Samsung PN60F5500 - Anything I should know? (1 Viewer)

Its that time again - a beloved TV has come to the end of its life. My ol' 53" Pioneer RPTV is on the fritz, and I'm wary of putting more money into an old set as opposed to buying a modern set.

Looking around, I'm intrigued by the Samsung PN60F5500 - its 60", plasma, and 3D. All this for $1199. I need to get a set fairly quickly before my wife takes things into her own hands and just buys something that might drive me crazy cos it wasn't researched, etc etc.

I trust the opinions of those here, so I'm asking - is this a good choice for the money? I would love to try and decide fairly quickly so welcome any feedback I might get. Anything negative I need to know? Help me out guys! Thanks!

Samsung plasma have a buzz some people hear. So buy it local so a return is easy.

All plasma have potential buzz issues, for the record i hear absolutely none on my E6500 model from last year, as for the F5500, well one likely issue could be with reflections, the filter isn't as good as the one in the E6500 from last year and i get reflections with light so in essence you will get reflections onscreen, it's a very good price.

By the way, the F5500 is $2 cheaper on Amazon and they give you a free Samsung blu ray player.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-PN60F5500-60-Inch-1080p-Plasma/dp/B00BCPGZB0

If you do buy it then go into the controls and switch off a few things such as the noise reduction and dynamic options, they damage image quality, also get a calibration disc and do a basic calibration or you will not benefit from this size of screen, i suggest setting to movie mode and either Warm 1 or Warm 2 and make sure 24p is activated in the menu system, it's called cinema smooth, also do the calibration in the evening when it gets darker or you will find brightness and contrast and gamma with movies is not right.

True all plasma buzz. But nobody complained about it with Hitachi or Pioneer/Elite.Nobody complains about Panasonic or LG/Zenith.Lots of complaints about Samsung.

schan1269 said:

True all plasma buzz.But nobody complained about it with Hitachi or Pioneer/Elite.Nobody complains about Panasonic or LG/Zenith.Lots of complaints about Samsung.

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They complain a lot about Panasonic too at various forums it's just that Samsung owners complain louder and i also think the 2010/2011 models did have issues due to a part they used back then, check out HD TV forums in the UK, i never understood it myself because i hear zero buzz on my plasma and i find the full HD 3D superior to a Panasonic which uses a different panel driving system which results in the vertical resolution being halved at some stages, this results in aliasing on fine detail scenes in 3D, now i'm not anti-panasonic, i own several of their products.

I don't know why anyone would buy an LG plasma, very inferior to both Samsung and Panasonic.

On this side of the pond...Panny and LG are considered near equal with Samsung being the third wheel.After all, only Panny and LG make THX certified...

schan1269 said:

On this side of the pond...Panny and LG are considered near equal with Samsung being the third wheel.After all, only Panny and LG make THX certified...

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Yeah that THX logo makes all the difference.

hi Bleddyn!
Sorry to hear of your loss, but you will be amazed by any plasma display chosen to replace your old crt. Samsung makes some very nice panels.
you might also want to look for their 64" version. Also consider the Panasonic line....the ST or GT...the VT is over priced (and each has the same image once calibrated).

fun stuff, you will love the upgrade!!

Gregg

No GT series sets for 2013 model year. The 3D capable models are ST, VT, and ZT in ascending order.

THX may make people snicker for audio.Video performance is another story.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

We did indeed go with the model we originally looked at. Coming from an RPTV over a decade old, we're blown away by the extra sharpness and clarity of the set, right out of the box. This is just as well, as our daughter Natalie was in tears over hearing that the old set was going away. "But its been there my whole life!" she wailed (she's nine). Fortunately the new sets "wow" factor seems to be finally winning her over.

As a pro calibration isn't in our budget for a while (boo hoo) what is considered a good calibration disc these days? My last calibration disc was DVE - on HD DVD no less. Not much good now!

Bleddyn Williams said:

Thanks for the feedback guys!

We did indeed go with the model we originally looked at. Coming from an RPTV over a decade old, we're blown away by the extra sharpness and clarity of the set, right out of the box. This is just as well, as our daughter Natalie was in tears over hearing that the old set was going away. "But its been there my whole life!" she wailed (she's nine). Fortunately the new sets "wow" factor seems to be finally winning her over.

As a pro calibration isn't in our budget for a while (boo hoo) what is considered a good calibration disc these days? My last calibration disc was DVE - on HD DVD no less. Not much good now!

