Samsung Plasma PS50C6500 Owners Thread (Impressions,Settings, Issues)

[vardu]

We seem to have considerable number of owners of the PS50C6500 and it is high time that this Diligent Decoder of Digital Data got its Due :lol:

Out-of-the-box

There are enough unpacking videos/pics - so I didn't bother with that-suffice it to say that it is one humongous box with an Anna Sewell-esque black beauty inside.

Unfortunately the bracket is still not available and my set is still on a temp table arrangement.

There were 4 inch component and av adapters to make it easy to plug stuff instead of searching in the back-panel.

Input/Output

At the outset - No buzz ( this was a big bugaboo in my mind and I am happy that I can't hear a single bee wing flap - leave alone a buzz )

Remote - a bit unwieldy/not well placed (but that is true of any new remote) -in any case planning to get the Harmony 650 or 700 in the next couple of weeks.

Input : Wii, HDD, PS2
(no STB - Airtel HD DTH is due tomorrow
no MP - expecting my PCH C-200 within the month's end)
no BD - planning to acquire some BD rips and convert to Mkv if necc)

Output - it stands alone :sad: - haven't had time to do research/comparison shop/buy any HT/AVR/Sp etc... ,with hope, before end of year (gregorian not thamizh )

Speakers are not abysmal but not something that you would write home about!

Initial setup

Mode:Standard
Contrast: 40
Brightness: 40
Colour: 40
Sharpness: 30

Planning on calibration only after a month's use (initial 150 hours)

Connected my HDD (western digital 2tb)
content:720p trailor rips -mp4, DVD rips - vob, BR -m2ts and vcd -.dat

It detected the drive quite easily and the user has to navigate the folders for the right file. (it shows the entire drive and not just the one's with the suitable format).

Re-mastered DVD rip - I tried old movies "Kathalikka Neramillai" and "Benhur" and was pleasantly surprised at the PQ - though not crystal clear , it was sharp enough to not make it an unpleasant viewing.

DVD rip - "Panchathanthiram" and "Airport" - The quality difference was quite obvious and had I not known that it could be better - I might have been happy with this (with a niggling doubt though )

HD 720p - downloaded some movie trailors in mp4 - blown away by the PQ.


Wii - It is permanently connected to the Wii and it is a component input and the quality is decent enough.

I have been a bit busy and not had as much time to test a lot of things but - I have not looked for / not noticed any major problems like colour banding, dancing pixels, fluctuating black levels etc.. but again I have NOT looked for these things and probably won't in the running-in period.


Things I like

• Very detailed picture with quasi HD - 720p .
• Either there is a very good up-scaling algorithm or I have extremely great rips - I didn't notice horrible defects in lower resolution/bitrate files.
• Excellent at minimizing screen reflectivity - I couldn't make out any reflection even in these restrained settings ( there is a bit of reflection from the black bevel edges - stupid decision to make those polished black instead of matte)
• Absolutely no TIR
• There are multiple screen burn-in prevention options to play with after the running-in period.

Annoyances:

Playing around with menu in Media player mode - reverts back to the initial MP screen and we have to navigate through the entire folder structure to play the file.
( it does give an option to continue where we left off , so all is not lost)



TLDR;
I like it so far :yahoo:

 

[longshanks]

Received one 50" today and so far so good, The tv looks good even in a fairly bright room.Blacks are fairly close to the Panasonic V20 while watching HD.I am hoping after updating the firm ware the black levels will even be better like they've mentioned in few AV forums.

Will run some burn in slides then calibrate, cant wait for rest of the 50" to arrive home.

Can safely say it is much better than many of the LED LCD's and CFL LCD's ive seen.

 

[Dushie]

The 6500 series is good, i am sure you will enjoy your sets and the tons of features that comes with it.

 

[vardu]

The 6500 series is good, i am sure you will enjoy your sets and the tons of features that comes with it.

