46G20 motion and banding issues

[admin_exported]

I've took the plunge and got a 46G20 last Thursday. Last night was the first night I got to have a good play around with. What a piece of POO. To say I'm disappointed is an understatement.

The good bits are the black levels they are as good as everyone says. Not that much better than the 46C750 I must admit but they were a lot more solid on images with large areas of black and no floating blacks. So far so good. Watching The Deep on BBC HD had really bad colour banding all the way through. On faces around the cheeks and spot light walls. The exterior scenes were worse still. It's as if there are not enough colours available to make up the image. I switched over to The Bourne Identity on ITV HD still the same colour banding. I put on a couple of bds. The Dark Knight, Watchmen and Toy Story 2. These were fine with regards banding but had other issues. I also watch some of Smallville recorded in sd of Sky+ through rgb scart. The colour banding was really bad. The second issue is motion everything changes hue when it moves or there is anything more than a slow pan. It also creates a blur. This is worse the better the source. The Batpod sequence in DK was just unwatchable. Just a mass of green tinted blur. I ended having to turn the tv off due to headache from eye strain.

The settings are THX mode, contrast down 3 clicks, all processing off, sharpness 0 and no direct lighting on the screen. Power through a tacima with ony the tv and Sky+ box in. I also tried a Chord Superscreen cable.

Can anyone shed any light? At the moment I'm going to give until Wednesday the it's going back. Looks like my AV days are over after 17 years.

 

[Oldboy]

Hi,

Sorry you feel like that about your G20 but my 42G20 has none of the issues you highlight above and i have never seen colour banding like that on my unit for sure and i am ultra critical when it comes to PQ! I have also never seen any sign of the blurring, i had several lcd's prior to this and they were like you describe...awfull blurring even on my 40EX503 but the G20 has seen an end to the problem i suffered from with lcd and is one of the major reasons i went over to plasma. Across all sources i have eliminated the problem with this tv, even low quality signals over my Vbox (Dave) which is scarted don't suffer atall!

Those motion issues are also worrying....i have never seen this on my tv even when viewing Virgin tv over a scart connection and that is the lowest quality signal i have so if it was going to happen then this is where i would expect to see it but it simply doesn't happen atall and i find it very worrying that it gets worse the better the source....that just doesn't sound right to me i'm afraid! For me the better the source the better the picture which is how it should be, no?

I don't use the settings in that way however, i have seperate settings for tv, bluray player and games but i can't see how that would have a major impact on the PQ. I'm struggling to come up with some answers for you as to what is happening here tbh, i wonder if the 46" has a different screen/panel to the 42" perhaps?? Or even worse you have a faulty tv?? Would be really helpfull if someone else with a 46" replied with their thoughts because i'm sitting here wondering if we even have the same tv (apart from screen size) because you describe a completely different tv to the one i have had the past month or so

I hope that is of some help to you

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. I looked at a few 42G20 and 46G20 and 42V20 in various stores and never saw picture quality as poor as I'm getting. I'll see about taking it back getting another. By the way I'm sitting 3m or so away from the screen. I don't think that it is a case of the screen being to big for the viewing distance.

 

[Anonymous]

Watched some more bits of tv today. The chinese lanterns on the ITV indent just before The Spy Who Loved Me were all suffering from bad colour banding on ITV HD. The trailer for The Deep before Vexed on BBC HD had really bad banding all the way through. Also watch a bit more of The Dark Knight. In chapter 20 (the chase) all the van internal scenes with Harvey Dent show banding as the blue iterior fades to the black in the top left hand corner. The motion blurring wasn't quite as bad. hopefully the tv will settle down over the next few days. The colour banding is so bad though the wife comments on it!

 

[Anonymous]

ive seen some mild colour banding on my v20 , not much though , it doesnt bother me ..

when i got my g10 last year i remember it looked better after a few weeks , hopefully your g20 will too nsy ..

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Max. I decided to go for the G20 after the Samsung because there seemed to be a lot of positive things said on here. I can't take it back till at least Wed or Thurs. I'll leave the tv running whenever I can up till then to see if it settles down. On the scnes where it's not showing any problems the image is fantastic. The aerial shots in DK where the convoy is heading towards the burning fire engine are great. Lots of detail in the image even though they are night time shots. There was no colour banding at all on the 46C750 just the lcd motion issue which I must be drawn to.

I would have thought any issues would be excagerated(?) on a 50" screen. I'm glad your happy with it. This is the first time I've ever been really unhappy with an av purchase. The wife is surprised I'm wound up by it. I'm normally a very laid back person.

 

[Anonymous]

just read your initial post again nsy , and to be honest it sounds like your tv is faulty , i think you would be better off returning it and getting another one , if not then you will probably end up fed up with the tv if its still suffering from these issues , thats no good having spent £1000....

