Samsung LED - makes movies look like daytime soaps

[grit]

I recently bought a 46" Samsung 8000 LED LCD tv. I previously watched a 3 year old 42" Pioneer Elite plasma.

I'm very impressed with the Samsung, save for two major problems: light leakage and a wierd video effect that can't be disabled. All HD sources look like your watching a daytime soap opera, like "Days of Our Lives", especially when the camera pans. It did this to regular DVDs, Blu-Ray, and HD television off cable. The result -for me- is that the show/movie looks artificial. It almost looks like everything was filmed against a blue screen and all the backgrounds, props, etc were added afterwards. Like they filmed ONLY the actors with nothing else.

If you go to hdguru.com, you can see the best explanation I have found so far in their review of the samsung B8000 LED tv :

The “Judder Reduction” control makes pans appear smoother. The trade-off was that film-based material appears more like “live video” with a smoother texture as the control setting is increased, as if the film grain has been reduced or nearly eliminated. Comparing the 8000 against our reference Pioneer Pro-141FD confirmed the video-like look, noticeable even when the control is set to “Off”! Some viewers like the improved smoothness while others (including myself) don’t. The best compromise was with the control set to position “1″.

In my opinion, this effect really kills it. All the sources i watched looked wrong, except for animation.

So here's the question - is this a Samsung "feature", or is this common to all modern LCD televisions? I'm not satisfied with this effect, but the rest of the TV is marvelous! So, i need an alternative.

[aud19]

Sounds like the 120hz frame interpolation to me. Try turning it off or to a lower setting on film based sources and see if that helps.

[Chris D]

That sounds exactly right to me. There's a consequence of getting video that's always getting sharper and crisper--you lose the "movie look", of soft edges and video grain! There are many that actually argue that those things should be kept, to keep the purist film appearance.

Now, while I am a strong advocate of the 120 Hz interpolation technology, it's not yet perfected, and still has some growing pains like it sounds like you're seeing. You can usually set different levels, not just on/off, so try turning yours down.

[1oldguy]

I've been hearing bad things about the new slim Samsungs.I'd buy the xbr8 considering most people seem to like and have no probs as far as I'm are aware with the XBR's.

[Hdale85]

Yeah the XBR8's are like twice the money too.

[1oldguy]

The XBR8 55 inch has just dropped in price.4500 Canadian.Anyone know what this particular Samsung is selling for?

[Hdale85]

About 3k for the 55" 8000 series.

It sounds to me like the problem is the 120hz stuff cause I experienced the same thing with my Sony 50" RPTV. It looked great on TV and what not but on a lot of movies just didn't look natural. I just turned it off for movies and put it on for the TV stuff. Generally movies don't need the 120hz technology anyways.

[P-Dub]

The XBR8 55 inch has just dropped in price.4500 Canadian.Anyone know what this particular Samsung is selling for?

At Futureshop the 55B7000 is listed at $4,499.99 and the 55B8000 is $4,999.99.

[Vinny]

The problem of light leakage feeling is still a current problem of LCD/LED screens, why not consider the pioneer 50" or even elite model? You tried the best stuff and it is hard to move back down the chain
I know they are the last series on the market but still nothing beats them in quality. I used to love the LCD and accept their weaknesses until I saw Pioneer with my eyes. The QA should be fine with Pioneer and they still continue to support the plasma sold for another couple years

[1oldguy]

Wondering what is considered the average life span of a LCD T.V.From the people I've talked to at Sony themselves even they openly admit that T.V aren't going to last all that long.Certainly not compared to the old crt types.It's one thing to have the resources to buy what you want when you want but for a lot of us dishing out 5k for a set that lasts only 5 years puts a sour taste in my mouth.Then if you want piece of mind you buy the extra warranty..here that's about another 500. So for $5500.00 your all set for the next 5 years.(Referring to the XBR8 price).

