LCD and Plasma Bargains

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B.O.F.H. said:
Actually no..

I just prefer the item that will be doing processing on my images to be somewhat under my control.... AKA my HTPC... I would rather my panel not have to do any processing on the image to display it on the screen.

AKA.. my HTPC outputs a 1920x1080 stream.... it does all the scaling and processing for me.
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Now that is at least a reason I can (kind of) live with :)
 
TYR said:
Now, those are some of best panels on the planet :D ... what about 'em?
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Genuine question. Are they still "not natively 4:3"? Are they still going to be doing "processing" that results in slightly less pixels, or whatever? Do they use the same rectangular pixels as in 720p plasmas?
 
PostmanPot said:
Genuine question. Are they still "not natively 4:3"? Are they still going to be doing "processing" that results in slightly less pixels, or whatever? Do they use the same rectangular pixels as in 720p plasmas?
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Nope, even the HD Ready 50 inchers are 1366x768, ie a pixel aspect ratio of 16:9, so square pixels in order to produce physical aspect of 16:9. With good material, or a good HTPC scaler (which I'm guessing B.O.F.H. has), it might be preferable to send a 768p signal to it. ... when it comes to less than perfect material, sometimes having a second scaler in the line, actually removes some unwanted artefacts.

FullHD plasma with 1920x1080 square pixels will make B.O.F.H. just as happy (ok, wait, probably happier :) ) as the FHD LCD's.
 
TYR said:
Nope, even the HD Ready 50 inchers are 1366x768, ie a pixel aspect ratio of 16:9, so square pixels in order to produce physical aspect of 16:9. With good material, or a good HTPC scaler (which I'm guessing B.O.F.H. has), it might be preferable to send a 768p signal to it. ... when it comes to less than perfect material, sometimes having a second scaler in the line, actually removes some unwanted artefacts.

FullHD plasma with 1920x1080 square pixels will make B.O.F.H. just as happy (ok, wait, probably happier :) ) as the FHD LCD's.
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K thought so. Thanks for clearing that up.

Seems then his comparing FHD LCD to hd plasma is unfair...
 
TYR said:
Nope, even the HD Ready 50 inchers are 1366x768, ie a pixel aspect ratio of 16:9, so square pixels in order to produce physical aspect of 16:9. With good material, or a good HTPC scaler (which I'm guessing B.O.F.H. has), it might be preferable to send a 768p signal to it. ... when it comes to less than perfect material, sometimes having a second scaler in the line, actually removes some unwanted artefacts.

FullHD plasma with 1920x1080 square pixels will make B.O.F.H. just as happy (ok, wait, probably happier :) ) as the FHD LCD's.
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Wait, are you saying Full HD plasmas are NOT 1920 x 1080?
 
TYR said:
Nope, even the HD Ready 50 inchers are 1366x768, ie a pixel aspect ratio of 16:9, so square pixels in order to produce physical aspect of 16:9. With good material, or a good HTPC scaler (which I'm guessing B.O.F.H. has), it might be preferable to send a 768p signal to it. ... when it comes to less than perfect material, sometimes having a second scaler in the line, actually removes some unwanted artefacts.

FullHD plasma with 1920x1080 square pixels will make B.O.F.H. just as happy (ok, wait, probably happier :) ) as the FHD LCD's.
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Sorry, I musta been confused with what you wrote here - you seemed to be implying that there aren't any, or that's how I read it anyway. Hence the question.
My confusion, nevermind.
 
Of course a FHD plasma will make me happy.. but they're just TAD expensive atm (at least the good ones) :)
 
Wasp_21 said:
Well the 50C550 is R11999 + BluRay player ATM. I'm not sure what the 6,7 and 9 series go for. But the 550 is a decent TV.
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... and when I was at Cats Digital yesterday, the guy mentioned they are about to put the PS50C550 on special for R9999
 
I got the 50C550 from game. Not terribly impressed, the set makes a buzzing sound and the picture is decent but tricky to calibrate. Bit disappointed in samsung on this one.
 
assagai said:
I got the 50C550 from game. Not terribly impressed, the set makes a buzzing sound and the picture is decent but tricky to calibrate. Bit disappointed in samsung on this one.
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Yeah the buzzing is normal operation and louder at altitude but you shouldn't hear it with the audio on. ;) Just keep your contrast and brightness down during the break-in period (see manual) of ±100 hours. You could burn a break-in video to DVD and run that over the course of a few days while you're not watching. I would calibrate the set then. Most users find the "normal" picture mode to be great.

I'd find it difficult to be disappointed if TV/sport is your purpose and you were comparing to similarly priced LCD. :p
 
assagai said:
I got the 50C550 from game. Not terribly impressed, the set makes a buzzing sound and the picture is decent but tricky to calibrate. Bit disappointed in samsung on this one.
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Yeah, that is disappointing to hear ... I bought Sammy's first FullHD 50" plasma (think it was the A550) when they came out in 2008 (R30K back then) ... made the mistake of only watching their demo content on it ... had huge issues with it when I took it home ... lots of false contouring on faces, bad judder on panning scenes, etc. After playing around it looked like all my NTSC DVD's were much better, so it looked like 60 Hz issues. Anyway, at R30K I was just not happy and the guys at "Sounds Great" in Menlyn were then nice enough to source me the KURO ... Had to pay in, but I still believe that was the best money I ever spent.

Thought all issues have been sorted since then, because I've only heard good things about the B550 and C550.
 
Ok thanks for the tip PostmanPot. I have to say the normal mode looks terrible to me, movie mode is the only mode that looks halfway decent on this set (to me anyway). Considering returning it to be honest. As for the buzzing, my previous sammy 42" plasma didn't have this kind of buzz. There is also judder on panning shots, noticed this immediately when watching planet earth on bluray. Overall I can't recommend this set.
 
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assagai said:
I got the 50C550 from game. Not terribly impressed, the set makes a buzzing sound and the picture is decent but tricky to calibrate. Bit disappointed in samsung on this one.
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1. check your brightness. Shouldn't be more than 50 - 55.
2. if the buzz still persists, then it will be an adjustment to the voltage setting. Don't accept the buzz. It shouldn't buzz.

My 2 subs buzz and my TV doesn't.

Log it on Samsung website, they will contact you and send a technician.

Even though I tend to agree with Postman, there isn't really any need for a break in period or DVD. Just initially keep contrast down to around 50, brightness the same, and zoom your 4:3 channels. Do this for a short while to help exercise the gasses. If you have any residual charge (IR), run the scroller for around 5 minutes before going to sleep. OR, leave it in "noise". it will switch into standby mode after 10 minutes. Again, this is just an interim/initial precaution.
 
Assagia, sounds like you have a vrot device then. I have the same TV and there's absolutely no buzzing sound at all. No judder either. Movie profile is the best but I now need to calibrate as the blacks are just too black.
 
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