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General discussion

my new LN40A530

Mar 10, 2009 12:50AM PDT

Hi !

I bought a LN40A530 2 days ago. and i am quite disapointed.
I went from a 32HS500 (1080i ready trinitron HD from Sony) and the black level is not what i was waiting for. At the dealer store, the panel was great and at home, it's a different game.

I did calibrate the HDMI input using AVIA DVD yesterday evening. after calibration, I have some grayish corners when watching a 2.35:1 movie. (Blue ray)... when I have an angle more that 60 degrees, black is more a gray than a black and colors are bleaching a little. This appears because I did reduce the brightness : is it a trouble of uniformity of the backlight ?

Well, i would like to know if i would be happier with a 550 (contrast ratio is better) or if i need to wait one or two weeks to see if this "grey corner" effect disapears ?

when using the TV with dynamic black to off, is it saying that i'm using the native contrast ratio wich may be 2500:1... will it do the same with the 550 ?

my model is a canadian LN40A530P1FXZC version AA10 (spetember 200Cool

thank you

I need advices from a real samsung guy... maybe a Plasma would be better for me as my room is quite dark.

thanks again.

Yann

Discussion is locked

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Weakness of LCD tech in general
Mar 10, 2009 3:17AM PDT

The problems you're describing seem to be inherent to LCD technology in general. Looking at the Canada Samsung site, the 530 and 550 seem to have the same contrast ratio, by the way. A 650, on the other hand, does have an improved contrast ratio (though it has a glossy screen).

Anyway, off-angle viewing is a general problem with LCDs -- most sets give you some washing out past 30 degrees off angle, so if you can make it to 60 degrees, that's pretty good.

LCDs' black levels have gotten better, and I think in a normally lit room, they're sufficient, but if you watch your TV in a really dark room, you'll see that the blacks aren't really black. Again, it's a pretty common problems with LCDs.

The gray in the corners is also known as flashlighting, and again it's pretty common for LCDs. Sometimes they improve with time, sometimes they don't -- if it really bothers you, your best bet is to return/exchange the TV.

Just like anything else, LCD and plasma have their strengths and weaknesses. If you have a dark room, care very much about viewing angles and screen uniformity, and don't mind the weaknesses of plasma, then plasma may be a better match up for you.

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I will ask the dealer
Mar 10, 2009 3:26AM PDT

Thank you,

I will ask my dealer if i can exchange my TV. The corners are really annoying me. As I said, when watching a 2.35:1 movie, the "flash lighting" is about 3 to 4 inches in size decreasing in intensity toward the center of the screen...

I will also ask him if the contrast ratio is the same with the 550... I'm waiting for a reply from samsung.ca about that.

it's too bad, because in terms of color accuracy and processing, this set is top notch.

Thank you again

Yann

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Weakness of LCD tech in general
Mar 13, 2009 5:03AM PDT

clicq,

Great explanation. Thanks!

--HDTech

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thanks again
Mar 13, 2009 6:23AM PDT

I did some other tests last night. After 1 hour the backlight started to appear on the right side close to the function touch-switches and power led... well... i'm not happy with that.

The color wash is also more important that with the display in my dealer's shop. He left me alone for half an hour with the same TV in a dark room. I did set-up the TV with the exact same parameters and the TV was looking great. I was not able to loose the colors and black level in a larger angle of view than mine (-30 to +30 for me and maybe +/- 90 degree for the panel i was testing, vertical variation was far far better than mine)... There were no sign of flashlighing... (some but not the same as mine)....

So i did check where the panels were from... all had a S, or SQ model number.... mine is not, it is a AA

So the question of where the panel is comming from and was built is again on the table.

I'm waiting for a service call from the samsung Tech here in Qu

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i did change my set for a plasma
Mar 14, 2009 8:06AM PDT

Hi All,

I did change my LN40A530 for a PN50A550... 600$ more but the image is more what i was used to look at with my old sony HDTV. I did send a lot of time comparing the TV. Again, the image quality and color rendering is far away better on samsung TVs than on Pana TV even if the black level is better for the pana... i suppose that it is because there panels are looking "blacker" even when powered off. The samsung is a dark gray panel.

Well, thanks again for all your advices... i will tell you how i like my new Plasma Happy

Yann