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Max. I think that is going to be the best course of action. Maybe a 46VT is the way to go.

 

[Oldboy]

NSYGrinner,

Something is wrong here and i suspect that you unfortunately have a faulty set, sorry i know how frustrating it is as i went through 6 faulty sony lcd's in a row (must be a record lol). I wouldn't hold it against the G20 though and perhaps give it one more go with a replacement before getting something else as it's a fantastic tv when working correctly and i couldn't be happier unless mine was a larger screen size.

I couldn't check the ITV HD and BBC HD issues as i'm waiting for a freesat HD install but i did test the Dark Knight scene you refered to and my tv has no issues with this scene with a smooth transition between the scenes and no sign of the banding in the top left hand corner and no blurring atall.

I very much doubt that a period of run in will solve your issues as commonly it's things like phosphour trailing that tend to fade away after a run in and that has been the case for me. When i first turned the tv on there was quite alot of trailing and i got concerned but it's pretty much gone completely now after about a month to settle down but i doubt your issues will go away like that and you don't want to be waiting a month or so to find out so i would return your tv asap. Would be nice to know how you get on if you replace it with another G20 or even a totally different tv so keep me up to date if you can.

Wish you all the best and hope you get the tv replaced soon.

 

[Anonymous]

Oldboy: Reading your exploits with Sony and coupled with your satisfaction with the G20 was one of the many reasons I plumped for G20 also. It's all boxed up now and ready to go back tomorrow. I'm going to ask for a refund then buy another set.

I did a bit more watching this evening. The X-box trail at the start of PGR4 had banding on it. Never seen that before. I also watched abit of Tranformers 2 on Sky Premier (sd) the picture very muted and soft (can't really use the word blurred to describe it). I also watch the start of T2 later on. Again on Sky sd. There was banding on all the searchlights on the hunter killers.

 

[Oldboy]

NSYGrinner,

That all points to a faulty set imo then as i play PGR4 alot and have never seen the banding at the start. I'm sorry if my post was partly to blame for your choice of tv (i accept no responsibility though lol) but mine has been fabulous and is only getting better with time, it's strange that your 46g20 has these issues when my 42g20 dosen't!?

Just out of interest what are you going to do with your refund, will you try another g20 or has the damage already been done as far as you are concerned?

Best regards

Oldboy.

 

[Anonymous]

I got a refund and bought anothe 46G20 yesterday.

I've not really had chance to sit down and do really get to grips with tweaking it yet, but first impressions are very favourable. The motion problems are vitually non extistant. There is no green tinge on moving objects that I can see. Their is some slight banding but nothing like before. I watched The Deep on BBC HD last night. There was some banding on certain scenes but way way down on last weeks episode. i noticed that there was no hD logo in the corner so maybe it's n upscaled programme. A lad at work said he noticed banding on Freeview SD last week and took it that it was the transimission not the tv that was at fault. I also watch some of The Dark Knight. Banding was still evident to some extreme on the van interior. Most noticable at 1hr 16 when the guard says something like "They're going to need something bigger than that to break through this". There is slight banding towards the top left again. Nothing to worry about though. I'm sure that will settle down. The motion was very very good. The scene where the first police car to gets pushed out of the way across the central reserve was clear and watchable. No banding on any of the dust in crash scenes.

I think this one is a keeper. My settings are THX with one click up fro brightness. All processing off. I have not updated the firmware yet either. Vierra cast tells me I need to but I'll leave that for now.

I Still think the picture is a little on the soft side and not as detailed as the Samsung 46C750 at the moment. The sound is nowhere near as good but perfectly acceptable. I think the 4 star review in WHF is justified.

The conclusion I have come to from my experience with this set, is that it really must be hard fr WHF to review tvs. What with the vastly differing performance between sets. My first one would have only got 1 maybe 2 stars at the most.

 

[Anonymous]

good news nsy , regarding the softer (more natural methinks) picture , trust me you will get used to that and wonder how you ever watched lcds

..

i have to say your horror story had me checking my own tv with the dark knight blu-ray , but it passed with flying colours , thank god

 

[Anonymous]

Max: I pleased for that you finally got the tv you wanted and are really happy with it.

The Dark Knight seems to have become my movie of choice for testing things out. I can't believe the difference between the 2 sets. The opening fly-by scene is now rock steady and quite breath taking filling up the whle screen. The Limestone/concrete building on the right is now stable no blurring or green tinge. I have watched the opening scene to 'Horton Hears A Who' and found the colours not to be quite as vibrant as I remember from the old crt. I think things like this are just due to settings and the tv needed to be run in.

I'm sure your right that I will get used to the plasma image. I recall it took a while to get used to the 100hz crt image. I do wonder just how good the image could improve with something like a Sony BDP 370/570 over my existing BDP350?

