[sashamil]

I own Samsung Plasma PN58B550. The issue i am having is that PS3 Blue Ray movies look much much sharper and detailed on my friends 46" LG 120hz then on my plasma. it feels to me like i am not getting full 1080p to my TV. Movies look only slightly better then regular dvd.

On his LG TV blue ray movies look like you are there standing with a camera crew. Picture is perfectly clear.

I am not experiencing same quality. Can anybody help explain why or if I am doing something wrong?


Thank you for your time!

 

[Aeonus]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sashamil /forum/post/16938323


I own Samsung Plasma PN58B550. The issue i am having is that PS3 Blue Ray movies look much much sharper and detailed on my friends 46" LG 120hz then on my plasma. it feels to me like i am not getting full 1080p to my TV. Movies look only slightly better then regular dvd.

On his LG TV blue ray movies look like you are there standing with a camera crew. Picture is perfectly clear.

I am not experiencing same quality. Can anybody help explain why or if I am doing something wrong?


Thank you for your time!

First, your set is 12" large than your friends, with the same resolution. Make sure you're sitting the appropriate distance away from your set, as this will make a difference with such a large set.


Second, what are your settings?

 

[sashamil]

We are sitting about 10 and 12 feet from the TV. Just know i played DVD version and Blue ray version back to back of the same movie and there is only slight difference between them.


These are the settings


Mode: Movie

Cell light: 8

Contrast: 91

Brightness: 55

Sharpness: 0

Color: 48

Tint: G49 & R51

Detail Submenu settings:


Black adjust: Off

Dynamic contrast: Off

Gamma: -2

Color space: Auto

Flesh tone: 0

Edge enhancement: Off

xvYCC: Off

White Balance submenu:


R-Offset: 25

G-Offset: 25

B-Offset: 25

R-Gain: 29

G-Gain: 25

B-Gain: 23

Picture Options submenu:


Color tone: Warm2

Size: Just Scan

Digital NR: Auto

 

[fourtytwoinch]

Not being able to tell the difference between dvd and 1080p on a 58 inch television is crazy.


maybe you have an output setting incorrect

 

[TheGuyInTheChair]

#1 your friend's tv is a 120hz tv, yours is 60hz. This will lead to a more "real life" effect to movies

#2 have you calibrated your tv yourself? I ask cuz you have your sharpness at 0 which is likely too low and is blurring your image

 

[-Kevin-]



Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGuyInTheChair /forum/post/16939086


#1 your friend's tv is a 120hz tv, yours is 60hz. This will lead to a more "real life" effect to movies

#2 have you calibrated your tv yourself? I ask cuz you have your sharpness at 0 which is likely too low and is blurring your image

You can go ahead and disregard #1. 120hz is essentially a crutch that is needed with LCD technology to mask or compensate for "motion blur" and is not comparable to the 60hz plasmas refresh at. ("Motion blur" is a short coming that Plasma does not share with LCD.)


#2 Your sharpness may or may not need to be set at or around 0. You'd need to run a test disk like "Avia," "Digital video essentials," "Spears and Munsil" or the THX patterns on blurays like Terminator 2 to know for sure where your sharpness and other settings need to be at.


Often Digital NR can safely be set to OFF.


Hope this helps!

 

[Buckeyefan]

All things equal, a 58" plasma won't have the same "pop" as a 46" 120Hz LCD, or even a standard, mid to high end 60Hz 1080p LCD.


Right off the bat, the whites on an LCD are brighter, and white (not a yellowish, warm white typical of plasmas). Those brighter whites with the 120Hz processing is going to make your friends LCD really shine. Plus, his pixels are smaller, so he's going to have more pixels per square inch than you.


What he won't enjoy is the blacks, the size, the smoothness of frames when watching sports or gaming (120Hz is impressive, but only at certain framerates), and the price relative to the size of the set.


I've got an Aquos 46" 1080p, 60Hz LCD, and a 50" 720p Samsung plasma. The whites are superior on my LCD, but I prefer my plasma for sports, and overall picture quality. I run my HTPC on my Aquos to avoid burn in on the plasma, which is also a nice benefit of LCD. So there are tradeoff's. Plus, my plasma is close enough in size where the pixels are not that far off.


