The OFFICIAL SAMSUNG PNXXE550 OWNERS THREAD

What do you think thus far ?

Got the PN64E550 today and am very disappointed. It definitely has good features and a great picture, unfortunately going back to BB tomorrow as I have a migraine headache from the buzzing.....

Looks like I'll be holding out for the 64ST50.

seems that alot of the 2012 samsung plasma models buzz, what a shame. you'd think that they would have fixed this problem by now.

other than that, looks like a great picture/price/including 3d glasses value for under a grand if you get the 51 inch.

Very unfortunate, from what I can tell (so far) it is a great tv minus the buzzing. I was listening to the sound at normal volume 14 feet away and could hear buzzing to the point of migraine.

I have another chair that is to the side of the tv at about a 30 degree angle, 8 feet away....yes, that was even worse.

A migraine headache huh.....I don't even want to get started on that one. Anywho I got my TV in yesterday and so far it looks great. I will be able to get into more detail after the weekend and I have had time to test it thoroughly. So far I have not experienced buzzing just a beautiful picture.

You're right, I just posted for the F of it. The buzzing is audible from 12-14 feet over normal volume. How about read comments of others having same experience before trying to play doctor.

Glad you don't have to deal with boxing up and taking back a 64" tv and have a good experience so far. Like I said, other than the fact that I cannot stand to sit in my own living room with the tv on, all other aspects of tv are solid. Were I to get one that was a non-buzzer would keep.

Hi,

3 Questions about the E550....

1) How reflective is it? Does it have any sort of anti reflection filter and is it better than the D550 for reflections?

2) Are the black levels better in cinema smooth mode compared to other modes?

3) Does it have any sort of colour managment system?

Does the buzzing come through the factory speakers, or is it the tv itself that buzzes? Would it go away if you ran it through a reciever? I was really looking at the 60" and will be running it through my stereo system.

I run everything through receiver, no audio from TV. The buzzing was the tv itself.

Our basment is being remodeled, so I can't hook it up yet, but I'm pretty excited.

My only worry is the size. I took down an 84" screen and front projector. But the 51" plasma should EASILY trump a 5 year old 720p projector in terms of color and contrast/black levels. As for the buzzing... yes, it is a real thing (my brother has last year's D490 and I used to set up and sell them at a retailer). HOWEVER, it is (in my experience) GREATLY overexagerated. Of all the Samsung plasmas I have set up and watched I had to be withing 12 inches and TRYING to hear it. I suppose there are a few duds that could be worse.... but I have experience with DOZENS of them. Seems strange to me. The buzzing is real, but so is something called "The Placebo Effect". Some people believe whatever they hear or read.

Any other users with settings and feedback?

My 60 gets here on Thursday. I will definitely give a review and possible some pictures when I get it set up.

Excellent! Looking forward to it.

Mine goes up next Wed. or Thursday. Depends when the painting and carpeting get finished. Either way, I plan on posting settings and thoughts.

Well, it got here today (4/18), so my initial observations.

Out of the box setup:
Movie Mode
Eco Off
Software Update
Screen Fit



The display is GORGEOUS. The colors absolutely pop and the blacks are inky.

Watched some HD programming through cable and off my Tivo Series 3 and had Zero motion blur or pixellation.

Hum/Buzz: With the sound muted and standing 6 inches from the display I could detect a faint hum (60 hz hum) from the top 3rd of the screen. Any further back, or sound at normal volumes, I couldn't hear anything remotely like a buzz or hum.

Glare: This thing is shiny and glare is an issue. I knew it would be a problem in my room since I have 2 large windows and 2 french doors. However I think once it's on the wall and tilted down a bit, that should be mitigated. Most of my tv watching is done at night anyway.

Delivery was 1 day early, without issue and no issues at all with the tv/box or accessories.

Looking forward to a full round with the AVS HD disc and my new blu-ray player tonight.

Just got my 2nd pn64d550 yesterday. The buzzing is significantly reduced from the first one, but is definitely still there.

The bad news is the smart hub does not send audio through the hdmi arc. Only matters for those of us that run everything through receiver and now need to send optical back from tv to receiver.......simply lame to say the least.

Also, no hobgo app yet. Hopefully released soon.

