Samsung Crystal Full HD Engine



Quote:
Originally Posted by jerreed /forum/post/16830158


I recently purchased a Samsung PN50B550 and while the picture is relatively good on some HD channels (via Comcast), I am just not getting the jaw-dropping wow factor in the detail that I was expecting. The B560 and B650 that are in within my budget advertise a Crystal Full HD Engine that the B550 does not appear to have. Can anyone tell me if this feature makes a major difference in the clarity of the picture?

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I don't think it's the crystal engine. How is your cable hooked up? Is your cable box a HD box?

The cable box is a HD DVR and I have it connected thru my Yamaha RXV765 receiver to the TV via HDMI. I've also tried connecting the cable box directly to the TV but do not see much if any difference.

Unfortunately not all HDTV channels are created equal. I found that out with my new Panny plasma. Some channels look GREAT in HD, some look very compressed and have noise issues. Case in point the home run derby on ESPNHD monday night didn't impress me that much. The allstar game on FOXHD on tuesday was almost 100% better quality. I'm using direcTV for both, not OTA for Fox.


Plug up a blu ray player to your new samsung plasma, the wow factor will be there trust me!



Quote:
Originally Posted by jerreed /forum/post/16830641


The cable box is a HD DVR and I have it connected thru my Yamaha RXV765 receiver to the TV via HDMI. I've also tried connecting the cable box directly to the TV but do not see much if any difference.

Click to expand...

Make sure your box is outputting 1080i, 720p, and perhaps 1080p if it can.

Go to a HD channel like discovery and make sure when you click info on the Samsung remote for the plasma, the signal is 1080i.

hows your settings. how old is the plasma?

You need to test drive a good-quality Blu-Ray. As a fellow Comcast subscriber, even the good HD channels sometimes look awful.

as some have said, the cable or satellite provider won't always provide good picture quality on all channels. and in general a blu-ray will look much better than cable or satellite. pop in a blu-ray and you should be impressed.

I have a 63B550 and have to say that after looking at a few sets and getting sick of waiting for the 65-70" to arrive I bought this set as a fill in till the next gen tech comes along. With the right source its picture is hard to beat but if your eyes dont like it by all means do something different. Im watching channel 76 DTV ship sinkers, looks pretty good. Everybody who has seen this so far has commented on how great the picture is.