I was at a friends house this weekend, enjoying gaming and HD television on his Panny 800 58" plasma. The thing is HUGE. But, it didn't have the sharpness of my LCD or plasma. I chalked it up to sheer size of his set. It was still impressive, but had a softer appearance about it. It didn't surprise me. (I also think I could have tweaked his set to really shine, but he may have had it on THX mode, which is a bit darker than my liking).


I promise you, if you were to go out and purchase a 32" 120Hz LCD, the picture would look better than your friends set. Size makes a big difference, as does the technology. Enjoy yours for what it is, which is BIGGER than his.

 

[fourtytwoinch]

Blinding whites and POP versus plasma, plasma has the advantage for looking like he is actually there. POP is for people who like a less natural look.

 

[-Kevin-]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckeyefan /forum/post/16939233


All things equal, a 58" plasma won't have the same "pop" as a 46" 120Hz LCD, or even a standard, mid to high end 60Hz 1080p LCD.


Right off the bat, the whites on an LCD are brighter, and white (not a yellowish, warm white typical of plasmas). Those brighter whites with the 120Hz processing is going to make your friends LCD really shine. Plus, his pixels are smaller, so he's going to have more pixels per square inch than you.


What he won't enjoy is the blacks, the size, the smoothness of frames when watching sports or gaming (120Hz is impressive, but only at certain framerates), and the price relative to the size of the set.


I've got an Aquos 46" 1080p, 60Hz LCD, and a 50" 720p Samsung plasma. The whites are superior on my LCD, but I prefer my plasma for sports, and overall picture quality. I run my HTPC on my Aquos to avoid burn in on the plasma, which is also a nice benefit of LCD. So there are tradeoff's. Plus, my plasma is close enough in size where the pixels are not that far off.


I was at a friends house this weekend, enjoying gaming and HD television on his Panny 800 58" plasma. The thing is HUGE. But, it didn't have the sharpness of my LCD or plasma. I chalked it up to sheer size of his set. It was still impressive, but had a softer appearance about it. It didn't surprise me. (I also think I could have tweaked his set to really shine, but he may have had it on THX mode, which is a bit darker than my liking).


I promise you, if you were to go out and purchase a 32" 120Hz LCD, the picture would look better than your friends set. Size makes a big difference, as does the technology. Enjoy yours for what it is, which is BIGGER than his.

+1

I agree with all of the above points. Buckeyefan makes a good summation of the differences between the technologies.


The only other thing i'd like to add is make sure you've got your user settings dialed in as best you can. Check with other owners of your model on here. Cnet also posts some decent reference settings with the TVs they review that can be used as a baseline.

 

[Farland]

If you can't see a difference between a blu-ray and a normal DVD on your 1080p plasma, you are doing something wrong. I am not sure what you are doing, but I suspect some connection is wrong. This may sound like a dumb question, but you do have an HDMI cable running to your TV, right?

 

[KidHorn]

A couple of things...


What are you using to connect the blu-ray player to the TV? If you're using anything but a 1.3 HDMI cable, go to monoprice and buy one for like $5 including shipping. Or better yet get 3 for something like $10.


Sharpness shouldn't be set to 0. I don't care if the TV is properly calibrated or not. A sharpness of 0 should only be used for very poor source material. Try setting it to 100 and see if the picture improves.

 

[Rob West]

You should see a difference, in particular with high rated BD's. Take a look at the BD "The Fall" the opening scenes should knock your socks off, not to mention the rest of the film.

Are you using a high speed HDMI cable (v1.3)?

I can see a difference even with a low sharpness level (Samsung Plasma 46" and a Panasonic 42" HD LCD).

 

[greenjp]



Quote:
Originally Posted by KidHorn /forum/post/16939858


Sharpness shouldn't be set to 0. I don't care if the TV is properly calibrated or not. A sharpness of 0 should only be used for very poor source material. Try setting it to 100 and see if the picture improves.