Thanks for starting this thread ETERNIA, I am getting mine delivered thursday and it's replacing a 2010 model c550 with the sm 590 cs hack.The panel went bad at about 20 months,I am excited for 3d and the new panel and features,maybe there will be some hacks and info soon as these things are still not in any stores I've been in,there are only about 5 reviews on Amazon.2 days!

Mine goes up tonight! I hope to get impressions and settings posted sometime tomorrow.

Hey talkingtiki, how do black letterbox and 4x3 bars look on your set? 'Cause I gotta say I'm pretty disappointed with the black levels on my set. Maybe my expectations are off or something, but in reading HDTVtest and AVForums UK reviews of last year's similar D550 I was expecting nice deep blacks for the E550 but this thing is just kinda grayish. Maybe if you have time check out my thread here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=140738

I've had the PN51E550 since Saturday. For the most part it's a good TV. I've been watching it in movie mode with no other adjustments. Sources are DirecTV and Blu-ray. Colors are good, although white is a little too green at times. Motion is perfect. Blacks are okay. I wouldn't call them inky. To be honest, I was a little let down. Black bars aren't close to blending into the bezel. For reference, I've also owned a Pioneer KRP-500m and Sony NX810 w/edge-lit local dimming. Both of those had far better blacks, although each also came with their own drawbacks and cost considerably more. As someone mentioned above, the E550 is extremely shiny. More so than I expected. I was under the impression the real black panel had an anti-reflective filter, but it doesn't seem to. Definitely not recommended for bright rooms. The panel buzzes, but not annoying so. I never hear it at normal volumes. My Pioneer was worse in this regard. I haven't noticed the so-called "hockey pops" but I also don't watch hockey. Ultimately I've decided to get the E6500. I'm hoping the brushed bezel and real black pro panel reduce glare and provide deeper blacks. The E550 is a good value depending on your budget and environment. It's just not the right TV for me. There isn't much info out yet so I hope this helps.

Matt,

Haven't seen any 4x3 bars, but the letterbox bars when I was watching MI:4 on bluray the other night were just as black as all the other blacks. They are very dark. I have no complaints at all.

I ran through the AVSHD disc and the contrast and brightness were just 1 or 2 clicks off from MOVIE mode. I actually left them at MOVIE since I couldn't really find anything I didn't like about the picture.

From what I'm reading from other folks, it looks like I got one of the few really good panels. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about that.

My understanding is there's no such technology as edge-lit with local dimming. Unless the LED's are in a full array local dimming can't be achieved. Lots of false marketing from companies such as Samsung use the term "Micro dimming" or "Smart dimming" but it's not necessarily local dimming unless the LED's are in a full array.

But back to the thread discussion, I have to agree that the E550 wasn't for me either. I ordered one two weeks ago sight unseen and then went to my local BB and checked it out. There were two displays of this model, one in a darker room and one displayed in the bright part of the store. It looked okay in the darker room but it didn't display well in a well lit part of the store. The panasonic's however worked very well in a lit part of the store while maintaining great black level. I ended up cancelling my order and bought a Panasonic plasma.

I know the filters are supposed to help in bright rooms, but could they also make a difference in a dark, SMALL room? My room is completely dark with the lights off, but it's only 10x10 feet. Could the light from the actual TV itself affect black levels?

Yeah, that's what surprised me about your post. One of the biggest selling points about Plasma over LCD/LED TV's is the advantage of black levels in dark rooms. Not sure if it's just your set or not that could defective? If spending a bit more money isn't in the cards for you then I would recommend that you try and exchange it for the same model first or go for a Panasonic which handles very well in light or dark rooms when it comes to black levels. If you prefer to stay with Samsung and can afford to spend a bit more than you should take a look at the Samsung E6500. The black levels and contrast totally rival the Panasonic in either light or dark rooms but this model costs a bit more.

Okay. I put up my 51" E550 last night and only played around with it for a few hours. First impressions follow:

There is glare. However, I have a long room with lights overhead at each end. With both lights on the picture held up well and glare was not a major problem. Turning off just the light over the TV side of the room and it was very good. All lights off? Looked great. Unless you have tons of sunlight or windows/lamps directly across from the screen I think you should be okay. I am lucky to be in a darkened basement.

No buzz unless I am within 1 foot of the TV. Not an issue.

Very nice color. Great black levels (for the price). Nice detail as well.

