Need help from experienced Samsung plasma owners

Hey Gang,


I haven't posted too much on here but I don't consider myself a newbie. Or at least I didn't until I just bought my first plasma. I've had my Samsung PN50B550 for about 3 weeks now and so far it's love and hate.


I've logged about 125 hours break-in time using the slides on a dvd with the following settings:


Mode: Standard

Cell: 3

Contrast: 45

Brightness: 45

Sharpness: 45

Color: 45


with no other adjustments to the defaults.


Aside from watching some TV shows with these settings on, I've only watched about 20 minutes of NBA HD, 20 minutes of ESPN HD and 2 HD movies: The Hurt Locker on Blu-ray and A Serious Man on Comcast HD. For these, I've used the following settings:


Mode: Movie Warm2

Cell: 10

Contrast: 95

Brightness: 48

Sharpness: 3

Color: 48


My problem is that I don't know how to judge what I am seeing vs. what I should expect with a plasma as well as this PARTICULAR plasma.


I feel like even after 125 hours of break-in there is serious IR. Watching ESPN HD for about 15 minutes caused IR. Even the Oppo screensaver which has a logo that fades in and out for about 6 seconds causes brief IR. Now, the IR does go away after running the scroller but is this going to be something I will always have to deal with on this set? Will it get better over time? Or does this set just have IR and I have to deal with it? I've heard from users on here with this same set that say they have never seen IR and I just really find that hard to believe. I get IR after leaving my Blu-Ray player menu up for about 90 seconds!


The next problem is judder. I feel like I have a good grasp on what judder is, why it happens and what it looks like. While watching both The Hurt Locker on Blu-ray and A Serious Man on Comcast HD I saw noticeable judder (especially in The Hurt Locker). While watching ESPN HD, the ticker at the bottom was blurry, trailing and juddering so much so that I couldn't ignore it. Again, is this something that will improve with this set? Is there some function I am not setting properly or is it just how things are.


I should mention that my previous set was a 37" Samsung LCD and I never noticed any of these problems.


A few points I thought might help my situation are:


1) Breaking the set in with the cell light at 10. I assume since the phosphors burn brighter they break in faster hopefully eliminating such obvious IR.


2) Sitting further away from the set. Right now we are about 7 feet from a 50" set. Would my eyes not notice the judder if I was further away?


I'm sorry this is so long. I've done hours of research here on the forum and still feel like I have no solid answers. Also, I'm running out of time to return the set if there is indeed something wrong with it, but I really don't want to do that unless absolutely necessary.


To wrap up though, when those settings are dialed in, watching NBA HD and The Hurt Locker, I've been blown away (minus the judder of course). There is no noticeable buzz and the glare doesn't bother me at all.


Thanks in advance.