Imrahn
Active Member
Disclaimer:I have always been a fan of Samsung LCD panels contrast-wise, and hence,plz take the main post with a grain of salt.But rest assured that i have tried my best to keep fanboyism to a minimum and is open to any sort of requests regarding feature testing the set for any fellow members looking to purchase the same set.Hope this post will come handy for someone.
So,some of u might remember that i had ordered a Samsung 50 inch Plasma 50C550 some 10 days back.I got the set around a week ago and these are the very first impressions on the set since it has had less than 60 hours of power on it so far.The impressions may vary with time and will update the thread accordingly.
A little background:First things first, this is my first ever Plasma purchase.It was a fear that kept me from checking out this technology and am sure its one that most of us share: Image Burn-In/TIR issues.Pricing was also a major factor especially of Full HD plasmas.Why i wanted FullHD is simple: I do lots of 1080p movie rip watching,bluray playback as well as console gaming.All these are best served when in "FHD" and i had no doubts that my mind would settle for ANYTHING lesser in the resolution department.
As i already owned a 46" LCD,wanted my next purchase to be bigger and within my budget.This part was taken care of by 2 'budget' models that cropped up this year, thanx to Samsung and LG.This made sense to me since i could get some good 'Full HD real-estate' without too much of a hit to my bank balance as compared to previous years' models.So, i tried some professional forums that endorsed plasmas and after some brief interactions with established professionals and reviewers, came to a happy finding - Burn-In is a non-issue these days and unless you are really striving for it, u will get none.So,having got my phobia of plasmas remedied, it was time to decide on which of the 2 to get:LG 50PK550 or Samsung 50C550.
Like I have mentioned in the disclaimer, I have always been a fan of Samsung display panels but almost a 7k difference between the 2 models made me seriously consider LG to the point of *almost* ordering one.The online reviews for the Pk550 were raving ones and it seemed they had a winner - until later revealed otherwise by fellow members here that LG had introduced a stripped down version of the PK550 here in India and the black filters and similar that helped it achieve some real good blacks and made it a 'toss up' between itself and Samsung were no more there.With this sour taste in mouth, i decided to do a one-on-one comparison between the 2 models which unfortunately didn't happen.I only managed to get a 30 minute glimpse of the LG 50PK550 which helped me understand the dreaded 'green dancing pixels' problem.It was very 'irritating' in black backgrounds somewhat reducing the deepness of the blacks and making it 'above average'.TIR was also very prominent with channel logos being embossed in color(!!!) in a black background where i was was expecting it to be a mere shadow of the logo or similar.The catch here was that the TV was running in some bright mode-so making an assessment here on the matter is not right me thinks. The reflective screen of the TV was pretty much 'mirror-like' but it was not a deal-breaker for me, coz if i had bought the plasma, i would easily have spent a bit more and see to it that the viewing room would be darkened up.Personally, I felt the mirror like finish did add a bit pop to the image,especially color and depth wise to the Dark Knight and X Men origins blurays that they played and motion was handled pretty nicely though i didn't go critical here.A few minute judders here and there,but nothing worth mentioning specifically.
So,on seeing the green pixels in action up close and personal,I had only one choice- going for the C550 without an audition as no one was stocking it.Called up a few dealers and didn't think twice when one of them offered it for 69k with free DVD player and another Onam offer to boot as well .He quoted a 3 day delivery period and I made my unopened,fresh piece and no-acceptance-if-opened policies very clear to them.So,they called me couple days after informing of the arrival and I went 2 days afterwards to collect the set.Was a fresh,fresh piece and after peeling off the screen guard, connected a cable connection,saw an AD and turned off,carried it home after making payment.
Glare:This TV won't bother much in this department unless u have a fluorescent lamp right opposite to the panel or a huge window with light flooding in.Much much less reflective than PK550 and i would say around 50% or more reduction in reflection was felt comparatively.
Buzzing: One of the highest concerns with getting Samsung plasma was admittedly reports of the horrible buzzing they seemed to make.Fortunately, this is non-existent in my case,atleast this far.When ear pressed to the screen,I can hear a very low buzz but that has to be the power supply and it ain't audible 2 -3 inches from the screen.
