UE40B7000 - Backlight Bleed, Flicker and judder

[admin_exported]

Hi all

Just thought I'd post some comments on the new Samsung LED tv.

I have spent probably the last year dithering about which new tv to get to replace my 10 year old Sony 32" Triniton. I did look at getting a Sony LCD at Christmas but ultimately was put off with major issues re backlight bleed and was informed that LED would eliminate this..

Any how on Friday I took delivery of a new UE40B7000 LED TV. Which seemed ok in the shop (quite impressive runing Wall-E). But their are a number of problems I found with it.

Backlight bleed.

Boy does it have it. All four corners were bad with a fringe of bleed all round the edge. Clouding was also very evident at times and at least as bad as some of the old Sony youTube clips I've seen. Back light needed turning down to 2 which still showed slight signs of bleed but less noticeable, however you then lose the wow factor you had with regards contrast ratios

Motion Judder

I'm assuming the following is what you'd class as motion judder. But playing Quantum of Solice from the PS3 (DVD version) the motion in the fast scenes wasn't smooth. and almost jumped about a bit like a bad mpeg web movie. playing around with the MotionPlus setting didn't help much but seemed better when it was turned off.... (So what's the point of that then). In fact motion was better (but not great) when in game mode but then all the fancy picture processing that your paying for are turned off and not selectable.

Flicker

The main problem I found was a strange flicker. that ran across the screen in lines of half a cm to one cm all the way down. And once notice it's very distracting. It is only faint but it's there. And is more noticeable on cartoons with solid colours and also in the softer focus backgrounds (behind the main characters). But even our lass noticed it and generally she thinks i'm being too anal about things. - she discribed it as 'wobbly' and said her eyes were sore from watching it. I thought it may have been from the new SR607 that everything was run through as the SR606 had noteable problems with video but there was no upconversion by the SR and it was all visible on the tvs own turner and test picture. - And to be fair even my step dad who only has one eye noticed it!

Now I appreciate that this could be a bad set but it's something to look out for. I have got in touch with the suppliers who's tech department issued me with a refund/exchange number they didn't ask alot of questions or suggest trying anything out so maybe it a fault they've had before. And the customer services (who I went to next) said someone would ring re collection and that I'd get a refund so in one sense all should be fine (apart from the fact I'll be down the cost of the wifi dongle).

I must say that this has put me off the Samsungs and the whole LCD/LED tv thing all together. Even if the flickering is a fault. I wouldn't have another due to backlight and motion.

Now I know someone will scream plasma at me and maybe that's the way to go but have always been put off by burn-in especially with regards to games etc... But then the laugh is the Samsung manual also warns not to display images for a long period and that burn-in and retention are not covered by warranty.

Still it has to be said the TV looks very nice when turned of!

 

[D.J.KRIME]

Personally I use a Plasma and play lots of games and have never had any issues with perminant image retension, nor have many others on here so I would not let that worry you if you were to go the Plaz route.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with DJ Krime. I fell asleep watching a dvd and there was a static logo on-screen when I awoke. I changed the channel, then went back to a black screen - no screen burn or even a hint of image retention. The logo must have been there for about 5-6 hours.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies.

I think I will probably look into a plasma more now. Must say although the above screen must have a fault re the flickering, as I went to tescos and couldn't see the same effect on their Technitek (or what ever) cheap TVs. I must confess having to turn the backlight down so much to get acceptable screen clouding did seem to be a backward step. And Again turning off Motion Flow to get bearly acceptable fast motion agains seems daft. May be I'm asking to much in expecting a new tv to give me more in every way then my old CRT but it just seems that in areas tv's have taken a backward step.. no motion judder /coulding on a CRT!

One other thing I noticed before I put it back in its box was that on a DVD of 007 QoS the characters had white halos round them. You had to be on top of the screen to notice but there there. Is this another LCD thing? Or could this be due to the 'faulty' screen.

 

[ElectroMan]

Do you mean characters in the film, rather than the titles?

Either way, you shouldn't be seeing anything like that - either the set is faulty, or some of the default settings are way too high.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes it was on the characters. Not that it's and issues now their picking it up on Friday.

However re the flickering lines I found this on wiki in regards to LCD screens:

"Horizontal and/or vertical banding is a problem in some LCD screens. This flaw occurs as part of the manufacturing process, and cannot be repaired (short of total replacement of the screen). Banding can vary substantially even among LCD screens of the same make and model. The degree is determined by the manufacturer's quality control procedures."

One for people to look out for.