while yours is at 15%. Since we fast forward thru commercials on our DVR, we skip most black fade out screens between scenes, and we don't watch credits after blu ray movies, so we've minimized the occurrences. When I turn it off, I've noticed the clouding is more diffuse recently, but it took about 2 1/2 years.

In the past 3 years I've set up Samsung 46A and C630s, 46 and 55B640s, and recommended 2B550s. None of these have clouding or flashlights, and the owners are ecstatic.

You didn't mention what picture mode you're experimenting with. Try Movie and set the backlight to about 6 (out of 20). If the clouds are still there, I'd recommend exchanging it... don't bother trying to get it fixed. Let us know how it works out.

I just purchased the LN46D550 from Walmart. Mine is perfect. You can almost see some brighter light in the left hand corners but you have to really be looking to see any hint of it, and that's looking at it from 4 feet away. At normal viewing distance it's just one beautiful black slate. This was with several backlight settings from torch to very dim. I believe mine is currently set to 9.

Given that, anyone that is experiencing any clouding or flashlighting should just take the set back and grab another one.

Mine is also not lagging enough for me to pick up on it at all in games. I've only played Portal 2 on the PS3 so far and it seemed just as responsive as the old Sanyo tube tv that was replaced by this set. Switching from Standard to Game Mode didn't seem to make any difference response wise.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I have been very busy with work so I have neither had a chance to test the TV further, nor to return it. I have however left the TV running for a few hours everyday to see if things would get better.

It seems that this ghosting in the middle is disappearing slowly. It is significantly less than before. I will look at it properly tonight and if it still persists return it.

This is pretty concerning. I'm trying to decide between ST30 and the D550--mainly because of the price advantage this set has. How are the blacks otherwise?

I should point out that I have the EMA version of the TV, the LA46D550. Besides the tuner there shouldn't be any differences.

Blacks are great other than this. The clouding seems to get less. Watching a FHD movie tonight so I will report back after

So which panel did you get on your D550.

The blacks are amazing on this set. In a lit environment, any black areas on the screen look like the TV is off there. In an unlit environment the blacks almost disappear into the bezel of the TV. There is great shadow detail in the dark areas too. It's better than a friends 4 year old Panasonic 720p Plasma, which had very deep and black blacks but lacked detail in those blacks.

If I had to pick out this sets strongest quality, it would be its blacks. It also does very well with brightness and whites. You can get both very deep blacks and bright accurate whites with this set, which is what I was mainly looking for.

Edit: I also wanted to add that i've successfully used the tv as a monitor for my computer over HDMI using a DVI converter and plugging it into HDMI slot 1 on the back. I was able to get perfect 1:1 pixel match after changing the overscan setting in the Catalyst Control Center for my HD4890. I played the Portal 2 PC version and it didn't show any signs of perceptible input lag as compared to my 24" ASUS 1920x1080 LCD Monitor. In summary, the PS3 and PC versions of Portal 2 have shown no signs of input lag on this TV with Gaming Mode both off and on.

As reported above I had an issue with clouding on myD550 LCD. I swapped the TV out and the new one is 100% perfect. What a great TV, I have not noticed any motion blur, lag, clouding or ghosting. Blacks are great too.


I have a samsung panel in mine

Congratulations.

Are the panels for the D550 series similar to other Samsungs with three versions? I might get a C ,A or S panel with the S being the one to get? Thanks

Has anyone tried out the game mode on this set? I was curious is it degraded the PQ very much