I don't think Samsung are doing themselves any favours by not sending a review sample of the C750 models to WHF. Having moved to the plasma I realise how good a tv it was. The blacks levels and colours were excellent, the tuner good and the sound really quite good. The Internet@tv is better than Vierra cast and it supports a wide range of file types for streaming.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

maxflinn:

good news nsy , regarding the softer (more natural methinks) picture , trust me you will get used to that and wonder how you ever watched lcds

..

i have to say your horror story had me checking my own tv with the dark knight blu-ray , but it passed with flying colours , thank god

Max, i am starting to wonder if my tv is 100% okay sometimes i am experiencing blurry images which i was not before, i have someone coming out friday to look at it, what do you think?

Thanks

 

[TKratz]

NSYGrinner:

The Dark Knight seems to have become my movie of choice for testing things out. I can't believe the difference between the 2 sets. The opening fly-by scene is now rock steady and quite breath taking filling up the whle screen. The Limestone/concrete building on the right is now stable no blurring or green tinge. I have watched the opening scene to 'Horton Hears A Who' and found the colours not to be quite as vibrant as I remember from the old crt. I think things like this are just due to settings and the tv needed to be run in.

It is quite worrying how picture performance vary from one set to another?
Maybe I missed it, but did actually get a final outcome whether the previous set was faulty or not?

 

[Anonymous]

I got the tv from Costco so it was a no quibble refund. Going by how the new tv performs campared to the last it's like a night and day difference. I have not updated the firmware, which I did straight away with the last set. just incase that had anything to do with it

 

[Deleted member 2457]

NSYGrinner:I got the tv from Costco so it was a no quibble refund. Going by how the new tv performs campared to the last it's like a night and day difference. I have not updated the firmware, which I did straight away with the last set. just incase that had anything to do with it

Hi NSYGrinner, i don't know if you have been reading bits on my tv but i am starting to worry there could be something not right with mine, any ideas with how i could tell for sure, i am having someone look at it friday but just wanted to try and confirm in my own mind first.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

I just watched stuff which I was quite familiar with. If things didn't seem right I made a note. i then watched the same footage with slightly different settings. With regards to colour banding I alway had it in THX mode then adjusted combinations of brightness/contrast and played around with off/mid resoultion enhancer. I always had IFC, overscan etc off. The blurring appeared no matter what the input. Even movement on a static screen blurred. When the blurring occured there was always a greeish tint to moving parts of the image. A good test was the opening fly-by shot on The Dark Knight. As the camera heads towards the glass buliding it stayed stable and in focus. The white concrete/limestone building to the right blurred and had a green tinge. On the new set it is rock solid.

Other thn that I do really know what to say. Sorry, I'm no expert on these things at all. I didn't expect much of an improvement of sd material but the idea of bds not being any better than a sd crt was not acceptable.

If you are not happy with the set then see about getting it swapped now. I'd hate for you to be a few months down the line and still unhappy, having missed the chance to solve the problem. I would have thought the image would be even clearer on a 42" where there is a greater dpi. On Friday don't be afraid to say you are not happy with the product no matter what the store rep' says. You are after all the only one who deserves to be happy with the set.

Were things better or worse with the 50" compared to the 42"?

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Hi, thanks for excellent response

i know that scence in the dark knight, i did play that blu ray the other day and was not 100% sure if things were right on that clip. I will have another look at that tonight.

Going to the 42inch one did not look good to be honest and the screen was really dark, too dark. So i ask them the next day could i change back and they said yes.

This time i have had the firmware update done as well but first time i did not, do you know what it does?

Cheers

You know i have a small samsung tv and the picture is looking good on that one compared to this at present, i am no expert on these matters either. But before it was clearing it by alot.

I have just been talking to some other people and they are saying to make sure i am 100% happy too friday.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

gel , what exactly is it you see that bothers you ?? are you sure your not just starting to worry a bit too much and are looking for faults ??

 

[Anonymous]

I find the image darker than on the old crt also. Mainly on sd material. I now have the Sky box set to high contrast and this helps greatly.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

NSYGrinner:I find the image darker than on the old crt also. Mainly on sd material. I now have the Sky box set to high contrast and this helps greatly.

Yep, i have the contrast quite high on this one and now looks okay.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

maxflinn:gel , what exactly is it you see that bothers you ?? are you sure your not just starting to worry a bit too much and are looking for faults ??

The image is blury at times and is nowhere near like before and i had just been reading this thread and i not 100% sure.

What do you think? Also what does that firmware update do?

Also on the 42inch one the image was blurry at times thinking about it.

Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

ok , one step at a time ..

blurry when watching what source , blu-ray ? dvds ? hd tv broadcasts ? sd tv ?

what settings are you using ? dynamic ?