Flickering on 50" Samsung HD plasma

[M@RNE]

Very often unexplicable problems come done to one thing. Cables
Check your HDMI cable.

[Daniel Weston]

I doubt it very much as this only really happens on channel 176. I was watching footie on Sunday and when they show close ups of the players faces, it sort of blurs slightly when the players walks. Almost like there's a covering of vaseline over the face. Not sure if that makes sense but ja....

[joel]

In my experience the only feature on any TV I've looked at, thats worth using is 100+ Hz.
Everything else tends to improve one aspect of image quality, but make six others worse.
Turn all processing off and avoid the TV telling you that it knows when to adjust black levels, change contrast or paint lines around images to make them look punchier.

Leave the TV like this for a while and then slowly turn other processing features on and see if they actually help.

[KenMasters]

In my experience the only feature on any TV I've looked at, thats worth using is 100+ Hz.

That's a controversial one I think. I'd say the only xxxHz processing schemes I approve of are those I can't pick up on.

[M@RNE]

What model samsung do you have?

[Daniel Weston]

It's a series 5, can't remember all the letters and digits in the price description but a couple of forum members have got the same one....

[M@RNE]

I have the 51' samsung plasma.
I watched football on channel 176 with none of the problems explained by you.
I would still try another hdmi cable just to test it. otherwise check your dstv signal strengh when on channel 176 maybe the signal dips.

[Daniel Weston]

Let me try and I will post back tomorrow night...

[KenMasters]

I doubt it very much as this only really happens on channel 176. I was watching footie on Sunday and when they show close ups of the players faces, it sort of blurs slightly when the players walks. Almost like there's a covering of vaseline over the face. Not sure if that makes sense but ja....

Plasmas still don't have the same motion clarity of CRTs. The phosphors have slightly different excitation and decay times, so when things move they shift apart slightly, even if the motion resolution is a full 1080p. That makes images loose focus slightly.

Could also just be DSTV's poor compression on some programming, but then it should be relatively obvious to pick up that it's the signal (certain areas of the face lag behind other areas during movement).

[Daniel Weston]

All makes sense but its just odd that I don't get the same issue with cricket in HD. Will check the obvious things tonight...

[Daniel Weston]

Just an update. I changed the HDMI cable over and still the same flickering.

I'm watching HD football at the moment and there's no flickering but I did change the aspect ratio from 5 (which looks like a slightly zoomed aspect) to aspect 1 which is full screen but the players on the field are a little smaller.

Could there be any correlation between the smaller aspect ratio and no flickering?
Cheers

[Daniel Weston]

Just an update. I still have the 'flickering' on HD sport channels and it's driving me nuts  . Is there anyone in the Gauteng region that has the same telly of mine that I could come and visit to see if my eye picks up the same?

Just to refresh, it's a Samsung series 5 50" full HD plasma, model PS50C550.

I think a couple of forum members have got the same telly- just can't remember who!

[KenMasters]

Just an update. I still have the 'flickering' on HD sport channels and it's driving me nuts  . Is there anyone in the Gauteng region that has the same telly of mine that I could come and visit to see if my eye picks up the same?

Just to refresh, it's a Samsung series 5 50" full HD plasma, model PS50C550.

I think a couple of forum members have got the same telly- just can't remember who!

As I mentioned before, is it not maybe "floating blacks"? If it's just one quick flash you're seeing across the entire screen every now and then, then that's what it is. When the overall screen light output hits a certain point, the black level jumps a notch, which comes across like a flash.

I know for a fact that the B550 does it as I calibrated one a while back. I seem to recall seeing the C550 do it as well, but that could just be my memory playing tricks.

[Daniel Weston]

Thanks KM. Yes, I recall the comments and yep, its sort of like a quick flash but what also gets me is that the players faces look a bit 'gooey' when the camera shows close ups of the players moving about. I just haven't seen this on any other plasmas of this size. Would you suggest that I take it in to the agents based on my descriptions?

[KenMasters]

Thanks KM. Yes, I recall the comments and yep, its sort of like a quick flash but what also gets me is that the players faces look a bit 'gooey' when the camera shows close ups of the players moving about. I just haven't seen this on any other plasmas of this size. Would you suggest that I take it in to the agents based on my descriptions?

Okay, well, the player's faces looking "gooey" is something unrelated to the flashing. The C550 loses resolution during motion, not a lot but enough to cause slight bluring during motion. It also exhibits phosphor lag, when things move, the red, green and blue phosphors split apart from one another as they have slightly different rates of excitation and decay ( http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/plasma-phosphor-trail-2007040133.htm ), this combined with the drop in motion resolution is probably what's causing the waxy look you're noticing.

These are all the sorts of things most people don't pick up on, but once you notice them you'll always pick up on them. I could be wrong, but I don't think there's anything wrong with your panel. Still worth getting someone over who knows what he's talking about to come take a look.