PQ:Turned ON the TV at home and the first thing I saw black background? Some TIR of the last ad we saw at the shop
I was like "So much for lesser TIR than LG!!!" The TIR was very much there at 1 feet distance,with each channel casting a lighter shadow of its logo in a blank background.The logos were not colored as in LG i had seen but mere 'shadows' and I was trying out the 'Normal' and 'Movie' modes ,completely avoiding the 'Dynamic' mode.I switched the "Scrolling" option under the "Screen Burn protection" tab and a continuing whitewash was performed which removed ANY TIR in less than 20 seconds and the background was blank again even with nose to the screen inspection.So, finally, i was getting hold of the plasma tech and its usage policy.
I have 3 cable connections at home of which tried connecting Asianet Digital cable settop box and Reliance BigTV SD connection to the set.Simple roundup - "nothing spectacular."As expected, all the dirt and grain in the picture was enhanced and put out by the TV,the Asianet connection being ultra poor and Reliance being 'nice' to 'bad' depending on the channel.These were the initial minutes of the plasma's operation and as such, i was not much let down by this,especially since some channels in Reliance BigTV were very nice.So, i plugged in my USB drive containing some break-in slides, set it at Movie mode with everything @ around 25(out of 100) and left it.
Over the next couple days of break-in slides totaling to around some 20 hours, there was a definite and visual improvement in the picture quality.As it was still the early hours, i took contrast and brightness only to 50/40 range,but the SD picture quality was vastly improved with pixellations reduced to a a minimum now.Even the crappiest channels were now very much 'enjoyable'. PQ improvement here is something i would rate in the 50-70% upwards from what i saw in the first screening but i would attribute some of it to my eyes getting used to the TV.I would say that the panel does a great job of handling the poorest of poor signals(local cable) but can be quite revealing as well.News tickers were handled nicely without blur when tested though i have now removed them by zooming till break-in session ends.
After the 5th day, i decided to give some HD workout to the TV, copied the Shutter Island,A Christmas Carol(animation),Identity and Sin City bluray rips(all 1080p with DTS audio) and plugged in the USB drive to the side of the TV not expecting much in terms of compatibility with audio.Though I won't be using this USB feature for any movie watching, I am more than happy and a bit surprised to announce that TV was handling all 4 movies flawlessly with no stutter/audiolag issues.I tried seeking forward and backward and the audio was very much in sync with the video at all times.Sometimes, the video scrambled a bit just towards the end of a seek to go perfect the next scene onwards but i suppose it was the lowly USB drive playing up due to he high bitrate(10-15mbps).Now, i will try some rips with DTS HDMA audio and will report later.
Color:Yep, the colors were a bit too bumped up and 'hot'the first time TV played but seems it has come down a notch after these days of breaking-in.Earlier, I had to notch it down all the way from 50 to 25 but now, 30-35 seems good and more natural as compared to the first time.Although I am no expert, but still felt the color reproduction was a bit unbalanced with respect to both HD and SD signals, with a slight lean towards red or blue.But i think this can be somewhat remedied via the White Balance controls which i haven't yet tried since the TV is in the break-in period and even if not, its a very minor annoyance considering the amount paid for a set of this size.
I did try pushing the contrast all the way to 100 with HD for a few minutes and it was trademark Samsung quality-Simply outstanding.Brightness was left at 40 and Color at 50.Results were very genuine with contrast not pushing the white/black details but showing why Plasma is superior to LCD(read both as "budget" as i am not going into high end) in terms of black level and naturality.The Sin City rip was popping out with the special colorscale used in the movie(u know what i mean!) and shadow details in Identity were outstanding and skin tones were excellent and natural with Flesh Tone setting reduced to -5.There were some good dark scenes with lightning flashes int he movie and boy oh boy, wasn't it just gorgeous how the display handled the contrast in the picture.It really made me wish i had got a plasma earlier.'A Christmas Carol' starting credits were a fast moving camera across building tops and no jerkiness was detected,will try a few more famous panning scenes and will decide on it later.Shutter Island too was excellent but there a slight greenish tint on a pillar in the scene where Caprio was interrogating the asylum staff and seemed a bit off especially with someone reporting green posterization.Will try the rip again in the LCD and report whether it lies in the plasma or the rip.
