The OFFICIAL SAMSUNG PNXXE550 OWNERS THREAD - Page 12

try 'Dynamic' mode. That gives you the brightest possible picture.

Yeah tried that, too bright, i guess i'm looking or expecting this to have a really good real life like looking picture. I did a master reset and for some reason one of the 550's look pretty decent while the other one has washed out whites, all grayish and dull

Hi gang,

In the beginning of the thread (I think) there was talk of the differences between this set and the E6500, but nobody knew because they were too new. Does anyone have any updates? After reading through the whole thread, the only thing I'm seeing are the black filter and the A/R filter. Cool. There was also a suggestion that the 6500 had more color mgmt options. Does anyone have any info on that? Can somebody do me a solid and post a full list of color/picture settings available in the E550? If I can get that here, and the same thing in the 6500 thread, I'm golden. I get the feeling there's little to no difference, and even the manuals that the Sammy website offers for download are the same. It's looking like the 550 is the better value, especially since nobody can say what the "Real Black Filter PRO" is.

Thanks!

The Samsung 6500 series adds a anti-reflective coating to the screen, the "Real Black Filter Pro." The models lower look nothing like that and are much more reflective, and wash out a lot more in room lighting. They are not in the same class, as the price would tell you.

Thanks, but are you sure the "Real Black Filter Pro" is the anti-reflective coating? Because the lower models have a "Real Black Filter" (without the "Pro"). But it's a bit confusing because you're saying there's NO A/R at all on the lower models. This is why I say nobody seems to know. And certainly Samsung is making no great effort to tell us. Which makes me think it's pure marketing hogwash.

Do you have either model? Could you list the color/picture menu options or point me to someplace where I can see them?
Edited by bustamelon - 8/29/12 at 8:48am

Yes it's a confusing mess.
My understanding is the E450 to the E550 use last years
glass from the top teir models E6500 and up with the exception
of the 60" energy saving RGBG panels on the E530 and E550.
The E550 on down use the 'Real Black Filter'.
The E6500 and up use the 'Pro' Real Black Filter.
The 'Pro' filter is an internal upgrade to the glass itself
not just some AR coating slapped on the outside.
The software is upgraded big time and even more so for the E8000.
By all accounts the 60" 'Pro' panels have better blacks
and are brighter than the 51" 'Pro' panels.
I have the E450 and I can assure you it does have
a very effective anti-glare filter and the panel
is bright and has lot's of contrast and it does require
about a 1000 hours to age properly and my Shadow Detail
is finally looking normal.

Cnet review is out. http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/samsung-pn51e550/4505-6482_7-35169620.html

I have this TV on order but am now doubting it. I was never one to go by reviews as I'd rather see it for myself, but they claim mediocre 3D and that it can't properly render 1080p/24 film cadence???

My 64E550 definitely does 1080p24 correctly (when CinemaSmooth engaged)

As someone who has owned this set for a few months, I can say that the bad is beginning to outweigh the good here. As the reviews indicate, daytime viewing is indeed washed out, and brief shut offs / black outs during dark scenes are persistent, which means that even nighttime viewing (when the picture quality finally shines) can be frustrating.

The apps and features are solid, and today's price isn't too bad....but I'm looking to upgrade to a 6500 for the living room and relegate this one to bedroom duty. Although, I'm worried about black outs (something not mentioned in that new cnet review) across the board for Samsung plasmas now...there really should be an organized consumer response to get them to do something about it, like refunds or firmware fixes.
Edited by jingi7 - 8/31/12 at 7:02pm

Thanks for that. Very helpful. I ultimately found some very good details on a vendor website that for whatever reason I could not find elsewhere. I went with the 6500, knowing that I hold on to things forever and baby them, so I sprung for the higher end, without going overboard.

Has anyone else out there tried using the AllShare Play app to play MP3s from a network drive?

I just bought a new Samsung PN51E550 TV and a BD-E5900 Blu Ray player and I'm running into a little glitch using AllShare Play to play music stored a on a Western Digital Network drive that runs TwonkyServer.

The problem is that when I go to play a music album, the tracks on the album are ordered alphabetically by song title, rather than ordered by track number or even alphabetically by file name. This is quite annoying. The MediaPlayer function on my older Samsung TV (PN63C590) and BluRay (BD-C6500) both correctly display album tracks sorted by track number, so presumably this is either a bug or an incorrect setting in the newer AllShare Play app

That having been said, the possibility exists that the problem is with TwonkyServer, so I'm curious if others are seeing the same behavior with their network drives.

