Samsung xx34, xx44, xx54, xx64 Series Plasma Thread - Page 2

The Motorola HD DVR's are an absolute piece of junk. I have had to exchange three of them, and were it not for the fact that I know I'd just get more problems, I'd exchange my current one. I wish Comcast would get a better box.

TV looks better directly through cable instead of going through a cable box. I also have a dual tuner HD DVR which is why I use the box (plus I need the box to get Discovery HD and ESPN HD since this set doesn't have cablecard).

I am suprised that there are no calibration settings anywhere on the net that I can find. What is the worth of having the tv calibrated professionally? Best Buy says that their "Magnolia Home Theater" guys will do it. Yes? No? What do we think?

Has anyone Purchased the new HP-T4264, I am getting one as a replacement for a 4273.

What's the cost of Best Buy's calibration service?

For some reason I don't think I'd go through Best Buy if I was going to pay to have my set calibrated. I guess I am just basing that on the level of knowledge expressed by the salespeople on the floor in the home theater section. Just a thought...

$300

That was my exact thought. They know nothing on the floor for sure, just kids who tell you a TV is better because it is more expensive.

Hey posted this in the sammy review thread. I was wondering those of you who had the 5054, what your sharpness setting was?

I have my sharpness at 15. Don't know if that's good or bad, looks good to me.

I have mine at 7 or 9....I never put it over 10 (read somethin about that somewhere around here) but I really can't see any real difference if its at 0 or 10.

I'll be turning my 4254 on tonight, it has been installed today. Is there an aspect setting that is best for SD TV if I grow insane watching Discovery HD (during break-in) that will be full screen but not make averything look distorted, fat and or cut off a lot of the picture?

For some reason, I thought it would be less expensive. The BB calibration people are ISF certified, but at that price, I could get it done by someone with a lot more experience, I'm thinking. Thanks for the info.

All I did to "break in" my 5054 was watch at much HD as possible, when a show comes on HD that has black bars you can change the screen size to fill the screen. Turn down the contrast and brightness so it's not blazingly bright. Make sure the settings for IR protection are on, and side bars are light. I have seen absolutely no IR using these simple precautions.

Leaving the set on Discovery HD is just something you can do, when you aren't actually watching a particular show, to get more hours under the belt on the T.V.

Still, with the T5054's burn in reduction mode I left the TV on a channel with a constant ticker at the bottom for several hours today....just wasn't thinking. I switched on the white screen and looked closely and there was absolutely no evidence of image retention, not even briefly.

congrats, that's the set I'm looking at too. Keep us updated!

I just ordered 5054 from BB last night. They didn't have in the store but had 300+ in their warehouse. They matched CC price and free delivery, their extended warranty for 4 yrs (and renewable) covers everything except burn-in and is renewable....was about half what CC wanted. Might suggest have someone at BB search their inventory by model number, cuz when I asked sales dweeb they were like 'huh'?

Any calibration settings anyone has would be appreciated.

golfdad907, I've sent you pm.

I think it could be that all the folks who have the know how and experience to really dial a plasma in already have a plasma and aren't looking to get a T5054 any time soon. It could be a while before someone posts all the tweaks they found to get their display looking the best it can.

For what it's worth (not a whole lot) here's what I'm using right now

Contrast 56
Brightness 40
Sharpness 5
Color 35
Tint didn't mess with it.
Color tone Normal

Detailed settings:
Black adjust off
dynamic contrast medium
gamma 0 (didn't touch it)
color space Wide (don't really understand what this even does)

White Balance
R-Offset 15
G-offset 14
B-offset 14
R-Gain 15
G-gain 14
B-gain 14

My Color Control
Pink 15
Green 15
Blue 15
White 15
Didn't really know what to do with those so I left them alone.

Edge Enhancement off

DNR auto
DNIe On

Did you try it with DNIe set to "off"?

Every calibration starts with DNIe off, so I'd fix that and see what happens...

What I like is that Samsung has a Demo mode for DNIe which splits the screen so you can see on and off. It looks better on, it's pretty neat feature actually.

I'm not knocking it...I've seen that demo also. I just know from reading on here that most turn it off for a more realistic picture. I don't feel like it's necessarily a "better" or "worse" picture with DNIe turned on, but I just leave it off.

when I turn DNI off I'm unable to access "My Color Control" which I use to dial down the color green.

Does it make grass and foliage look more natural than is usual on HDTVs?

green is pretty decent on this set to begin with. I dial it down from 15 to 10 because I watch a lot of baseball, football, and golf.

HI, here's a odd one (at least to me). BB delivered my 5054 yesterday, works great, BUT...my Denon 2200 DVD player only has component out, runs through my Yamaha RV-2400 to the component in on the 5054. Through in a DVD, and in 16x9 mode, the movie fills about 1/4 to 1/3 of the vertical screen. If I put to Zoom 1, it looks a bit more normal, like a 2:35 to 1 anamorphic...is it 'normal' to have to zoom DVD through component input? Maybe it's my DVD player, though on old Hitachi Ultravision projection unit, DVDs played 'normally'? Any advice is appreciated, thanks to all in advance.

Was that old Hitachi a 4:3 tv and not a widescreen? If this is so, go into your dvd players menu and switch it to the 16:9 mode and everything should be good.

Can you guys please stop posting pics, it's too much. I know you're a proud new Sammy owner, but we've seen enough pics of the new 54 serie.

I find it odd that the 5054 is widely available, but there seem to be no reviews available yet. How long do sites like CNet etc take to get their reviews up after a new model is released?

I haven't seen the unit yet, but am very interested in comparisons to the new panasonic 75/77 lines. The panasonic 75u is also widely available, but again, no "official" reviews yet!

I kind of like the sharper image that the samsungs provide, but overall preferred the panasonic 60 series colors (compared to 53 series from samsung). If the color processing is improved, and the set does a good job at SD, the 1:1 JustScan mode would make these a great buy. Then again, at current street prices, the pioneer 5070 may be a great choice as well. For some reason though, I've always thought the 5070's picture to be softer compared to both panasonics and samsung. All these comparisons have been in BB/CC/Frys etc. so not completely valid...