I believe this is incorrect. A calibrator or someone may have to correct me, but I believe most suggest keeping the sharpness setting low. CNet in fact often has it at the lowest setting. D-Nice shows -15 (out of what I don't know) for 8G and 9G Kuros, and 45 (out of 100) for X1 Panasonics. Above a certain point increasing the sharpness is too much, just like with too-high contrast or color settings. On my set I hardly notice any difference from highest to lowest with good source material.


jeff

 

[TheGuyInTheChair]



Quote:
Originally Posted by greenjp /forum/post/16939900


I believe this is incorrect. A calibrator or someone may have to correct me, but I believe most suggest keeping the sharpness setting low. CNet in fact often has it at the lowest setting. D-Nice shows -15 (out of what I don't know) for 8G and 9G Kuros, and 45 (out of 100) for X1 Panasonics. Above a certain point increasing the sharpness is too much, just like with too-high contrast or color settings. On my set I hardly notice any difference from highest to lowest with good source material.


jeff

typically your tv's sharpness should be kept low as you said. it should NEVER be at 100 as the previous poster said but on this tv you wont want 0

it's best sharpness level will probably be 25-30 but the only way to know for sure would be usinga calibration disc like avia or DVE

 

[cleh19]

So if there is a noticable blur from 46" to 58", how do you guys think a 50" would do? We have a 46" 1080p Aquos LCD and the picture is very sharp. (

) Is it safe to assume that a new 50" 1080p sammy/panny would look similar in sharpness? (from the correct viewing distance of course)


not sure if anyone here owns a 46" and 50", or have worked with them both before..

 

[saprano]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckeyefan /forum/post/16939233


All things equal, a 58" plasma won't have the same "pop" as a 46" 120Hz LCD, or even a standard, mid to high end 60Hz 1080p LCD.


Right off the bat, the whites on an LCD are brighter, and white (not a yellowish, warm white typical of plasmas). Those brighter whites with the 120Hz processing is going to make your friends LCD really shine. Plus, his pixels are smaller, so he's going to have more pixels per square inch than you.


What he won't enjoy is the blacks, the size, the smoothness of frames when watching sports or gaming (120Hz is impressive, but only at certain framerates), and the price relative to the size of the set.


I've got an Aquos 46" 1080p, 60Hz LCD, and a 50" 720p Samsung plasma. The whites are superior on my LCD, but I prefer my plasma for sports, and overall picture quality. I run my HTPC on my Aquos to avoid burn in on the plasma, which is also a nice benefit of LCD. So there are tradeoff's. Plus, my plasma is close enough in size where the pixels are not that far off.


I was at a friends house this weekend, enjoying gaming and HD television on his Panny 800 58" plasma. The thing is HUGE. But, it didn't have the sharpness of my LCD or plasma. I chalked it up to sheer size of his set. It was still impressive, but had a softer appearance about it. It didn't surprise me. (I also think I could have tweaked his set to really shine, but he may have had it on THX mode, which is a bit darker than my liking).


I promise you, if you were to go out and purchase a 32" 120Hz LCD, the picture would look better than your friends set. Size makes a big difference, as does the technology. Enjoy yours for what it is, which is BIGGER than his.

But wouldn't you achieve the same sharpness of a smaller TV by sitting at the correct distance of a lager TV? i have a 60" elite and its razor sharp. the only source i watch on my TV is bluray. you do bring up excellent points though.

 

[Farland]

I have a Sammy PN63B550 and the picture quality on a blu-ray couldn't be much sharper.

 

[Rhythmic]

0 is the correct setting for sharpness on these sets.


Go to any of the B series owners' threads, or read any of the professional calibrations done so far. Check Tom Huffman's recent calibration. Almost all have calibrated at 0, I may recall one being somewhere around 5, but the vast majority set sharpness to 0.


These sets have plenty of natural sharpness without having to introduce artifacts and/or false contouring by jacking up the sharpness level. You really can't buy a TV with a sharper image than a B series Sammy plasma. My experience is with the B650, but I think the B550 is similar enough.


My guess is that you have an output resolution setting incorrect on your BD player...?

 

[sashamil]

Thanks for all the information. I am obviously using HDMI cable and a PS3 Blue Ray. I did set on PS3 that my TV supports 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. Now i am not sure if my HDMI cable is 1.3. Iwill go and get one today and see if it makes any difference.

Just to clarify, i can see the difference between dvd and blue ray, but that difference doesnt put a wow factor on blue ray at all. I would say its only 10-15 % sharper.

Now the difference between his tv and my tv playing the same movies is about 30% sharper.

 

[Management]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Rhythmic /forum/post/16942506



My guess is that you have an output resolution setting incorrect on your BD player...?

+1 on this point. You should be able to check the resolution coming to the set when watching blu-ray to see if your getting 1080p at all.


Plus a simple calibration can go a long ways.