I love the swivel stand, and the 2 free pairs of 3D glasses is a nice bonus. Lots of features and apps (with built in wireless!). I feel it is WELL worth the money. Picture quality blows away my old projector, but it was hard going to 51" from an 84" screen.

People just need to remember that even 2 years ago a TV with this picture and all of these features would have been TOP OF THE LINE! Now it is "mid-range" and under a grand!

Well after a bit more playing around with the TV last night (and also having a buddy of mine over last night helped, it's good to get someone else's opinion) it's much better than my initial impressions gave it credit for. While the black levels aren't the deep, inky blacks I was hoping to get going from LCD to plasma, the overall depth and contrast and detail of the image is FAR superior to what my LCD can deliver. While dark scenes never fall into the really dark, deep category they do look so much more realistic than my LCD. I genuinely don't think the black levels per se are all that much better than my LCD, but when displaying a nice contrasty image the black levels do look much stronger; and like I said dark scenes, while not deep and inky, have much more detail.

I can accept the black levels for what they are, but my real beef with the set now is its trying to turn the screen off when fading to a blank black screen like a lot of LCDs do. When it works, it looks ok (although the pop back up to its real operating black level is a bit distracting) but sometimes the set can't decide if it wants to turn off or not and so it'll flicker back and forth or sometimes just sort of blink once if the fade out/fade in is quick enough. It's just a rather poor implementation on Samsung's part and I'll have to decide if it's enough of a dealbreaker for me.

That's funny, because I did not notice it "turning off" briefly. Granted I only played with it for like 2 hours, but I did watch one and a half episodes of LIFE on Blu Ray. There were a few fades...

Does it only do this if you activate the deep black modes or one of those features (dark, darker, etc.)? Can't remember what they are called.

Also try selecting Cinema/Movie mode, with any Dynamic Contrast setting to OFF and any Shadow Detail setting to -2 or the lowest value, also Black Tone setting to OFF.

My e550 got here at 4pm it's now 11;15PM I can't stop playing with all the new features! The 3D is awesome! I watched transformers 3 and WOW.I can't believe how nice the PQ is out of the box with a few minor tweaks until break in and full calibration.For the money I am loving this set,the c550 was a nice set for the money this with all the features also is the best bang for the buck for me.No buzz at all and black levels are nice and its only running a few hours.I can't wait to break it in and adjust it.

I can't pinpoint exactly because sometimes the screen doesn't turn off when fading to black. Other times the screen turning off works perfectly fine, as in the movie will fade to black, screen turns off, then pops back on when fading in and it works perfectly (it's still slightly jarring but I could live with it). Then there are the sporadic other times (I was watching Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief last night and I would say this happened on about two or three separate occasions throughout the course of the film) when the TV can't decide wether or not to turn off during a fade or stay on and it will flicker back and forth several times for a second or two and it's REALLY jarring.

While I don't have Watchmen on blu-ray, according to Katzmaier's cnet review of the E8000 the opening credit scenes with its multiple fade outs and fade ins was almost unwatchable. Again, while I haven't looked at that specific movie based on what I've experienced so far I can imagine what it would look like.

Popping in the blu-ray for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, the opening overture at the beginning of the film is just a blank screen but, for some reason, it took the TV about 3 or 4 seconds to decide wether or not to stay on or off and so it kept flickering back and forth between on and off and finally turned off. After the opening scene to Citizen Kane fades out and before the "News on the March" scene jumps in there was a quick blink as the screen shut off once and turned back on almost instantaneously.

If you have the movie The Damned United try giving that a shot because throughout the whole course of the movie it fades in and out as it jumps back and forth between years (the narrative structure of the film is such that goes between 1969 to 1974 backwards and forwards).

Also, after the opening scene of The Lost Boys, after the vampires grab the amusement park security guard in the parking lot, the fade to black before the credits causes the screen to flicker back and forth between off and on.

Again, I've seen it work perfectly fine; movie fades to black, screen shuts off, fades in and turns back on. There are those times though, when it doesn't work properly and it's really annoying. I would imagine this is certainly something that could be addressed via firmware, but wether Samsung chooses to do so or if the issue gains enough traction to warrant doing so is another matter.

(Again for reference, I'm using "movie" mode with gamma lowered to -3. All eco junk is turned off, so this is just a pretty basic movie setting).

is the E535 @ Costco the equivalent to this one?