I did an on-line chat with Samsung tech support. They said they had not heard of this problem before and suggested a factory reset of all settings. This seemed rather pointless as the problem was occurring with multiple devices. I asked them to have their app developers look at whether there might be a bug. I have also emailed Samsung, but no response yet.

I have not used that specific combo yet but I run into these problems often, having tried 101 different ways of streaming media. I stumbled upon this, which, although an old thread, appears to point the finger at Twonky: http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?p=131818
I hope that helps a little.

I don't know how your network/server is set up, but is it possible to install the AllShare service on the media server? I have no idea if that will help but I would give it a crack.

The default sort for folder view in Twonky is an alphabetical sort. I have actually run that little tweak to get folder view to sort by track and it works fine on my Denon receiver and my 2010-vintage Samsung products, but does not work for my 2012 Samsung products.

Even when playing songs from a playlist, from which Twonky shouldn't be providing any sort information, just the track info in the order that it is stored, my 2012 Samsung products (TVs and Blu Rays) sort alphabetically, so I'm thinking this is a Samsung issue, not a Twonky issue.

I have let Samsung know about the problem and they said that will pass along the info to their developers. Hopefully the developers will be able to reproduce the problem and Samsung will issue a firmware/software update to address it.

How bright can the E550 get in comparison to this years Panasonic plasma lineup?
The X5 is incredibly bright in Game or Vivid mode when gaming for ex. yet I've heard complaints about the E550 being too dim...Then again, maybe these
users had it set to 'standard' which is automatically dim by default with possibly CATS still turned on?

For gaming, lets say you stuck it in Game mode,
maxed the cell light and contrast, would the brightness
levels beable to match lets say the UT50?

Other than that, the UT50 seems to be the winner in black levels and having less crosstalk for 3D content
While the E550 apperantly has slightly
richer colors and more saturation, PLUS
the UT50 dishes out a 'soft' image for 720p and 480p content...

in terms of input lag, isn't the E550 at about 2 frames without
doing that HDMI 'PC' trick? is there a difference in performance between
component and HDMI?

I decided out of the 2 60e550's i bought, i sent one back and keep one of them and i regret throwing out the box on that one or else i would have returned that one too. I have never had a tv that the picture washes out so badly with a little bit of reflective lighting. I had one in my bedroom and one in my living room. I got rid of the one that mad such a LOUD humming noise. While in the bedroom, with all the lights off at night, the picture looks good, but in the day even with the 1 window closed and shades down, it still doesn't have a good picture. The living room has several windows so i'm always having to have my house in the dark with shades closed and even then since i have no curtains, some lighting bleeds through and right away kills the picture. Never again will i buy any tv that has no reflective lighting built in. Now i'm stuck with one. I paid 1408 for that tv and unless i want to live in a vampires house, i have wait til the night to watch it.

Some solutions:
1) dark curtains where the rod extends out from the wall. This will allow light from the top and will not be seen as a reflection. I made a 12 foot curtain rod since there are 3 windows on the opposite wall of where the TV is. The room still gets plenty of light from the gap up top and the only time i get any reflection is if my wife was watching tv in the kitchen or if i lay down on the floor to watch tv.
2) The tv has a swivel stand, so you can try using this, OR you can mount it so you have access to adjust the vertical axxis also. With the viewing angle on plasma its much easier to get this right and not lose PQ
3) and while i can not comment on if this works or not, here is another option http://www.amazon.com/Glare-Buster-Television-Anti-Glare-Reflective/product-reviews/B0006OBRN4
4) and then there is this which also protects your tv in other ways. again i have no direct feedback on this either http://www.thescreenprotector.com/acatalog/index.html

Ok I've had this tv for a number of months and I've gotten to the point where I can no longer stand it. It has a great picture, 3D is awesome, but the GLARE is terrible. It's totally unwatchable during the day in my apartment. I sit in front of it and all I see is myself on the couch and SOME of the tv show. Turn off the tv and voila, it's a mirror. I moved around the living room a number of times to try to get a better view but same result. I compared it with my friend's 46" samsung LED tv and there's zero glare on his and everything's a blur when it's off. I actually asked him to trade me (46" for 51") but he declined cuz of the glare lol. So I am going to get rid of this tv and find a better one with less glare.