[Hdale85]

Well really if you keep the TV maintained there really isn't much reason it can't last 10 years. But yeah it's new technology CRT's had decades of technology into it, the CRT's we're used to were the peak of the CRT technology. When they first came out they didn't last forever.

[aud19]

Pretty sure most LCD's/Plasma's "half-life" is considered to be 10+ years. Not really a concern IMO.

[Ovation]

Of course, the issue is not simply one of "will there be a picture" after 5 years. I suspect if nothing goes wrong, a plasma or LCD from 2009 will "have a picture" (say 6hr/day usage, on average) for nearly 20 years (a usable, if not a "pretty" one for another 5 years after that). However, the electronics inside a flat panel are more complex and likely more fragile than those in a conventional CRT display and it is there that problems can arise. My parents bought a small LCD for the kitchen 15 months ago and the picture remained beautiful (in its category, of course) until two months ago (one month past the warranty, of course). The picture did not degrade in the slightest. The internal power supply module, however, gave up the ghost. A 400$ TV came back with an estimate of 280$ for repair. YIKES (in percentage terms). I have no doubt the picture will remain quite nice for another 15 years in that TV--IF everything else works as it should. However, the prognosis is rather grim given the trouble it's already had.

[Hdale85]

Was it a cheap TV? I spent 600 bucks on a 23" just because it was a good brand and I know they are built nice. I'm sure the one they got was nice but from working in TV sales a lot of people expect those 400 dollar 32" Vizio's to last 30 years and I just laugh.

[Ovation]

I think it was a Sharp (19 inch)--I've only seen it once (they come to visit us a lot more often then we get out to them).

[Hdale85]

Well Sharps are generally very decent. But like I said before, it's still a very new technology and things will happen.

[1oldguy]

A friends parents bought a $4000.00 dollar Sony lcd and now after 5 years of use it is on the way out.I haven't seen the set myself.Appearently they are still using the set with the degraded picture.
I sometimes wonder if a T.V today can be manufactured to Last a specific amount of time?

[Chris D]

Yes, every video display has a specified estimated life span, i.e. 3000 hours or something. For LCD and plasma, this is typically pretty high, although from day 1, as soon as you start using it it starts degrading a little bit by bit.

[Ovation]

3000 hours is not very high. I have that as the expected lifespan on the bulb in my projector. 30,000 hours is more likely for a plasma or LCD, I think.

[Hdale85]

Actually most plasma's claim 100k hours.

[Chris D]

Right... whatever it is, each set has an expected life. Not to say each set has the same number, whether it's 3,000, or 30,000, or 100k.

[Ovation]

In the case of those that require a bulb replacement (almost all front and rear projectors), the limitation appears to be the bulb, with a secondary limit no one seems to talk about being the panels (DLP/LCD/LCoS/whatever). I suspect projectors get replaced more often than flat panel televisions because people don't want to spend hundreds of dollars servicing an "old" display device every few years when so many advancements are made in the interim. Flat panels don't "wink out" nearly as quickly (unless they have another problem not directly related to the actual display panel) and so people don't feel the need to replace them as often. Of course, one of the main selling points of projection TVs (front and rear) is that, even with bulb replacement costs, the price per square inch of display is quite advantageous over flat panels. Sounds great when you buy one but appears to be less convincing when it comes time to pony up for a new bulb.

Front projection made sense to me, even in my small room, because at the time, a 64 inch display (of any technology) was double (RPTV) to eight times (plasma/LCD) what I paid for my pj and screen (the latter homemade, which significantly cut the cost). Several years later, though, and it seems I could get something nearly as big in a plasma (58 inches) for around double the price I paid for the pj. At that point, it becomes tempting because of several logistical advantages in favour of the plasma (no bulb replacement, 1080p vs. 720p on my PJ, I can move the seating closer by a foot to keep the same viewing angle I currently have because of 1080p--so there is no relative size loss, no worries of a bulb dying, can move the TV to another room if I want to go with another projector later with a really big screen). LED LCDs also offer some interesting advantages (most of those of the plasma, except contrast ratio and cost), though I guess I'd have to make sure I found one that allows me to defeat the video processing described in the OP.

