Samsung 2008 plasma? - Page 4

i am a bit confused.
i read numerous adds for the A550 Samsung and the european version, the A557, and sometimes they state that you can add the 3D glasses and sometimes they do not.
on the european models I only saw the 3D glasses feature mentioned with the smaller A457 models.

anybody know more about this?

and i also read that the usb input will only display still images and play MP3s. is there a way around this?
i mean, who listens to MP3s on his plasma? why not add DivX support or something like that? or will it be possible to tweak the firmware to support this?



the european models are said to be 1080/24p. so i would be surprised if the us model was not as you usually get added features. and aren't all 1080p plasmas capable of 24p by now?

PN58A550 ordered and shipping today from the "Big River". ETA is 4/2 but I would not be surprised if it arrives earlier. Will report back when it is set up and working.

Isn't that a good thing?

Just pulled the trigger on a A550. My father in law owns a Samsung 50" 720(2gens ago) that I like, and I just could not bring myself to pony $450 more(after tax) for the Panny.

Ordered from bestbuy(2yrs no interest deal), TENTATIVE delivery of 4-1.

I look forward to your results since I think you'll be the first with one. Guess you'll be starting the Owner's Thread.

Also have the DVE Bluray on preorder

Being I have never started an owners thread here, any suggestions or anyone wanna start it up? I think its about time

just name it something like "OFFICIAL Samsung PNxxA550 Owner's Thread" ... then in the first post maybe link to Samsung's product pages for the sets and write some gibberish

Unless I misread the manual it doesn't support 1080/24p and no not all plasmas accept it, only the higher end models I guess typically do.

can you pm me how you pay for it at BB (including tax) and stuff?

Thanks

Done.

It will accept it but apply 3:2 pulldown to make it 60 hz. The Pioneer plasmas are the only ones that I know of that will display a true 24f.

Pioneer is capable of showing 24fps @ 72Hz. The Panasonic 800/850 series will show it @ 48Hz. Panasonic commercial models (10UKs) can show it @ 48Hz and 96Hz.

So has anyone compared the 84 series to the 550s and compared the black levels and brightness on these?

Id have to wonder if they are even on display yet.

I was at best buy OK City (I35&240) today and they said they had the new mods (50") in back and were puting them out on display tonight. He was going to drag a box out onsite and I said Id wait to see it "Powered and on the Wall". I like the lower msrp over the 50/58 84 series however they cut a year out of the warr. I guess thats one way to cut costs. I am very interested in the BUZZ factor on these new units. Since this is my first post I have to sak, what is the Big River store? Can someone list a website? Thanks Chad In Oklahoma

You can figure it out, i promise. Think long and hard.

The new A550 is not the replacement for the 5884 nor the 5084. It's the replacement for the 5064! Hence the lower MSRP and the early release.
I think the top-line will be released later on. Series 7 or something like that.

Here's the info on the Series 7, available in April.
http://www.hdtvlounge.net/samsung/series-7/

I'm definitely going to wait for the PN58A750T. Does anyone else have any other info???

I wonder why it says the 7 series will have a lower contrast ratio 15,000:1 then the A550

Because the A550 also had a listed ratio of 15k to 1 until Samsung changed it to match Panasonics listed contrast ratio on their higher end sets. I think it shows how meaningless these numbers have become.

a) mistake
b) they increase the CR to match Panasonic (just like Pana sets theirs high)
c) the better anti reflection screen lowers the CR as seen between the 5054 v. 5064 models

but in the end all the CRs are just marketing and not worth anything anyway, so WHO CARES?

I also saw some of them along with the Panasonic 85u at a Ken Kranes today.
1,000,000:1 contrast number my hairy ass.
Black levels on that set, just like the 85u, were NOWHERE near the Pioneer Kuro for starters.

The PN-58A550 on display were next to a 46" Samsung 71 LCD series & honestly that LCD had better deeper looking blacks & brighter whites. The lighting in Ken Kranes weren't as bright as Circuit City or Best Buy showrooms, it was more of a Magnolia type lighting & other matted LCD's had a hazy look to them, so the lighting was not a factor for the meh-ish blacks.

Both the A550 & the Panny 85u did have brighter screens though & almost looked LCD in terms of whites.

One thing for sure is the native & dynamic contrast are insanely wrong on both sets. At least with the Samsung LED LCD's insanely high 100,000:1 contrast numbers had some truth to them as they could get a perfect pitch blacks from the set.
These new plasma set on the other hand look like a modest step up from their previous models & nothing more.

Did you mess with the sets? If the plasmas were in torch mode then the awful blacks aren't much of a surprise.

I set both to movie modes.
I didn't touch any of the others settings, but there was a Pioneer across the Panny & you could definitely tell there was a noticeable gap in the black levels between the two.
Yet the Pioneer looked almost twice as dim as either the 85u & A550 & seemed to have more noise as well.

Just curious which size of Kuro you were looking at? Also, how much darker were the Kuro blacks over the 71 series Sammys (I think I may have asked this question before but not sure if I got a response).

I saw the Panny 80U next to last years Sammy plasmas and there wasn't much of a difference in black levels. Manufacturer contrast ratings were always to take with a grain of salt but with the inflated Panny and Sammy ratings they are now worthless. And I think we can blame Panasonic for this as I'm sure that Samsung did this only to not look inferior to the Panasonic models.

After looking at both the Samsung and Panasonic plasma's hooked up on the same wall I can say that the new Samsung PDP's are MUCH brighter than the new Panasonic PDP's.

Let me say it this way so you can understand how bright the new Samsung PDP's are there was a 52" Sony XBR4 above the 50A550 and they they were very close in brightness. I mean the Samsung was bright and punchy like an LCD while still having very good blacks. The Panasonic while looking fine on it's own looked dim and hazy compared to the Samsung. There were two Pioneer's on the wall behind me and while they had better black levels they couldn't touch the Samsung PDP on brightness or wow factor (at least on the showroom floor).

Just MHO on what I saw in person. I don't own any of these brands as of now but I'm going to check out a Vidikron PDP next week.

FYI - I manually set all PDP's I was looking at to standard picture to compare. The Samsung was as bright as the xbr4 only when set to the dynamic setting.

Both the Panasonic and Samsung are capable of being far too bright for any normal viewing. I'm sure the Panny could match the Samsung's brightness, not that it matters. I'm more interested in the black levels.

Also what does Sammy have in store for the higher-end plasmas? I assumed the 450 and 550 series would be it and they would focus on LCD. I'm guessing the higher-end will just be like Panny's 800u and add some sort of non-pulldown 24hz playback, extra color controls, etc.