petetherock Posted July 14, 2007 Posted July 14, 2007 This is Samsung's latest offering for Full HD and I just set it up, with a Toshiba XA2 feeding it without calibration yet. Getting it installed as I write, demo session tonight! Initial impressions: a - it accepts and displays 1080p @ 60 fps The display is brilliant with soild colors on Planet Earth b - it accepts 1080i from my Panasonic - not bad for SD DVD c - sound is pretty modest and the speaker breaks up quite easily But the 1080p is pretty jaw - dropping stuff even at 40 inches :)
petetherock Posted July 14, 2007 Author Posted July 14, 2007 First pics: head to head: 1080p@60 fps colors are rich, but when there is a SD feed, there is some noise Full review, akan datang
petetherock Posted July 14, 2007 Author Posted July 14, 2007 A review by CNET and our bro there: http://www.cnetasia.com/reviews/home_av/tvs/0,39037588,40432461p-0,00.htm
TYF Posted July 14, 2007 Posted July 14, 2007 wow, Bro. You got both the Pio 507 and the Sammy Full HD LCD in your room :o Lucky you. ;D
shroud Posted July 14, 2007 Posted July 14, 2007 Does this model exhibit the irritating Dynamic Dimming? If so, can it be turned off? Hating it to death on my 32N71... no wonder it was at such a good price even when it was relatively new...
petetherock Posted July 14, 2007 Author Posted July 14, 2007 Some early notes: - no dynamic dimming - no 1080p 24 fps - good detail on 1080p and hi def material - will write about a head to head of the Sammy vs the Pioneer soon, but I hope HT102 helps me give his own opinion too :) too tired tonight, will gather my notes and thoughts for a better essay soon, stay tuned
HT102 Posted July 14, 2007 Posted July 14, 2007 Thks Pete for giving me the invaluable opportunity to compare current gen best LCD in the market with the best (well almost if we don't consider the uber expensive 5000EX) plasma. Here's some brief comparison: Contrast: The Pioneer 507XD is leagues ahead. The picture depth is amazing.. even surpassed DLPs FPJ I've seen. Enabling the dynamic contrast setting in the Sammy only make the PQ worse. Color: Pio's colors looked more vibrant. Though they were quite pleasing to my eyes, I find them a little overly saturated. Over to the LCD, the skin tone on the Sammy appeared natural comparatively, but it lacks the "pop" effect which I enjoyed from the plasma. I would give the edge to Pioneer in this category. Details: Another toss up. Sammy wins on both SD-DVD and HD Blu-ray inputs. I suspect that being due to the higher resolution and better scaling technology in the LCD. Details that can be seen clearly on the Sammy appeared faint on the Pio (tested by sending SD-DVD upscaled 720p and 1080i). However on SD broadcast, the Pio looked far far better. I believe the processing on the plasma is tuned for SD broadcasts. HD format support: No clear winner here. The Pio is 1080p24Hz ready but the lack of 1080p60Hz support would mean that we can only feed it 1080i for HD animations such Chicken Little which was mastered at 1080p60Hz. The absence of 1080p24Hz support on the samsung also implies that I'll not get to enjoy silky smooth and artifact-free playback from Blu-rays and HD-DVDs.. If I am to choose between the 2 panels, I would take the Pio in a blink. The superior contrasts and picture depth make watching any source enjoyable regardless if there are lesser details. This is the TV to buy for the whole family. However, the lack of 1080p60Hz support is the Achilles heel of the Pioneer. I would recommend fellow hi-def enthusiasts to hold on to their money and wait till Pioneer 8th gen 1080p plasmas are released.
petetherock Posted July 15, 2007 Author Posted July 15, 2007 Some pics firsts: The detail seen is tremendous! See the texture on the brown pants: More 1080p pictures:
petetherock Posted July 17, 2007 Author Posted July 17, 2007 Review has been slow coming as I am at a meeting :) Also the Samsung man is helping me calibrate and sort out some issues first
petetherock Posted July 17, 2007 Author Posted July 17, 2007 ** Don't try anything if you are not confident ** Off TV Info Menu Mute On I am not responsible if you change any settings!
