Samsung la32a550p1rmxl rocks - sony cx520 sucks - plz help

[anfjavid]

Hello hifivisioners

I am terribly frustrated. Please help me..

I purchased a Sony cx520 40 in grey recently. My cousin has a 3 yr old Samsung la32a550p1rmxl 32 LCD. I have a WD TV LIVE HUB and he has a WD TV LIVE player and he is using a belkin 1.4 cable (Neither his TV nor his player has HDMI 1.4 support)

Yesterday I watched AVATAR (17GB) movie in his house and the playback smoothness and lifelike picture quality was amazing and very appealing to my eyes. So with much expectation I played the same in my player. But I was very shocked to see that there is no such smoothness and lifelike picture quality in my TV. Thinking that the belkin cable is responsible for such amazing smoothness, I checked my hdmi cable (Chinese make) in his TV. But even with such a poor quality cable the result is the same amazing quality

Its like watching the movie in 3d. Not only avatar, but even Indian movies are very smooth. I havent seen such a smoothness in any movie in my life. I have seen them only in discovery, NGC, etc.

I want to know the Sony cx52 being a 2011 model with x-reality engine (marketing gimmick??) why does it lack such smoothness and picture quality?. The smoothness is like we see in a computer game.

Are there any specific settings or refresh rates which I have to alter to get the same smooth playback. There are no settings for refresh rates in my TV, but his Samsung TV has a plethora of settings. Guys I hope you understood my issue Please help me guys..

 

[adder]

The samsung is a 2008 model its inferior to the CX520 in every way except perhaps in sound quality and as usual with newer tvs build quality might also take a hit.

Now settings play a huge role in PQ and apart from that yours is bigger tv.A smaller tv has more pixels/ sq.inch to be precise 4893 pixels/sq.inch compared to 3035 pixel/sq.inch of your bigger 40" tv screen.

I find my own tv which is a year older then the samsung A550 to better then the current lcd tvs in showroom settings.

So adjust the tv to its optimum settings by trail and error or if you find some caliberated settings in the internet.

Your tv has far superior contrast to 2008 samsung tv,higher the contrast more perception of depth.So adjust your settings,make sure the source is the same ,i am not a huge fan of cheap Chinese cables.

 

[bijaymohanta]

Hello hifivisioners

I am terribly frustrated. Please help me..

I purchased a Sony cx520 40 in grey recently. My cousin has a 3 yr old Samsung la32a550p1rmxl 32 LCD. I have a WD TV LIVE HUB and he has a WD TV LIVE player and he is using a belkin 1.4 cable (Neither his TV nor his player has HDMI 1.4 support)

Yesterday I watched AVATAR (17GB) movie in his house and the playback smoothness and lifelike picture quality was amazing and very appealing to my eyes. So with much expectation I played the same in my player. But I was very shocked to see that there is no such smoothness and lifelike picture quality in my TV. Thinking that the belkin cable is responsible for such amazing smoothness, I checked my hdmi cable (Chinese make) in his TV. But even with such a poor quality cable the result is the same amazing quality

Its like watching the movie in 3d. Not only avatar, but even Indian movies are very smooth. I havent seen such a smoothness in any movie in my life. I have seen them only in discovery, NGC, etc.

I want to know the Sony cx52 being a 2011 model with x-reality engine (marketing gimmick??) why does it lack such smoothness and picture quality?. The smoothness is like we see in a computer game.

Are there any specific settings or refresh rates which I have to alter to get the same smooth playback. There are no settings for refresh rates in my TV, but his Samsung TV has a plethora of settings. Guys I hope you understood my issue Please help me guys..

Hi Javid,
what i got is you are comparing the 40 inch with a 32 inch. the apple-apple comparison will be 40 Bravia vs 40 Samsung.
And in the big size errors and more visible.

Any way ur bravia is a good one, and samsungs also equally good. :clapping:

 

[anfjavid]

yes mine is 40" and he owns 32".

but i dont get that smoothness which he gets in his tv. And there is not much settings in sony when compared to his samsung tv..

today i will check my live hub in his player and report back.... Size is not going matter for smooth playback, right ?. He has planned to go for a 55" tv. So u mean he wont get smoothness in that tv ?

 

[bijaymohanta]

yes mine is 40" and he owns 32".

but i dont get that smoothness which he gets in his tv. And there is not much settings in sony when compared to his samsung tv..

today i will check my live hub in his player and report back.... Size is not going matter for smooth playback, right ?. He has planned to go for a 55" tv. So u mean he wont get smoothness in that tv ?

Hi Javid, you are right, In samsung there are many controls, any way please check with his player. coz i m also confused in sammy n sony.
I will be happy to know the result !!!hyeah:

 

[adder]

yes mine is 40" and he owns 32".

but i dont get that smoothness which he gets in his tv. And there is not much settings in sony when compared to his samsung tv..

today i will check my live hub in his player and report back.... Size is not going matter for smooth playback, right ?. He has planned to go for a 55" tv. So u mean he wont get smoothness in that tv ?

