LG 50PK550R Owner's Discussion Thread

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Good job :clapping::clapping::clapping: Mine will be installed by Moday.

Waiting for my set replacement :sad:

 

[dotMac]

Just got my TV delivered and installed. (I was out of office from 11 to 3 and my boss would be growling ) Didn't get much chance to experiment. Just checked whether Cable/Composite/USB worked. Didnt have a HDMI cable so could not check that.

The TV was in original packing with LG tape and the large stapler pins on. I am convinced that its a brand new piece. The box was not heavily damaged indicating that it had a nice sail.

The installation guy and the LG customer care seemed very humble. The guy even wall mounted couple of my HTiB speakers

He had plan to lay the TV flat on ground for fixing the wall mount and on my request didn't do that. Each step he was getting my consent when wall mounting as I wanted it in perfect center. He used water level for leveling. I was pleased with his attitude. He was co-operative.

He was not aware of the service menu and really tried hard of all the key combination he knew. Earlier I had requested him to get the service remote which as per him is only used by Sony and all LGs have a specific combi in the consumer remote itself. Though he was always referring to the TV as LCD. I showed the box and corrected him couple of time and then gave up . In his slip also he wrote it as LCD-Plasma.

By default the TV was in vivid and had high color settings. In that settings no reflection were seen. Pic looked awesome. Once I lowered all settings to 40, I could see the reflection. And for me when I was concentrating on the content, the reflection never bothered. Only when I started talking pictures, the viewfinder of camera showed me lot of reflection. And could not hear the buzz as of now. The TV did not run long though.

The local cable channel looked OK. I was expecting the worst as it was 50" and full HD. At 10 feet it was definitely watchable.

Wallpaper/Pics from Thumbdrive looked awesome. I will post the pic of Batman which Blasto had posted in another thread. It looked great for me.

Tried a DIVX DVD-rip(via USB). The movie starting sequence looked great. Will watch the movie tonight

The HD clips I tried didnt work. It was 1080p IronMan2 trailer from apple.com. Later I realized that it was in H.264 and hence it failed.

I have one more HD video clip in DIVX and will try that tonight. As the TV showed the DIVX license I feel it would play it.

Note that this is the initial reaction and I will update as my usage increases. And I have not seen the PQ in high-end TVs like the V20. So what looks awesome to me may not be the same for the videophiles here

Waiting to go home now

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Congrats!

We have quite a few PK550 owners.

Where do I download the DIVX DVD-rip or HD clips you mentioned? Not very much of a online download person.

 

[Kittu]

Congrats!

We have quite a few PK550 owners.

Where do I download teh DIVX DVD-rip or HD clips you mentioned? Not very much of a online download person.

Here is the link to Hi-def trailors ...

High Definition Trailers (HD) - Demo World

Kittu

 

[dotMac]

The source for my HD trailers is the Apple - Trailers website.
iTunes Movie Trailers

The above site lists lot of movies and you get the trailers in 480p, 720p and 1080p for download.
Not all of them have multichannel audio though. Also not that the video codec is the h.264 which the PK550 does not seem to support.

As I do not have a streamer now, I am planning to connect my laptop to the TV and watch these clicks. And that might work out.

@kittu
Thanks for the link. What is the video codec used in those videos?

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Here is the link to Hi-def trailors ...

High Definition Trailers (HD) - Demo World

Kittu

On the page I click any link and nothing happens.

 

[Mannu]

Congrats dotmac, welcome to the owner's club, Well i got tatasky HD installed today, and the SD content is very much watchable, HD content is very good, it runs at ( 1080i 50Hz ), discovery HD, and NGC HD are fulltime HD channels, whereas ESPN and Starsports, only show fifa WC 2010 live telecast and wimbeldon live telecast. one HDMI 1m cable, one composite cable and one component cable came with the HD box, the length od these cables is a problem as they are only 1 m long, the HD box is very light, small and compact, only downside i see to it is that it has very huge ventilators, which can be a problem since the chipset inside will catch dust very easily.

Also the STB also has an audio out connection, i connected it to my surround sound hifi system and it worked flawlessely. Once again congrats for the purchase and hoping shaiju also gets to enjoy it sooner, hoping for the best for both of you.

