Badly needed advice on new LCD tv.....

[Davo2008]

HI, I got the Samsung LE46A856 yesterday. The sound is so bad, it's almost impossible to listen to. Hollow and tinny. will have to switch the amp on every time I switch the TV on and leave the volume right down... forever!

Also, out off the box, my TV SD picture was so bad I couldn't believe it! Have got a calibration DVD to use tonight, so hopefully that will improve things but I have one question. I seem to recall LCD tvs ALWAYS looking bad from brand new and taking a few hours of being on to "wear in", after which time the picture significantly improves. Can anyone confirm that and say how long tvs generally take to settle? And is it pointless to calibrate it until it's settled in (assuming I'm not talking rubbish)??

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Some pertinent questions:

1 - How far away from the TV are you when viewing?

2 - What channel were you watching via what source (eg Dave via Sky box or BBC1 via freeview) or did you try several?

3 - What connections do you have from your AMP (and directly from other sources) to the TV for video and audio - HDMI, Scart, Composite, S-Video ??

My LCD TV (bought last year) had a great picture from the start, the calibration 'calmed things down' a bit from showroom settings, otherwise it worked well straight out of the box.

 

[Davo2008]

I was afraid you'd say that!

I'm sitting about 6 meters away. Unfortunately I don't have Sky HD, so connection is direct from Sky+ to TV via scart (with optical out from sky box to amp). I started with the kids channels (as my kids were watching it) then my wife watched Escape to the country while I raged over the settings. interestingly, by the end of the night the picture was looking mile better than it did at the start, which made me think about the "wearing in" period. My last TV was a Sharp Aquos that EHF gave 3 stars, but I thought was excellent. I did a lot of research on this new Samsung and I refuse to believe that it's a £1200 disaster! I'm definitely going to work on the calibration tonight. The TV default settings were all half way on every setting.

 

[Anonymous]

OK - so the viewing distance is good. Connectivity is good enough. While we wait to see if anyone responds with experience of 'running in' I can only advise that picture quality on Sky channels varies greatly. So Dave generally looks poor whilst BBC is very good, so expect some variation.

Settings at half way isn't usually a bad start - they often have contrast to the max. Typical good advice on these forums is to switch off any manufacturer-specific features to begin with. I'm not familiar with your set so wouldn't know what those might be - check the marketing blurb, then find the features in your menu and switch 'em off!

 

[Davo2008]

That's really helpful, thanks. All I need now is for someone to say "Don't worry, with another few hours use it'll be perfect" to pull me back from the brink! Normally, though, I found that the cartoon channels were always the best looking (probably something to do with vivid colours etc), so I was suprised and horrified to see that they looked bad as well!

 

[Anonymous]

what kind of scart lead are you using?

 

[Davo2008]

Not sure, but it's a big, thick, shielded, gold-plated monster. Had it on my old TV and the picture was excellent.