The sony should have similar controls,your friends samsung tv like yours also lack the motionflow.

 

[anfjavid]

I checked guys.. The result is, even with my player, the movie plays very smooth like butter in his TV (being a 2008 model). I wonder why the Sony's x-reality picture engine (which is ofc a new engine of 2011) isnt able to deliver this smoothness.

I think there is something special with Samsung's image processing engine. I checked everything from cable to player and its the same in his TV.

Now my Sony TV is the culprit. Sony guys are absolute crap, BS, b******s. This x-reality picture engine blah blah all is just a marketing gimmick. They have to learn technology from Samsung whose technology is far ahead.

Before buying Sony i came across several posts suggesting to buy Samsung. But the same posts stated that there is panel inconsistency among samsung TVs like if two Sammy tvs of the same model are purchased from two shops, there will be some quality difference between them. This is what they call as panel lottery or incosistency. But Sony isnt having such an inconsistency.. This made me go for Sony, But now i regret.

Guys please research and tell me whats special about my cousin's TV ( his Tv has something written as SS02 on the right side ) Is this a panel code ?. And my TV has S01-XXXXXXX in the carton. No info available on the rear or side of TV.

Is the SS02 far better than the S01 ?. Can there be a difference in playback smoothness because of the panel version ??

Very confused. Please advice guys.

 

[adder]

I checked guys.. The result is, even with my player, the movie plays very smooth like butter in his TV (being a 2008 model). I wonder why the Sony's x-reality picture engine (which is ofc a new engine of 2011) isnt able to deliver this smoothness.

I think there is something special with Samsung's image processing engine. I checked everything from cable to player and its the same in his TV.

Now my Sony TV is the culprit. Sony guys are absolute crap, BS, b******s. This x-reality picture engine blah blah all is just a marketing gimmick. They have to learn technology from Samsung whose technology is far ahead.

Before buying Sony i came across several posts suggesting to buy Samsung. But the same posts stated that there is panel inconsistency among samsung TVs like if two Sammy tvs of the same model are purchased from two shops, there will be some quality difference between them. This is what they call as panel lottery or incosistency. But Sony isnt having such an inconsistency.. This made me go for Sony, But now i regret.

Guys please research and tell me whats special about my cousin's TV ( his Tv has something written as SS02 on the right side ) Is this a panel code ?. And my TV has S01-XXXXXXX in the carton. No info available on the rear or side of TV.

Is the SS02 far better than the S01 ?. Can there be a difference in playback smoothness because of the panel version ??

Very confused. Please advice guys.

Well the X-reality or the earlier BE3 is a fine image processing ,on par with samsung and in some cases better.may be you need to spend more time adjusting it to its optimum settings.

The image processing in 2008 samsung is inferior to the present image processing in sony 2008 to 2011 tvs or samsung own tvs which was upgraded in 2009 to a new processing.

His tv has the second generation SPVA panel of 2008 era with roughly 2000:1 ANSI contrast at the best ,your tv has the latest 4th or 5th generation SPVA panel with more then 3000:1 ANSI contrast

 

[Rupam]

I think your are comparing the two TVs with the same Avatar file. What about other file formats you have. Does they have the same problem in smoothness ?
Is the problem persists in DVD playback or bluray?

I don't think the problem in the panel, because the smoothness is a factor which is controlled by video rendering machine.

Try to use other HDMI ports in your TV.

Turn off MPEG Noise reduction and 24p True cinema.

Turn off Intelligent Image Enhancer

Check your TVs sharpness level, don't push it too high.

Verify your using default aspect ratio.

Let me know if things improve...

 

[eskeem]

I was looking at the cx520 but then afaik they are offering it only in the 46 category... thats what the sony shop people said.. and is shown on the sony india website..

 

[anfjavid]

@adder - Theoritically that might sound good. But visually there is no benefit.

@rupam - Even other 1080p Dvd movies play with the same smoothness in his TV. Its something like a LIVE video. Will check those settings and report back.. Thanx

@eskeem - In India the 40" cx52 isnt officially launched . You can get the 40" in grey as i said in my post.

Guys, does this have anything to do with the refresh rates of my TV. My cousin says his TV's default setting is 30Hz and he has forced it to 50Hz. But my TV lacks the option to adjust refresh rates. So i am going to force my player to output 60hz refresh rate so that if my TV has a default rate of 30Hz it will adapt the 60Hz outputted by the player, right ?

Doing so will harm my player or the TV ?. I dont have any experience in playing with these refresh rate settings guys. So plz advice me..

I even got into the service menu of this TV, but it is very complicated as it displays some numbers which is like a mac address and i am scared to adjust anything. Moreover even this menu fails to disclose any info about the refresh rates...

 

[adder]

First of all there is no such option on the samsung to change the refresh rate,the lcd panel of both the tvs have a refresh rate of 60hz.
Just like the Sony the samsung when fed with a 1080p signal it will detect it as a video.