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I recommend the new Spears and Munsil, it allows 3D calibration and 2D and also audio.

http://www.amazon.com/Spears-Munsil-Benchmark-Calibration-Edition/dp/B00CKWI13O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370718914&sr=8-1&keywords=spears+and+munsil

Thanks Foxy! Will pick up the Spears & Munsil disc.

What are the "few things" that are worth turning off? I assume the adjusting to room light setting is one of them. I saw the set darken before my eyes once!

Bleddyn Williams said:

Thanks Foxy! Will pick up the Spears & Munsil disc.

What are the "few things" that are worth turning off? I assume the adjusting to room light setting is one of them. I saw the set darken before my eyes once!

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In Picture - Advanced Settings - Dynamic Contrast = off
In Picture - Picture Options - MPEG noise filter = on
In Picture - Picture Options - Digital Noise filter - off ( means no smoothing out of detail )
In Picture - Picture Options - set to Auto 2 for television use and Cinema smooth for blu ray viewing

If you have a Panasonic blu ray player you need to go into the menu and switch 24p on, it will also be the same for some other blu ray players too.

I think this years Samsung televisions have a black optmizer, leave that on for improved black levels as i hear it works very well, if you notice any issues you can switch it off, i recommend dark room for the optimizer when viewing a movie, never auto.

In System and Eco solution set eco sensor and energy saving to off and auto power to on, the last one means your TV will switch itself off should you forget to do so, you can select when, i choose after four hours of no one pressing a button on the remote control.

Switch BD-Wise off, this can make image quality poorer if you are using a Samsung blu ray player.

The sharpness control is different to a Panasonic plasma, you can increase sharpness to around 10 to 15 for regular television viewing without too many issues, 10 produces no issues for me and is useful for SD content. For blu ray viewing i have sharpness at 5, no issues are introduced at small levels of sharpness on Samsung plasma displays.

Wonderful! Thanks Foxy! Will check out those settings, provided I can pry my daughter away from in front of the TV, where she's put roots down!

FoxyMulder said:

In Picture - Advanced Settings - Dynamic Contrast = off
In Picture - Picture Options - MPEG noise filter = on
In Picture - Picture Options - Digital Noise filter - off ( means no smoothing out of detail )
In Picture - Picture Options - set to Auto 2 for television use and Cinema smooth for blu ray viewing

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They have made some changes for this model....

the MPEG noise filter isn't simply "on" - the options are low/med/high/auto. I set mine to medium

There isn't a "Digital Noise Filter" anymore - it seems that "Digital Clean View" might be the same thing. I turned it off.

The "Auto 2" and "Cinema Smooth" options aren't in Picture Options anymore. In fact right now I don't know where they might be!

Bleddyn Williams said:

They have made some changes for this model....

the MPEG noise filter isn't simply "on" - the options are low/med/high/auto. I set mine to medium

There isn't a "Digital Noise Filter" anymore - it seems that "Digital Clean View" might be the same thing. I turned it off.

The "Auto 2" and "Cinema Smooth" options aren't in Picture Options anymore. In fact right now I don't know where they might be!

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I sent you a PM, i have been trying to find out for you, i wonder if the menu options the same as the F8500, i don't know but if they are it should be in picture options, check this image, also put motion judder canceller off if you want to retain the film look on movies, that pic below is a from a review over at HDTV test, it's for F8500, is F5500 different. ?

FoxyMulder said:

I sent you a PM, i have been trying to find out for you, i wonder if the menu options the same as the F8500, i don't know but if they are it should be in picture options, check this image, also put motion judder canceller off if you want to retain the film look on movies, that pic below is a from a review over at HDTV test, it's for F8500, is F5500 different. ?

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Thanks very much for the PM, and your continued help! The F5500 is indeed different to the menu pictured. There is no "motion Judder Canceller" at all, and my while I do have Film Mode, it is currently greyed out and I can't do anything with it. This seems to be a default setting, and something has to change to make the Film Mode accessible, but right now I have no idea what.

Bleddyn Williams said:

Thanks very much for the PM, and your continued help! The F5500 is indeed different to the menu pictured. There is no "motion Judder Canceller" at all, and my while I do have Film Mode, it is currently greyed out and I can't do anything with it. This seems to be a default setting, and something has to change to make the Film Mode accessible, but right now I have no idea what.

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I think you have to put a blu ray in and switch to that input and then you enable cinema smooth, this was my experience with setting my plasma up.

you have to enable 24 fps output on your BD player.