Also, there are instances of pixel movement if viewed from less than 1 feet into the screen with dark shades but it blends very closely to a perfect image if moved back to 2+ feet.I suppose this is how plasma works(?) as this seems some sort of color reproduction technique.Not sure on this but this is in no way similar to LG's green dancing pixels.
Overall, the SD picture quality was "good" with improvement possible hopefully as i believe the set is still breaking in and HD quality was nothing short of amazing for the money i paid.Unfortunately,I couldn't get V20 to demo anywhere but with the deep black levels this set is providing, there is absolutely nothing i can complain.Even if i had the money to spare, I would keep the 40 grands as i think it can't get much better than this.and the fact that no plasma is trouble free.
SQ: Now,having owned a Samsung LCD with similar downfiring speakers,i knew what to expect from these.They are not crappy by any means and works pretty decently.In the "Standard" preset, there is a 5 or 6(?) band equalizer that does its job neatly.Bumping up the low freqs a bit and keeping the higher ones at center provided a good balance of bass and treble.It was in no way tinny and easily made voice delivery at all corners of the medium hall.All the Presets were delivering on their names(for eg:Clear Voice preset provided uhm.....Clear Voice and so on....).Afterall, the main requirement,atleast for me, in a TV is visual quality and Sound output is required only until i can get another AVR.but even if u are looking to run the TV speakers for normal TV viewing, have to say these puny ones deliver if u are not expecting some thundering bass and excellent tonality. These won't come near some LG model that i saw while checking out PK550, but won't make u so disappointed as to run for external speakers right away either.Very good and underrated speakers i would say.
Firmware:Checked online site and there was an update available.Though my set was August make, tried the July upgrade in the site.Copied to USB,plugged it in, TV reported valid upgrade and it was done in seconds upon confirmation.Earlier firmware was 1007 and the new one was 1010. Settings were all saved(I expected a reset of settings) and images appeared a bit more brighter and pinkish hue was reduced,not sure how different it will perform in HD after a bit of calibration,will have to wait and see after break-in completes.
Plz understand that these are just the initial impressions on the set as conceived by me and as such, subject to change at any time for the better or worse, hopefully for the former.
So,some of u might remember that i had ordered a Samsung 50 inch Plasma 50C550 some 10 days back.I got the set around a week ago and these are the very first impressions on the set since it has had less than 60 hours of power on it so far.The impressions may vary with time and will update the thread accordingly.
A little background:First things first, this is my first ever Plasma purchase.It was a fear that kept me from checking out this technology and am sure its one that most of us share: Image Burn-In/TIR issues.Pricing was also a major factor especially of Full HD plasmas.Why i wanted FullHD is simple: I do lots of 1080p movie rip watching,bluray playback as well as console gaming.All these are best served when in "FHD" and i had no doubts that my mind would settle for ANYTHING lesser in the resolution department.
As i already owned a 46" LCD,wanted my next purchase to be bigger and within my budget.This part was taken care of by 2 'budget' models that cropped up this year, thanx to Samsung and LG.This made sense to me since i could get some good 'Full HD real-estate' without too much of a hit to my bank balance as compared to previous years' models.So, i tried some professional forums that endorsed plasmas and after some brief interactions with established professionals and reviewers, came to a happy finding - Burn-In is a non-issue these days and unless you are really striving for it, u will get none.So,having got my phobia of plasmas remedied, it was time to decide on which of the 2 to get:LG 50PK550 or Samsung 50C550.
