Samsung PS51F5500 Plasma

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bobbytb

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Thanks to recommendations by PostmanPot and Keeper (and others), I also got myself the Samsung PS51F5500 Plasma recently and thought it would be a good idea to start this thread for anything related to this TV....

I have some questions I'm hoping other owners of this unit may be able to answer:

[1] What are your recommended picture settings for this TV?

[2] Is break-in still required for Plasma TVs such as the F5500? I found this thread on how to prevent burn in, but not sure if its still necessary for newer models.
 
1. Start with Movie mode, this is the closest to film industry calibration and will render best PQ results for movies etc. Adjust the sub settings to your liking.

PQ is subjective. If you prefer more brightness, more contrasty colours, more pop, move to Standard mode and adjust sub settings to your liking.

Iff you still want more pop, move to Dynamic mode. Note that you sacrifice a lot of details, differentiation, colour shades, colours within colours, etc. with this mode.

2. Break-in prior to putting up the brightness/contrast is not required these days according to the manufacturers. Enable burn protection in the menus and try not to leave static images/logos for long periods of time repeatedly. Remember that simply changing channels, going to an ad break, a cinematic cut scene in a game, changing sources etc. is enough to refresh those areas where static images have been.

Image burn-in is very rare these days, you might notice some image retention if you examine fairly closely after a long period of static images, however simply refreshing the areas as above will take it away. The burn protection menu also has a 'scroller' to help with this.

Fantastic TV. Enjoy! Especially comparing to your friends' LCDs. :D
 
Thanks for the tips PP!

I completely agree about the subjective nature of picture quality, so thanks for clarifying about the different modes too.

I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with this TV over the next few days :)
 
Download yourself a copy of this free calibration disc and watch the videos about how to go about tuning it.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/948496/avs-hd-709-blu-ray-mp4-calibration

This TV should have an RGB mode (mine does so I assume the newer model will have too) which goes a hell of a long way to easily calibrating colour, not that I really needed much.

As was already said start with Movie mode and work your way up from there.

Put ALL the post-processing crap like Ciname Smooth and Digital Noise Filters and whatever else off. As well as power save crap apart from the timer to turn the TV off.

Also use 16:9 mode and not Just Scan otherwise Pixel Shift doesn't work and that might have some burn in. Which isn't a problem as I have run mine for hours with Just Scan and just switching it off makes it go away. It's never permanent these days and you need a keen eye to notice it.

Instead of two settings for day and night I've simply setup the Eco Light sensor with the minimum cell light of 5. So at night the screen is reasonably easy on the eye but in the day it will automatically bump up to full bright.

*****

And in my opinion never ever use Dynamic. Not only does it look like crap but will probably result in much faster image retention and a shorter tv lifespan.

Picture Quality is subjective yes, but in my opinion all within the realm of Movie mode. ;)

Oh and ignore Game Mode while you are at it as well. Load of crap.
 
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Thank you SauRoNZA for the colour settings and calibration info! I'll give it a shot later today. As has already been mentioned, I watched a movie last night and found the movie mode to be quite satisfactory. Standard also seemed ok, and as you correctly pointed out, dynamic wasnt as great.

Instead of two settings for day and night I've simply setup the Eco Light sensor with the minimum cell light of 5. So at night the screen is reasonably easy on the eye but in the day it will automatically bump up to full bright.
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Nice idea - will also give this a try.
 
Thanks for starting this, will definitely sub.

Bought mine 2 weeks ago and it's still in the box. Away on holiday and waiting to get back to unwrap this tv watching pleasure. "Holiday" extended with a visit to the outlaws so a delay in my tv opening pleasure.
 
Is the F5500 still as reflective as my E550? Or does it have an anti-glare filter now?
 
marine1 said:
What did you end up paying?
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I paid R8999 for the TV at Makro


Shellyb1 said:
Bought mine 2 weeks ago and it's still in the box. Away on holiday and waiting to get back to unwrap this tv watching pleasure. "Holiday" extended with a visit to the outlaws so a delay in my tv opening pleasure.
Click to expand...
You really patient - I don't think I could ever wait two weeks before opening a gadget :D


SauRoNZA said:
Is the F5500 still as reflective as my E550? Or does it have an anti-glare filter now?
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Yeah, its super reflective. Ive adjusted our curtains but seems like I will also need to change the lighting arrangement little due to all reflections whenever the lights are on.
 
marine1 said:
Thats not good :eek:
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It's a Plasma and comes with the territory, so anyone buying should know this well in advance and choose appropriately.

Unless you buy the top of the range with Matt filters built in.
 
marine1 said:
Thats not good :eek:
Click to expand...

Yeah, but we can control the reflections. In my case, It's only bad when seated in certain spots and when all the lights are on. I just need to adjust the angle of our lights, so it's not all that bad.
 
bobbytb said:
Yeah, but we can control the reflections. In my case, It's only bad when seated in certain spots and when all the lights are on. I just need to adjust the angle of our lights, so it's not all that bad.
Click to expand...

And I'm sure most people can control the reflections, too.
 
bobbytb said:
I paid R8999 for the TV at Makro



You really patient - I don't think I could ever wait two weeks before opening a gadget :D
Click to expand...

I paid R7999 at Makro...lol

I decided I wanted to wait so as not to give the house sitter the pleasure of watching on the awesomeness while I was away and hearing of how awesome it is while I am far away. When I get back home, I will have the one on one time i need.
 
Im looking to get a "dumb" remote for the TV. Ive googled around and it seems that this is the right model. Has anyone else purchased the alternate remote for this TV and if so, whats the model number?
Amazon Link: SAMSUNG Remote Control TM1240 44Key OEM Original Part: AA59-00601A

Amazon probably wont ship directly to SA, but there are others on Ebay going for $10-20 as well so just want to confirm the model number before ordering.
 
I managed to pick up a Logitech Universal 300i for R250 this week. Will try that out as a standard remote.
 
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