Makes me really miss my panasonic 50ST30.


Anyone annoyed by the glare issue as much as I am?

It took months to realize the tv has glare? Within 2 days of ownership you should have realized this and returned the tv and got a e6500 or st50.

Yes i realized it at first but tried to live with it since I watched mostly at night time. I used to work 3rd shift but now i'm daylight and use the tv during the day more often and regret not returning this. I'm gonna sell it and pick up a better model.

Just got this tv and love it so far. Quick question, all my equipment runs through my pioneer 1021, problem is when I watch the hub I get no volume. Any help?

Read my suggestions above.

Same here, i returned one already, my second one i'm about to sell it. Not worth it, i guess i'm very spoiled cause i had the pioneer kuro's, i had the 600 and 111 and the other elite i forgot the name of it, i should have kept that 600...what an idiot i was to let go of those. I'm going to see if i find another of those if i can or see if i can swing the new one's that are supposed to be the best. Too bad man i wasted cash on 2 of these samsungs.

The curtain advice won't work here. My window is HUGE and I need the light for my plants that are sitting on the window bench. It's just too much of a hassle to move the plants then close the curtain again and again. I just need a tv that doesn't produce this much glare. The only time is looks good is when there is not a single light on in the room and it's pitch black. Other than that, I see the reflection of whatever.

It's kinda pointless to have to buy accessories in order to view a tv screen decently. It should work well out of the box. I'm just gonna give it to my sister who still uses a 32" crt tv from the 90's and then buy a better tv that I can use anytime.

This is where it used to be and where my old P50ST30 sat without any glare issues:

(click to watch video)




I now have it on the other side of the room but still a glare-fest.
Edited by Muddeprived - 9/17/12 at 5:04am

Seriously, I hope you are joking when you are comparing the glare on a LED with a plasma. I think last years model - ST30 had a filter?

Normally, I would have agreed with you - you shouldn't have to buy any accessory in order to watch TV. But, in your case - the TV does work well out of the box, but is not suited for rooms like yours - too much light. I have last years Samsung model, same terrible glare, but I knew what I was getting into, plus watch most of my TV at night, and don't have a window as big like yours. So wasn't really a problem. Hopefully, my shift doesn't change . But really I do feel your pain. You should perhaps consider the ST50? Believe it has a good filter, should solve your problem, but a few hundred $'s more.

I wasn't really joking until I learned (today) that LED's are better suited for brighter rooms. I'm learning as I go. Call me a noob if you wish. I accept the rank lol.

Thansk for the recommendation on the ST50. I been doing alot of research and that tv is at the top of my list in the 55" flavor. Gotta check out a few more models and reviews and see what to do.

Hey. Thanks to everyone for all the very helpful information, especially the calibration settings. I received my 60E550 last week and this weekend was the first time I really was able to make use of it. I've been letting it burn in, and so far am extremely pleased with the picture quality. My room is very well lit, and the glare is very manageable even in the middle of the day with my floor to ceiling double sliders open. If there is a light source right behind the viewing area, I could see how a problem with glare would exist.

Anyhow, my set is exhibiting the buzzing which others have mentioned. It is very apparent whenever sitting directly in front of the set, and barely apparent if sitting on the side.

Is there any fix for the buzzing or do I need to see if Best Buy will ship me a replacement and just hope it doesn't buzz? I don't understand how some buzz and others don't! It is quite annoying.

As a follow up, Samsung is sending a technician out tomorrow to check out the TV and my Buzzing issue. This should be interesting.

The images on the E550 are very soft, and not sharp. Even in a dark room where glare is controlled. The E6500 definitely has the better video processing. And for some reason, last year's D550 has sharper images and a better picture. I think last year's version used a different video processor.

Samsung sent a tech out. According to him, the buzzing is within specifications. When asked how he determined whether or not the unit is within spec, he said he couldn't hear it from my viewing position. How subjective is that? Pathetic. I am likely going to return the unit through Best Buy and hope for a better one. Or switch units all together.

Samsung should have more scientific methods of determining if there is an issue with a set beside a technicians ear/eyes.

That screen protector cost 345.....it says anti glare........so does this mean this will fix the glare issue with this plasma?