[1oldguy]

Will I purchased my second Pioneer Elite PRO 151 FP T.V.After again hoping I could live with LCD I just couldn't.The depth is so incredible on this set there really isn't any LCD that will beat it.The Sony is close,but still not in the same way.Again take along a copy of the Dark knight,it looks almost flat on any LCD depth wise.
Will have it set up in the morning.

[1oldguy]

I recently bought a 46" Sam-sung 8000 LED LCD TV. I previously watched a 3 year old 42" Pioneer Elite plasma.

I'm very impressed with the Samsung, save for two major problems: light leakage and a weird video effect that can't be disabled. All HD sources look like your watching a daytime soap opera, like "Days of Our Lives", especially when the camera pans. It did this to regular DVDs, Blue-Ray, and HD television off cable. The result -for me- is that the show/movie looks artificial. It almost looks like everything was filmed against a blue screen and all the backgrounds, props, etc were added afterwords. Like they filmed ONLY the actors with nothing else.

If you go to hdguru.com, you can see the best explanation I have found so far in their review of the Samsung B8000 LED TV :

The “Judder Reduction” control makes pans appear smoother. The trade-off was that film-based material appears more like “live video” with a smoother texture as the control setting is increased, as if the film grain has been reduced or nearly eliminated. Comparing the 8000 against our reference Pioneer Pro-141FD confirmed the video-like look, noticeable even when the control is set to “Off”! Some viewers like the improved smoothness while others (including myself) don’t. The best compromise was with the control set to position “1″.

In my opinion, this effect really kills it. All the sources i watched looked wrong, except for animation.

So here's the question - is this a Samsung "feature", or is this common to all modern LCD televisions? I'm not satisfied with this effect, but the rest of the TV is marvelous! So, i need an alternative.

Forgot to mention,My dealer had the 46 inch Samsung LED LCD,Their best apparently, So when he put on a clip from Sea Biscuit it was blatantly obvious when he was riding the horse you could see the frames of Tobey being left behind.It was the worst I'd had seen yet.

[1oldguy]

Wondering for those who have the kuro.....What is the preferred way of burning in the Set?I believe there is a disk out there that flashes all kind of solid colors.But I forget where I read it but I think there are other methods?

[farazakan]

Well i was thinking of buying 32inch Lcd Led tv which samsung has bought in their new line-up. Hope they works fine. Do you really think that Lcd life is about 5 years?

[aud19]

Unless you get a cheap TV or by fluke end up with a lemon, you should be fine farazakan.

[Nolan B]

Wondering for those who have the kuro.....What is the preferred way of burning in the Set?I believe there is a disk out there that flashes all kind of solid colors.But I forget where I read it but I think there are other methods?

The 141 comes broken in from the factory with 100 hours. I personally ran the break in images for 150 hours or so on torch mode. I Had it calibrated shortly after on the PQ is perfect. I have gamed on the thing for 6+ hours before with not even a hint of burn in.

[TommyV]

Back to the OP I agree. The motion looks very artificial on real content. Yea they look nice on the demo discs but I would take a mid level plasma any day over those Samsung LEDs. So much more natural of a look and not cornea burning/migraine inducing like the XBRs either.

[artv4]

Back to the OP I agree. The motion looks very artificial on real content. Yea they look nice on the demo discs but I would take a mid level plasma any day over those Samsung LEDs. So much more natural of a look and not cornea burning/migraine inducing like the XBRs either.

i agree. PLASMA ROCKS

[farazakan]

Unless you get a cheap TV or by fluke end up with a lemon, you should be fine farazakan.

I was thinking of getting it from e-bay. Do you know any good sites where i can buy lamp for my projector.

[mr.hidef]

I was thinking of getting it from e-bay. Do you know any good sites where i can buy lamp for my projector.

Try here....http://www.laptopsforless.com/projector-lamps/ :T