Definitely agree with you , BTW please add your feedback about the ps58c6500 - since the only difference in the models is the size.

Update for the day - Installed Airtel HD (through HDMI) and the only available channel was the National Geographic.

The PQ was quite good on the 1080i broadcast - I had read about folks complaining about the quality but I found that it was quite good.

The annoyingly bright RED airtel logo was worrying me a bit - (TIR/Burn in) - fortunately , I didn't notice anything after a couple of hours of usage.

New Annoyance (or feature ) - The Picture modes are dependent on the Input. The same mode is different for each input ( or rather it reverts to the factory default ) unless if you change it explicitly for each content input.(from hdmi to HDD)

 

[anm]

do you find any mention of audio return channel in the manual?

 

[vardu]

do you find any mention of audio return channel in the manual?

I haven't checked in the manual but I know that it comes with HDMI 1.4 and I thought most of the new HDMI 1.4 were all audio-return-channel enabled devices.

One reviewer did mention that it was better to use alternative audio output because the audio-return was only 2 channels and not the full 5.1.

I haven't tested it yet because I am still in the decision phase for my Audio Setup and currently have only the bare TV speakers

 

[jerry53]

well got my set yesterday,was about to wall mount it before my father objected to it,well here are my first thoughts the screen was huge,i tried to play a 720p documentary in it ,it played great and also looked fantastic ,audio is good if it is 2 channel and if it is encoded as ac3 but 5.1 sound on this set sounded horrible and voice was weak and music and background was blaring and tore occasionally during high pitched sequences ,no buzz was heard,well default settings looked nice but due to my fear of burn i pushed contrast down to 40,screen is reflective ,tv was slim and weighs much less than the 50c550 which i was contemplating before this,finally got my first image retention today it showed the usb stick and and the name of the movie that i fast forward in the tv and paused for like 2 mins i really thought that my set had been burned in but searching in a few forums for a minute made me come back to my senses ,when my tv arrived it was in perfect order no dust, no finger prints ,no smudges, no spider webs even the inner vents were clean but when i switched on the tv it started at p13 ;is supposed to start like that mustn't it go into setup or anything like that when it is first switched on??? and i tried to force the samsung guy to go into service menu where hours of operation can be showed and he cleverly gave me the slip (that fox),and the issue that i have been asking you guys for the longest time whether multitrack mkvs were supported,well It is supported i tried changing from russian to english and english to russian many times .videos in natural colour (documentaries)look better than movies in this set .well am i happy with this purchase i sure am.yay!

 

[anm]

hey guys - what is the size of the packet? Will it fit in the boot of a skoda octavia?

 

[vardu]

hey guys - what is the size of the packet? Will it fit in the boot of a skoda octavia?

The package is around 165 x 90 x 25 cm - I don't know if it would fit in the boot but it would be better to transport it upright with support. You really don't want to go home and find a crack in the screen.

 

[longshanks]

hey guys - what is the size of the packet? Will it fit in the boot of a skoda octavia?

No it wont fit.

 

[anm]

the space in the boot is 6 ft in length if I fold the back seats, height I am not too sure of. But since it is a hatchback (entire boot+rear glass goes up).
Is it not advisable to carry it flat down?

 

[vardu]

the space in the boot is 6 ft in length if I fold the back seats, height I am not too sure of. But since it is a hatchback (entire boot+rear glass goes up).
Is it not advisable to carry it flat down?

I don't think it matters if you do carry it horizontally as long as you are able to cushion it and support it- and I somehow doubt that wedging it into a hatchback is proper support especially on Indian roads .

It is preferred to be kept upright (right side up ) so that any jarring is properly buffered from the tv.

It might be less risk to bring it in a rickshaw with two guys holding it than wedging it in a hatchback :lol:

 

[alokbharti]

I don't think it matters if you do carry it horizontally as long as you are able to cushion it and support it- and I somehow doubt that wedging it into a hatchback is proper support especially on Indian roads .