Some of the sites for HD content download are Demonoid and HDME.eu, but you will need an invite to create an account and use their services, which i also apparently don't have as of yet.

 

[viveknath]

Shaiju,

I too had to figure that out :0)...click on the link under Part ..which says 1...that takes you to next download page..

 

[Srinivas29]

Congrats DotMac and welcome to the club.

Shaiju,

Whats the latest on your issue in regards to green pixels. When are they going to replace the TV. Please keep us updated.

 

[Srinivas29]

Also one more thing to add, The tv I have has definately got line bleed. You can make it out when the closing credits are displayed for the movie. I have never seen this during the movie but only at the end.

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Srinivas, they have promised me Monday.

I visted Croma yesterday to check for the green pixels. With settings similar to mine I could see faint pixels (which is normal) but not as annyoing. The nearby Samsung C450 did not have it at all. So I guess it's more visible on LG.

 

[vramak]

Also one more thing to add, The tv I have has definately got line bleed. You can make it out when the closing credits are displayed for the movie. I have never seen this during the movie but only at the end.

What is line bleed? This is the first time I'm hearing about this term. So, can you please explain?

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Check out this link:

The Official LG xxPK550 Owner's Discussion Thread [no price talk] - Page 68 - AVS Forum


There are pictures to show line bleed.

 

[viveknath]

Comment in the same post thread

' Line bleed is inherent of plasma technology. A few plasmas have limited to no line bleed, but it's pretty rare. As it stands, most plasmas in this price have line bleed to a certain degree."

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Right. Sadly, LG and Samsung to have a greater degree than Panasonics. Pioneer has very little or no visible line bleed.

 

[dotMac]

Vivek,

Play a letter-boxed movie; black bars on top and bottom of the screen. I use DVD which is at 1080p resolution.

On LG my settings are:
Aspect ratio = Just scan
Cinema mode
Contrast = 48
Brightness = 54 (increasing / decreasing this will make the problem obvious)
Color = 49
Sharpness = 40
Tint = 0
Color temp = W30
All dynamic = Off
Gamma = Medium
Black level = Low
ISM = Orbiter

Now, check the top balck bar specially at the corners . I see very visible green sparkling dots. They start appearing a centimeter or two away from the corners.

Check the link below. Mine is worse.
AVForums.com - View Single Post - The Official LG PK250 Plasma Thread

I do see this. And it exactly begins when brightness goes above 51. First red and blue pixels appear randomly(dance) and further increase brings in the green. I am not sure whether dancing green means only green pixels appear or all. For me all RGB pixels appear to dance. But 3 feet away its not visible at all. But becomes visible as the brightness increases.

At my regular viewing distance, the black starts fading as the brightness is increased.

At present all my settings are at 45 and is not bothering me. I am planning to inform LG about this asap. Not planning to ask for replacement right now. Since only Saiju has this issue, I believe it must be a panel/electronic defect rather than design flaw. I am confused now.

 

[borg]

looks like LG has got too many quality issues, it seems better to go for pana 42" v20 instead of 50 pk550.
panasonic is selling an inferior version in india/asia compared to the europe version which got very good reviews(infinite black panel instead of infinite black pro).

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

At present all my settings are at 45 and is not bothering me. I am planning to inform LG about this asap. Not planning to ask for replacement right now. Since only Saiju has this issue, I believe it must be a panel/electronic defect rather than design flaw. I am confused now.

How many hours has your panel done (approx)? I think this is one the most annoying flaw. Reflection can be controlled. Line bleed decreases over time and is a general drawback on all Plasmas. However, those dancing greens are an absolute no-no. It smudges the blacks, makes picture appear much softer. The very qualities that made me change from LCD to Plasma is being denied. If I notice on my replacement (on Monday) then I will ask for refund; go with another model / manufacturer.

We need to raise this quality issue with LG (business head of home entertainment). Also, there is no CMS or THX on Indian version. Why should Indians be shortchanged for the money we pay?

 

[dotMac]

How many hours has your panel done (approx)? I think this is one the most annoying flaw. Reflection can be controlled. Line bleed decreases over time and is a general drawback on all Plasmas. However, those dancing greens are an absolute no-no. It smudges the blacks, makes picture appear much softer. The very qualities that made me change from LCD to Plasma is being denied. If I notice on my replacement (on Monday) then I will ask for refund; go with another model / manufacturer.

