Official Samsung LNxxD630 Owner's Thread - Page 9

That was where I landed as well. Clear gives me the fewest episodes of jerkiness, and it does not produce the overly smooth "soap opera mode" effect that you get with Standard.

Hello everyone, New to AVS Forum and i recently just purchased a new LCD tv I got the samsung LN46D630M3F 46". 1080p 120hz. And While I was purchasing it bestbuy wanted me to get it calibrated for 200$ more. I figured since I can buy that at anytime I might as well go home and do my homework before I make up my mind. Ive done ton of searching online and all i can find are really old pages from like 2007.

Anyone in this thread of on the forum have any input for me? Thanks in advanced.

Dustin.

You can calibrate it yourself using the free AVS HD709 disc or something a little more simple like the DVE or WoW disks. Even without instrumentation you should be able to definitely improve the pq depending on how many calibration options are available on the Samsung. There is a learning curve but that's a good thing. You can pay for a professional calibration which is not a bad idea but not from BB. A real, professional calibrator will probably take about 3-4 hours depending on your tv.

I found this post and i am going to try this one out tomorrow after work see how i like it.
"Hey I have been messing with the picture settings here and there and this is what I use for my PS3/Blu-ray source on my LN40D630. I start at "movie mode" and this allows you to do minimum adjustments to calibrate it. Also I have Auto Motion Plus shut off, this is simply my preference, and some people like to go with "smooth" but I simply don't see the need. I didn't arrive at these settings using a calibration disk, I found a site that reviewed this TV and I made adjustments from their "professional" settings. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and everyone's preference is different, so ultimately it is up to you, but here are mine if you are interested........

Color Temp: Warm 1
Backlight:7-10 depending on your lighting environment (basement or bright room)
Brightness:47
Contrast:95
Color:45
Sharpness:5
Tint:G49/R51

White Balance Settings:
Red Offset: 28
Green Offset: 25
Blue Offset: 16
Red Gain: 25
Green Gain: 25
Blue Gain: 21"

Keep in mind that component tolerances vary from set to set, even within the same model line, so what looks good on one set may not look good on your's. Your viewing conditions, the use of a bias light, etc will affect the final results as well. Using another's settings is a good place to start because it will familiarize you with the various settings of your tv and what they do but ultimately, you should probably calibrate yourself for optimal pq. If you find a preset (Movie mode, Game mode, Standard, whatever) write the settings down before you start. That way if you mess up, you can always put them back in, or just reset you picture setting back to factory. Turn all enhancements off so there is no artificial processing going on and start from there. If you use a cal disk thru your BD player, make sure the player is not doing any video processing at all because you want to calibrate your display monitor, not your BD player.

I am looking to get a TV, 40 to 46", for my study. I am thinking the LN46D630 is the one I want to get. Wanting to know if any knows if this set allows u to fully calibrate it, colors and grayscale. I have a Eye One Pro and an older version of CALMan to calibrate the set with but wanting to make sure this sets allows it. Distance wise I have about 6 ft max viewing distance, down to 3'. Torn between the 46" and 40"....

Thank you for your info. So would it be wise to put a lamp or a soft light plugin behind my mounted tv so i can get a better picture?

I think that most people who have used bias lighting really like the effect. LCDs in general don't have the blackest blacks and with the use of a bias light behind the set, it seems to mitigate that somewhat (by tricking the eye/brain). What I did was buy what's called an uplight. It looks like a round bottom tin can with one end cut off. It's on a swivel base to change the angle of illumination and has a standard size screw-in light receptacle. I used a 15W CFL round bulb rated at 5500k. My tv is on a console so it easily fit behind the tv and can't be seen. The wall behind the tv is an off-white color and ends in a cathedral ceiling. With just the bias light on (no other lights in the room) the wall and ceiling behind the tv is illuminated with a soft, natural light. Very easy on the eyes and the picture looks remarkably better. With just the bias light on, there's enough light in the room to move around and "see" things with no reflection on the tv panel at all. I bought the uplight at Home Depot and it's their home brand (Hampton Bay). If your tv is wall mounted you can use rope light and achieve the same effect. Just experiment.

I have a neutral gray wall behind the tv and a small floor lamp with a translucent shade and a 25 watt bulb that illuminates the wall behind the tv. The tv stand blocks the lamp from direct view. This is the only illumination in my home theater room except for the tv. Works great.

Yep. That would work just as well. It's amazing what a simple bias light, at a minimal cost, can do for the viewing experience. I chose the 15W CFL to be energy efficient and produce an illumination equal to about a 60W bulb but there are all kinds of creative ways to achieve the same thing.