petetherock Posted July 17, 2007 Author Posted July 17, 2007 Someone in Oz has displayed 24 fps: http://img454.imageshack.us/img454/608/avspecsge8.jpg
petetherock Posted July 17, 2007 Author Posted July 17, 2007 An owner thread in Oz: http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=49364 There seems to be a problem with clouding and the Sony X panel is made by Samsung, also has this problem. An OZ review: "I picked up this two days ago and some old timers will remember me being very active on this forum about 2 years ago but I gave up. Well things have changed now. 1080p LCD is now affordable (this was $3150 with free delivery in NSW). The PQ compared to plasma is a mixed bag. The HD is definitely better/sharper (no screen door) the extended colour range backlight says 105%PAL but the black crush is still present from the CR of the panel (1200:1static, 15,000:1 Dynamic). It draws a tiny 124Watts and thats half what a 42" plasma draws (no fans, no noise, bugger all heat). firstly the items u are after! pictures: http://www.rotarydesign.com/spin/sammy.html Build quality is excellent. Samsung make a product well. Its was surprisingly light however. The screen seems to have a plastic coating over it (the shiny stuff!). The black case is very shiny but this has a big downside. Its a magnet for dust! If anybody has ideas for coating it to prevent this (say amorall or solargard etc) let me know. Sammy give 3 years wty standard. This TV is jacked to a media centre (AMD x64, nvidia 7900GS-TV, Nvidia mx4400-Panel, Media Portal) using a HDMI to DVI cable from Jaycar electronics $40. The manual says to use port 2 for PC (DVI) connections. When I connected first, the PC sensed the monitor as "Samsung" and auto worked. No messing with powerstrip etc and was able to use "just scan" for exact 1920x1080. I also have the absolute latest nvidia reference drivers loaded (96.x from memory). However on reboot it 'forgot' the TV and I had to install powerstrip to get it back - Bah, bloody windows & PCs (trust me, buy a mac@!) Anyways, the media portal is a dream and I was able to play all the 1080p samples on the web. Its funny you know - i can now see flaws in a lot of the 1080 samples because its so sharp. Shows that started as Film and were digitised show all the typical scratches and spots of film. brilliant! I cant convey how impressed I am at playing 1080p material. Its breathless. Bring on bloo ray & HDDVD! Something most may not realise is that the TV setup is unique for each input (mostly). This means the HDMI settings are independent to regular DTV or Analog TV settings. While on DTV, I had to read the manual as the set on first start decided to auto setup for Analog. Annoying, but I found out u need to hit a button on the remote and re tune DTV instead. This worked flawlessly and i got perfect reception on all the HD channels (something my fusion plus card could never do (that brand DVB is crap IMOP) Inputs/Outputs. yep, the BDX has 3 THREE HDMIs. 2 on the back and one on the side (see piccys). Otherwise, you could say it has everything you need and then some. Fast animation and 8ms. I cant see any bluring on this set. It was in the shop next to XBR2 (current sony 40" 1080) and the sony was showing blur on fast moving material. I believe its because this has the next gen screen in it (same as XBR3 out in states now). Im sure sony will catch up some time in OZ.... Blacks and 15000:1. - THis set can go black, REAL black. Match a pio plasma black. I cant fault it here. However it has trouble with shades of black (black crush). This is inherent with all lcds. Only the new sharp 46 and 52 were better in this regard but i didnt want such a big (or expensive) screen. Sharp 42 was a very average IMOP. "
petetherock Posted July 21, 2007 Author Posted July 21, 2007 The current settings I have are: Mode: Standard (Dynamic is waaay too bright!) Contrast 80 Brightness 50 Sharpness 80 Colour 50 Tint 50 Colour Normal Backlight 6
petetherock Posted July 21, 2007 Author Posted July 21, 2007 This issue affects Samsungs and Sonys - which use the same panel This is a problem of uneven backlight, something they need to work on. There are many forums all over the world which talk about this:
htfreak Posted July 21, 2007 Posted July 21, 2007 Are you showing a blank screen or a picture of clouds?
petetherock Posted July 21, 2007 Author Posted July 21, 2007 You can ask HT 102, he was there, really shocking Are you showing a blank screen or a picture of clouds?
HT102 Posted July 21, 2007 Posted July 21, 2007 Are you showing a blank screen or a picture of clouds? The shot was taken off a blank screen (no input). The clouding spots were also visible on very dark movie scenes. I believe that LA40M81 was a lemon.. as the problem did not exist on other M81s I've seen.
petetherock Posted July 23, 2007 Author Posted July 23, 2007 So bro, I see you got your TV How is your new panel? Any clouding issues? Cheers P can't wait for my 52" M81 next Tuesday. ;D
petetherock Posted July 23, 2007 Author Posted July 23, 2007 Just showed benzyx the clouding issue when he can over
petetherock Posted July 23, 2007 Author Posted July 23, 2007 Working with the boffins at Samsung, look out for my review in a few weeks on this matter. No warranty replacement????
ptey Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 So bro, I see you got your TV How is your new panel? Any clouding issues? Cheers P HI, I have not touch the panel yet as tomorrow the samsung "installer" will install the auto wall mount for me. So what should I look for to discover any problem on my panel? How to test the "clouding issue"?
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