I have used the TV for about 10 hrs. But I think it did appear when TV was not so used.

I am really not very sure whether this is an issue or not. I observed that all preset(including Vivid) have brightness set to 50.

And the calibration I found on net pk550-calibration has brightness of 55.

So I am just wondering whether we will ever need to set brightness above 55. Up until 60, I was not able to notice the lose of black even at about 5ft distance. I had set it to 65 when I was testing this issue. Note that 52 or below, there is absolutely no pixels even staring right at the panel.
Do you see any green pixels below 52?

Have you tried it on other Plasma TV in the showroom? I think you mentioned before that it does not come in Samsung/Pana. Just wanted to confirm. I feel even in those, you might see this though not exactly at 53. But could be at a higher(or even lower) brightness.

I was thinking whether the TV is doing the right thing here. Plasmas turn off the pixels for black while glow all RGB pixels at full intensity for white. So, if you ask a PDP to make a pic brighter, to make a black brighter (after certain threashold which here seems 52), it has to turn the RGB pixels with very low intensity. Notice that as you increase the brightness more pixels starts glowing and their intensity increases. Also the pixels wont turnoff(dance) when you set very high brightness. At some point, (like 53) are intermediate places where if a pixel remain off, produces lower brightness(52) and if always glowing produces higher brightness(54). So the panel simply turns them on and off. Probably that is what it is doing. Just my guess. Am not an expert on this.

Even on my laptop LCD, the black did turn gray as I increased the brightness. So I wanted to check with other Plasmas/LCDs before I complain to LG.

On a general note, is the expectation from a PDP is to keep that black as black no matter we keep the brightness to 100? In that case, it cannot apply a consistent brightness to the whole panel. It will have to ignore the absolute black pixels. Perhaps a V20 could do that though not sure.


Also, whether any of pk550 users have tried calibrating the TV? If so what was the brightness you had set to get the best PQ. In case you never had to go beyond 52, it does not seem to be an major issue. Even up until 60 it is tolerable for my viewing distance.

But even if its a non-issue, I am surprised by the inconsistency. How can only two of us see this behavior? That worries me more than the current PQ. I am worried thinking whether this is a sign of future trouble.

We need to raise this quality issue with LG (business head of home entertainment). Also, there is no CMS or THX on Indian version. Why should Indians be shortchanged for the money we pay?

Totally agree with this. I too will call and register my disappointment for not providing THX and advanced calibration options.
In my call I will also mention about this issue anyways.

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Up until 60, I was not able to notice the lose of black even at about 5ft distance. I had set it to 65 when I was testing this issue. Note that 52 or below, there is absolutely no pixels even staring right at the panel.

It is indeed a good sign that you can increase brightness without seeing major pixel problem. Just keep an eye as your panel ages.

Do you see any green pixels below 52?

YES! That's why I am so freaked out.

Have you tried it on other Plasma TV in the showroom? I think you mentioned before that it does not come in Samsung/Pana. Just wanted to confirm. I feel even in those, you might see this though not exactly at 53. But could be at a higher(or even lower) brightness.

Tried a Samsung but I could not notice any of those greens though Sammy had an slight redishness to the overall picture.

On a general note, is the expectation from a PDP is to keep that black as black no matter we keep the brightness to 100? In that case, it cannot apply a consistent brightness to the whole panel.

Blacks would become greyish after bumping up brightness (expected) but should not introduce nasty pixel problem. Not eveyone will watch at perfect brightness setting.

Also, whether any of pk550 users have tried calibrating the TV?

Good question but how far can we calibrate without basic CMS? My 2008 Samsung could be calibrated for primary + secondary colors and had a white balance option (cool, normal, warm). I must admit here that Cinema preset with a little tweaking produces a decent picture.

Totally agree with this. I too will call and register my disappointment for not providing THX and advanced calibration options.
In my call I will also mention about this issue anyways.

Yeah, let's see if LG can give us a firmware update that can be done via USB or by a service person. Note sure on the THX as it is not an advertised feature but CMS - YES I want that.