I might switch to a CFL bulb because mine casts a very yellowish light, which isn't ideal... Thanks for the idea!

Never heard of using a "bias light" until now. Maybe that'll solve the eye strain I've been experiencing. Thanks

You can find them with different temperature ratings. I've alternated between 5500k and 6000k but haven't really noticed that much of a difference.

If you watch tv in a totally dark room (which you shouldn't do and I used to ) the use of a bias light should eliminate or greatly reduce eye strain. It's a cheap thing to do and you just might be pleasantly surprised. But give your eyes a few days to a week or so to adjust. It's not usually an instant thing.

Something some of you might already know but I didn't. I already knew that each input remembered your picture settings but I also just found out that within each input that it will remember your setting for each mode (standard, movie, natural, dynamic). I thought I would try the setting posted earlier for my dvd going into HDMI and changed the mode to movie and changed the settings. Looks good but still not enough color for me so I switched back to standard thinking I would have to change back to my previous settings but they were all there! For now I have gone back to standard mode but used the settings for movie mode and am really happy with the picture (for the dvd player atleast).

I'm interested in buying the LN40D630 for my bedroom and I wondered if games can be played on it? Wish I could get a 46" but I don't have big enough bedroom. Game-wise, I was hoping to play some old SNES games...pretty retro, I know.

Why couldn't you play games on it?

I don't use mine for games but I've seen comments from others that do use it for games. You might try searching this thread.

In the study of imaging science (what this forum was born from), the foundation of good TV pictures rests upon the characteristics of the human visual system. Understanding how human vision responds to television imaging is at the root of obtaining the best performance from any home theater system. It's science in the service of art. These "sticky" threads from the 'Display Calibration' sub-section of the forum offer a more detailed explanation of bias lighting and other important viewing environment principles:

'How Viewing Environment Conditions Can Corrupt Or Enhance Your Calibration'
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=849430

'D65 Video Bias Lighting- Fundamental Theory And Practice'
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1162578

Best regards and beautiful pictures,
G. Alan Brown, President
CinemaQuest, Inc.
A Lion AV Consultants affiliate

"Advancing the art and science of electronic imaging"

Thanks for the advice but I was looking for retro gaming specifically.

DUSTXKING you simply copied and pasted my calibration settings and my text! The least you could do would be to give me some credit Well I hope they provide others a base for calibration. These settings work great and reproduce color excellently. I have been using them for 6 months now. Got the new lord of the rings extended a few weeks ago and no color problems with these settings on this set.

As for playing video games (I only have a PS3) this TV is great, no lag. Well you have to turn off Auto Motion Plus or it will cause a delay in your gaming. Also I simply don't recommend the gaming mode on this set. It butchers the colors and greatly diminishes the picture quality.

Balazo, are you on MOVIE with your settings? I did use your setting but I am using Standard mode, works great for DVD. I am using a PS3 as well and this tv does great handling 24fps content but I have turned the AMP off. Santa dropped off a couple of games including COD MW3 and I have not had any problems with the tv keeping up (AMP is turned off). I can't say the same for my Wii. When playing COD MW1 online it is like I am playing in slow motion and game mode is the only cure for that.
I have had thoughts of returning this tv due to the AMP issue plus the tv washes out pretty bad when viewing from an angle (I know most LCD's do this but this one is worse that others). I have looked at other 46 inch tv's under $1000 and I really can't find one that don't have issues of their own. The picture is great and I wish AMP worked better but I will probably stick with this one.

Sorry about the whole credit thing. I should have.
But guys Since i have until jan, 24th to return my tv to bestbuy for full credit i was thinking about doing so and seeing if there is something bigger/better (example: LED same size or bigger LCD.) so i could return my tv for full credit and just spend the same i did over xmas time. Reason why is I am sure BB will be having all their closeout sales on their remaining stock models. I hope i am making sense. Please LMK what everyone thinks i should do!

No worries DustXking, I am only trying to help others out. Let me begin by saying that I am no expert on calibrating LCDs or Plasmas, but I do have a good eye for color as I used to work in a digital photography studio. I am not advocating that these are by any means perfect for everyone, or that they will work in all viewing environments. I encourage people to give them a try instead of using the factory settings. The settings above will lower the sets power consumption and reproduce color accurately, at least from my POV. I stated at "Movie" settings and then played with it until I cam to the above settings. I did look at a few other calibration settings to help me tweak mine until it was right for my viewing environment (at the time there were only 3-4 posted, and some were for other LNXXD630 models). Honestly I think you can start from any of the presets and eventually come to the same calibrations. As soon as you play around with them it becomes a "custom" setting although the "movie" label doesn't change. So I believe you could start an any preset and obtain the above calibrations, I just used movie because it was closest to what I ended up with, and therefore needed the smallest amount of tweaking.