What ever settings with regard to refresh rate must be done from the source.

Now did you try any of the settings or are you still in some factory defauts.

Couple of settings which is a must in Sony is to disable the following
Noise reduction
Mpeg noise reduction
Dot noise reduction
black corrector
Advanced Contrast Enhancer
Auto Light Limiter
Clear White
Live Color
Detail/Edge enhancer

Adjust
color temperature to warm 1 or warm 2
Film Mode/Cinema Drive to Auto

ALso i see in the 2011 tvs a option called
[i/p Conversion Preference] try changing that to see if you get that smoothness you are looking for.

Now before you try all this ,do also try first going through different scene modes like graphics to see whether you get that so called smoothness that you get in your cousin tv.

Also try with a different HDMI input.
If you connect it to HDMI 1 its for both TV function and PC.
If you do connect it HDMI 1 try changing the scene mode to graphics

There is nothing useful to adjust in the service menu in Sony lcds from 2009.

 

[anfjavid]

^ I tried going through his TV settings but in a hurry burry and dint notice any option relating to refresh rates. I suspected the existence of such an option initially as he used to bluff like this most of the times .

Just sometime back i googled for ex400 TV settings and modified everything as you said except the Detail/Edge enhancer. Will try switching off even that and report back.

Film mode/cinema drive is auto by default

i/p Conversion Preference is greyed out..

I even forced the refresh rate to 60hz in my player but there is only a slight difference.

Currently i am using the side port which is HDMI 2.

even tried diff. scene modes

And adder, may i know the model of the LCD which you have ?

 

[adder]

^ I tried going through his TV settings but in a hurry burry and dint notice any option relating to refresh rates. I suspected the existence of such an option initially as he used to bluff like this most of the times .

Just sometime back i googled for ex400 TV settings and modified everything as you said except the Detail/Edge enhancer. Will try switching off even that and report back.

Film mode/cinema drive is auto by default

i/p Conversion Preference is greyed out..

I even forced the refresh rate to 60hz in my player but there is only a slight difference.

Currently i am using the side port which is HDMI 2.

And adder, may i know the model of the LCD which you have ?

Trust me there is no such as option in the samsung.

If both have the same media players try the same settings,also use HDMI 1 and use graphics options and see if it makes a difference.

The other settings such as color,backlight,picture/contrast etc need to be either a calibrated settings or the settings that pleases your eyes.

I have a 2007 V300A and a 2005 S32A10.
Will soon be getting a 2011 40" or 46" lcd/led-lcd.

 

[anfjavid]

Tried the above but result is the same. I am very sure that there is something very special with the image processing engine in Samsung TVs (atleast in his TV).

So are you going for a Sony LCD ?.

 

[adder]

Tried the above but result is the same. I am very sure that there is something very special with the image processing engine in Samsung TVs (atleast in his TV).

So are you going for a Sony LCD ?.

Well i am pretty sure there is nothing special on a old samsung lcd.

I am considering both samsung and sony,still waiting for the entire range of samsung to be launched.

 

[prankey]

Adder - while "MotionPlus" was introduced in the higher "refresh rate" models of Samsung in 2008 or 2009, I have a 2007 Samsung 32R8 with "Movie Plus" which is similar to "MotionPlus" motion interpolation and dejudder which converts 25i or 30i signals to 50p/60p through motion interpolation and dejuddering. This might be the effect OP is talking about. I agree such feature is missing in current crop of 60Hz LCD TVs.

 

[adder]

Adder - while "MotionPlus" was introduced in the higher "refresh rate" models of Samsung in 2008 or 2009, I have a 2007 Samsung 32R8 with "Movie Plus" which is similar to "MotionPlus" motion interpolation and dejudder which converts 25i or 30i signals to 50p/60p through motion interpolation and dejuddering. This might be the effect OP is talking about. I agree such feature is missing in current crop of 60Hz LCD TVs.

The motionplus or AMP is different from Movie plus called Film Mode in 32A550.
Sony also has something similar to Movie plus called Film Mode or Cinema Drive.

 

[anfjavid]

Adder - while "MotionPlus" was introduced in the higher "refresh rate" models of Samsung in 2008 or 2009, I have a 2007 Samsung 32R8 with "Movie Plus" which is similar to "MotionPlus" motion interpolation and dejudder which converts 25i or 30i signals to 50p/60p through motion interpolation and dejuddering. This might be the effect OP is talking about. I agree such feature is missing in current crop of 60Hz LCD TVs.

A Million thanx to you prankey. what you said is cent percent correct. Its because of this dejuddering his tv excels in playback smoothness

 

[prankey]

The motionplus or AMP is different from Movie plus called Film Mode in 32A550.
Sony also has something similar to Movie plus called Film Mode or Cinema Drive.

Film Mode or Cinema Drive is used to "decode" 24p cinema frames from an interlaced or progressive non 24p source. It does not do any motion interpolation or dejuddering.