Like I have mentioned in the disclaimer, I have always been a fan of Samsung display panels but almost a 7k difference between the 2 models made me seriously consider LG to the point of *almost* ordering one.The online reviews for the Pk550 were raving ones and it seemed they had a winner - until later revealed otherwise by fellow members here that LG had introduced a stripped down version of the PK550 here in India and the black filters and similar that helped it achieve some real good blacks and made it a 'toss up' between itself and Samsung were no more there.With this sour taste in mouth, i decided to do a one-on-one comparison between the 2 models which unfortunately didn't happen.I only managed to get a 30 minute glimpse of the LG 50PK550 which helped me understand the dreaded 'green dancing pixels' problem.It was very 'irritating' in black backgrounds somewhat reducing the deepness of the blacks and making it 'above average'.TIR was also very prominent with channel logos being embossed in color(!!!) in a black background where i was was expecting it to be a mere shadow of the logo or similar.The catch here was that the TV was running in some bright mode-so making an assessment here on the matter is not right me thinks. The reflective screen of the TV was pretty much 'mirror-like' but it was not a deal-breaker for me, coz if i had bought the plasma, i would easily have spent a bit more and see to it that the viewing room would be darkened up.Personally, I felt the mirror like finish did add a bit pop to the image,especially color and depth wise to the Dark Knight and X Men origins blurays that they played and motion was handled pretty nicely though i didn't go critical here.A few minute judders here and there,but nothing worth mentioning specifically.
So,on seeing the green pixels in action up close and personal,I had only one choice- going for the C550 without an audition as no one was stocking it.Called up a few dealers and didn't think twice when one of them offered it for 69k with free DVD player and another Onam offer to boot as well .He quoted a 3 day delivery period and I made my unopened,fresh piece and no-acceptance-if-opened policies very clear to them.So,they called me couple days after informing of the arrival and I went 2 days afterwards to collect the set.Was a fresh,fresh piece and after peeling off the screen guard, connected a cable connection,saw an AD and turned off,carried it home after making payment.
Glare:This TV won't bother much in this department unless u have a fluorescent lamp right opposite to the panel or a huge window with light flooding in.Much much less reflective than PK550 and i would say around 50% or more reduction in reflection was felt comparatively.
Buzzing: One of the highest concerns with getting Samsung plasma was admittedly reports of the horrible buzzing they seemed to make.Fortunately, this is non-existent in my case,atleast this far.When ear pressed to the screen,I can hear a very low buzz but that has to be the power supply and it ain't audible 2 -3 inches from the screen.
PQ:Turned ON the TV at home and the first thing I saw black background? Some TIR of the last ad we saw at the shop
I was like "So much for lesser TIR than LG!!!" The TIR was very much there at 1 feet distance,with each channel casting a lighter shadow of its logo in a blank background.The logos were not colored as in LG i had seen but mere 'shadows' and I was trying out the 'Normal' and 'Movie' modes ,completely avoiding the 'Dynamic' mode.I switched the "Scrolling" option under the "Screen Burn protection" tab and a continuing whitewash was performed which removed ANY TIR in less than 20 seconds and the background was blank again even with nose to the screen inspection.So, finally, i was getting hold of the plasma tech and its usage policy.I have 3 cable connections at home of which tried connecting Asianet Digital cable settop box and Reliance BigTV SD connection to the set.Simple roundup - "nothing spectacular."As expected, all the dirt and grain in the picture was enhanced and put out by the TV,the Asianet connection being ultra poor and Reliance being 'nice' to 'bad' depending on the channel.These were the initial minutes of the plasma's operation and as such, i was not much let down by this,especially since some channels in Reliance BigTV were very nice.So, i plugged in my USB drive containing some break-in slides, set it at Movie mode with everything @ around 25(out of 100) and left it.
Over the next couple days of break-in slides totaling to around some 20 hours, there was a definite and visual improvement in the picture quality.As it was still the early hours, i took contrast and brightness only to 50/40 range,but the SD picture quality was vastly improved with pixellations reduced to a a minimum now.Even the crappiest channels were now very much 'enjoyable'. PQ improvement here is something i would rate in the 50-70% upwards from what i saw in the first screening but i would attribute some of it to my eyes getting used to the TV.I would say that the panel does a great job of handling the poorest of poor signals(local cable) but can be quite revealing as well.News tickers were handled nicely without blur when tested though i have now removed them by zooming till break-in session ends.