I got this set on sale over the summer on Amazon for $595 with 2 day shipping and it is worth every penny. Like I posted above I have had great results with the PS3 as far a games (and of course blu rays, dvds and PSN video content too). The only game that had a minute amount of lag was Dirt 3, but it was playable. It may have been from using the Logitech Racing Wheel, because every game I have played with the Dualshock controller has been perfect. Is the Wii hooked up with an HDMI cable? That may be the culprit, these TV's are a little ahead of their time, like that episode of South Park (Go God Go 2) where Cartman can't hook his Wii into the futuristic TV .

BTW I recently switched to Verizon Fios and their overall picture quality is far superior to Cox cable. Even their standard def channels are close to 720P, well depending on the source of the broadcast. I am very pleased with Verizon so far, although their DVR has taken a bit to get used to, and their cable boxes do use a bit of energy. But I would recommend Fios to anyone looking for a great cable picture, especially NFL football.

$595 is a great deal! I paid $850 at BB which was the same price about every where else locally. My wii is hooked up through a split component (still have the ole PS2) and does fine playing games normally it is when I go online with COD MW Reflex is where the problems start. I played MW3 for a couple of hours yesterday with the PS3 and it did fine. I also watched The Dark Knight yesterday with the tv set on Standard and tweaked and AMP off and the picture was amazing.

Yeah I went to BB to take a good look at it in person before pulling the trigger on Amazon. I couldn't believe the price difference either, I thought it was a different TV. I just couldn't resist for $595 shipped, and it has outperformed it's cost a thousand times over. Unfortunately the APM feature is pretty useless, and not in a bad way. You just don't really need it to enjoy the quality of the TV and its images. I think that APM or super high frame rates are a little bit ahead of their time. Eventually the film and TV industry will start to record in higher frame rates, which will make the AMP a bit more smooth. Albeit useless now, it is better to be a step ahead of technology in this case. Imagine having to buy a new TV in a year or two because all programing is either 120 or 240hz.

I came across the same problem over the weekend watching ESPN. I started turning the different processors on and off and finally figured out it was the film mode set to Auto 1. With it turned off it does fine. After a little reading I found out that film mode auto 1 is for de-interlacing the 480i and 1080i signal with 3:2 pulldown. I set up my cable box last week to output only 1080i because of the annoying lag when changing between 480, 720, and 1080 channels. I guess for now I will just leave film mode to off at least while football season is still going.

After a great deal of research and on-site visual examination, I've decided that this is the television of choice for me and plan on leaving work tonight and making the purchase. I only have one real dread, hooking it all up. I plan to purchase a sound bar, I have an XboxKinnect (or shall we say the Mrs. does) a DVD/VHS combo recorder and Directv. The salesperson hints that all I should have to do is use HDMI cables and probably an RCA cable if the soundbar says it needs it. Does any of this sound like a reason to anticipate difficulties?

Keep in mind this whole upgrade started because my wifes old combo dies and the new one didn't have an antenna in/antenna out on it. Added a digital converter to try to get the darn thing to actually recognize the old tv (hooked up to Directv) and it'll play both, just can't record. Hence......new system! Way of the world, eh? Thanks for advance for any helpful hints and particularly encouragement.

Do you have a DirecTV DVR? I have my DTV DVR, a Panasonic Blue-Ray player, and a Magnavox DVR all connected via HDMI. Couldn't be easier. Also have a Wii that uses a component connection. The TV will automatically recognize all these connections when each of them is powered on. Even a cave man can do it.

Yes, I do have a DirecTV DVR. The new recorder is what started throwing everything off. My wife likes to DVR some shows and then later put them on DVD. There were a couple comments along the way about just 'how' the recorder would work, but I'm not too concerned about watch this channel, record that one, etc... What she does is turn it on to burn when she leaves for work. I just wanted to make sure that a grand plus investment will allow me to USE the darn thing.

On the Wii concept, that XBox Kinnect she has is currently attached to the front of the DVR/VHS recorder in AV2 with the red,yellow,white. Do you imagine with the new setup it would be better served with the what, red/blue/green component wiring directly into the new Samsung or is is more likely it'll still feed into the combo? Am I making this a lot harder than it probably will be when I put it together? Thanks.