It is preferred to be kept upright (right side up ) so that any jarring is properly buffered from the tv.

It might be less risk to bring it in a rickshaw with two guys holding it than wedging it in a hatchback :lol:

The screen may break if you carry the plasma horizontally.. avoid it.. it is not recommended at all..

 

[harshakoratala]

last night i'd checked the tv at a friends place and i should say it was awesome. played some hdrips and the quality was great. i'd played the same rips on a samsung 5 series 42' full hd lcd and the picture was much bettter in the 50'plasma. truly a great buy but can't afford it right now.
and the other best part is its got an inbuilt media player plays most formats. it didn't recognize .m2ts files-mkv, avi were fine. i don't think it supports flac.

 

[vardu]

Update regarding media files:

I have tried out the following formats through a HDD directly connected to USB port 1

1. VCD
.DAT - NO
.MPG - YES

You have to rename the .dat files in the MPEGAV folder to .mpg in order for them to be detected.

2. DVD
VTS folder
VOB files - YES

These play without any issue - you have to select/open the folder and choose the first VOB file - the others are loaded in sequence.

3. BD backups
M2TS - NO
MKV - YES
MP4 - YES

The MP can't detect M2TS files.

This makes you angry

You can't watch your BD rips -and you are sad as well :sad:

Don't despair - you can watch them with clarity with a mere rename.hyeah:

"A rename you say "
YES - just a rename!!!

Rename the m2ts to any of the following - ts/avi/wmv/mpg and you will be able to select them in the folders.

" Yeah right - What is the catch"

Aha - there is a catch - you can't navigate - forward/rewind or zoom the picture or do any of the nicer things.

But - at least you can watch it in true Theater effect of just having to sit through all the scenes without any control :lol:

BTW - Samsung has not paid Digital Theater System (DTS) and hence you are likely to see a message "Not supported audio coded" - it will still play - Dolby Digital (AC3).

If you don't have AC3 - then re-encode it using the PopCorn Audio Converter.

Quick rename commands

find . | sed 's:\(.*\)\.dat:mv "\1.dat" "\1.mpg":'|sh

Windows : for /r %x in (*.dat) do ren "%x" *.mpg

 

[rayban]

Guys, after 2 weeks of quiet operation the infamous buzz has made an appearance. It is not loud and one can only hear it in quiet sections of the content, but is nevertheless annoying. Is anyone else getting a buzz too. I am heartbroken. :-(

 

[longshanks]

^ I hear a little buzz sometimes and sometimes its not there(i am guessing it wont happen if you are getting constant Non-Fluctuating voltage), the buzz apparently is an issue all plasma brands(if you observe carefully you will notice buzz in Panasonic and lg plasma as well), its just like CRT buzzing.

Buzz wont effect the pic quality or anything rather it could be quite annoying if the room environment is quite silent.

 

[anm]

is the buzz there if you mute the volume?

 

[vardu]

Guys, after 2 weeks of quiet operation the infamous buzz has made an appearance. It is not loud and one can only hear it in quiet sections of the content, but is nevertheless annoying. Is anyone else getting a buzz too. I am heartbroken. :-(

I have had it for only a week and have not heard it so far - what are your settings.

BTW if it is noticeable engouh you can and should complain to Samsung about this (it is a known issue in the older builds) and they won't be able to fob you off.

 

[vardu]

^ I hear a little buzz sometimes and sometimes its not there(i am guessing it wont happen if you are getting constant Non-Fluctuating voltage), the buzz apparently is an issue all plasma brands(if you observe carefully you will notice buzz in Panasonic and lg plasma as well), its just like CRT buzzing.

Buzz wont effect the pic quality or anything rather it could be quite annoying if the room environment is quite silent.

I don't think it is a voltage issue - because majority of the complaints online are from European/American users and the fluctuations are very minimal there (very few folk care to use surge protectors or stabilizers)