After the 5th day, i decided to give some HD workout to the TV, copied the Shutter Island,A Christmas Carol(animation),Identity and Sin City bluray rips(all 1080p with DTS audio) and plugged in the USB drive to the side of the TV not expecting much in terms of compatibility with audio.Though I won't be using this USB feature for any movie watching, I am more than happy and a bit surprised to announce that TV was handling all 4 movies flawlessly with no stutter/audiolag issues.I tried seeking forward and backward and the audio was very much in sync with the video at all times.Sometimes, the video scrambled a bit just towards the end of a seek to go perfect the next scene onwards but i suppose it was the lowly USB drive playing up due to he high bitrate(10-15mbps).Now, i will try some rips with DTS HDMA audio and will report later.
Color:Yep, the colors were a bit too bumped up and 'hot'the first time TV played but seems it has come down a notch after these days of breaking-in.Earlier, I had to notch it down all the way from 50 to 25 but now, 30-35 seems good and more natural as compared to the first time.Although I am no expert, but still felt the color reproduction was a bit unbalanced with respect to both HD and SD signals, with a slight lean towards red or blue.But i think this can be somewhat remedied via the White Balance controls which i haven't yet tried since the TV is in the break-in period and even if not, its a very minor annoyance considering the amount paid for a set of this size.
I did try pushing the contrast all the way to 100 with HD for a few minutes and it was trademark Samsung quality-Simply outstanding.Brightness was left at 40 and Color at 50.Results were very genuine with contrast not pushing the white/black details but showing why Plasma is superior to LCD(read both as "budget" as i am not going into high end) in terms of black level and naturality.The Sin City rip was popping out with the special colorscale used in the movie(u know what i mean!) and shadow details in Identity were outstanding and skin tones were excellent and natural with Flesh Tone setting reduced to -5.There were some good dark scenes with lightning flashes int he movie and boy oh boy, wasn't it just gorgeous how the display handled the contrast in the picture.It really made me wish i had got a plasma earlier.'A Christmas Carol' starting credits were a fast moving camera across building tops and no jerkiness was detected,will try a few more famous panning scenes and will decide on it later.Shutter Island too was excellent but there a slight greenish tint on a pillar in the scene where Caprio was interrogating the asylum staff and seemed a bit off especially with someone reporting green posterization.Will try the rip again in the LCD and report whether it lies in the plasma or the rip.
Also, there are instances of pixel movement if viewed from less than 1 feet into the screen with dark shades but it blends very closely to a perfect image if moved back to 2+ feet.I suppose this is how plasma works(?) as this seems some sort of color reproduction technique.Not sure on this but this is in no way similar to LG's green dancing pixels.
Overall, the SD picture quality was "good" with improvement possible hopefully as i believe the set is still breaking in and HD quality was nothing short of amazing for the money i paid.Unfortunately,I couldn't get V20 to demo anywhere but with the deep black levels this set is providing, there is absolutely nothing i can complain.Even if i had the money to spare, I would keep the 40 grands as i think it can't get much better than this.and the fact that no plasma is trouble free.
SQ: Now,having owned a Samsung LCD with similar downfiring speakers,i knew what to expect from these.They are not crappy by any means and works pretty decently.In the "Standard" preset, there is a 5 or 6(?) band equalizer that does its job neatly.Bumping up the low freqs a bit and keeping the higher ones at center provided a good balance of bass and treble.It was in no way tinny and easily made voice delivery at all corners of the medium hall.All the Presets were delivering on their names(for eg:Clear Voice preset provided uhm.....Clear Voice
and so on....).Afterall, the main requirement,atleast for me, in a TV is visual quality and Sound output is required only until i can get another AVR.but even if u are looking to run the TV speakers for normal TV viewing, have to say these puny ones deliver if u are not expecting some thundering bass and excellent tonality. These won't come near some LG model that i saw while checking out PK550, but won't make u so disappointed as to run for external speakers right away either.Very good and underrated speakers i would say.Firmware:Checked online site and there was an update available.Though my set was August make, tried the July upgrade in the site.Copied to USB,plugged it in, TV reported valid upgrade and it was done in seconds upon confirmation.Earlier firmware was 1007 and the new one was 1010. Settings were all saved(I expected a reset of settings) and images appeared a bit more brighter and pinkish hue was reduced,not sure how different it will perform in HD after a bit of calibration,will have to wait and see after break-in completes.
Plz understand that these are just the initial impressions on the set as conceived by me and as such, subject to change at any time for the better or worse, hopefully for the former.
