Happy Hour

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday March 24, 2008

Nick Galvin and Simon Tsang

Samsung's firmware update for its top-line TVs has had some good results, report Nick Galvin and Simon Tsang.

Samsung's F8 series TVs and the Motion Plus 100Hz issue continues to provoke a great deal of lively debate, both in Troubleshooter's mailbox and over at the DTV Forum (www.dtvforum.info).

You may remember that last week reader Brendan Cislowski was awaiting delivery of his new Samsung TV but was concerned about reports of problems with Motion Plus.

Well, Cislowski has got his TV and overall, he says, he's happy with his purchase, which has been a "smooth and pleasant experience" - apart, that is, from the Motion Plus dramas.

As we revealed, Samsung has released a software update for the TV. Samsung's technical marketing manager, John Fragidakis, is emphatic that this is not a firmware patch as such; rather "it's like changing the contrast and colour balance settings". He explains that this is an alternative range of settings to alter the effects of Motion Plus, a feature that designed to reduce the juddering and ghosting effects that bedevil LCD TVs, especially when displaying fast-moving scenes.

And now hot on the heels of firmware update 2012 comes another new and improved firmware update - 2013 (you'll find it at www.samsung.com/au/f8/f8-firmware-1013.zip).

Initial reports from the DTV Forum on the results from this latest update are largely positive, with several of the posters there keen to contact Troubleshooter to tell us the issue is fixed.

Here's a typical extract from one email: "Yes, it did not perform as advertised but with the latest firmware updates, this LCD TV is now a beauty. Quite an unhappy customer at first but now one of the most satisfied customers of this product and will definitely buy from Samsung again since they have recognised the issue and solved it after feedback from customers."

Samsung, which is naturally concerned about any adverse publicity surrounding its flagship TVs, invited us to see the difference for ourselves, so we sent square-eyed Icon editor, Simon Tsang to look into it. With two F8 TVs sitting side-by-side - one with the update installed and the other with the standard settings out of the box - there was definitely a noticeable difference in the way Motion Plus handled fast-moving scenes.

The original issue some customers on the DTV forum had with Motion Plus was that when switched to the "high" setting, there was a "halo" effect surrounding objects moving across a fast-panning scene. Fragidakis explains there is a trade-off between smoothing the judder in the background and reducing the halo effect. To demonstrate that this issue isn't unique to Samsung, he had a third TV from a leading competitor hooked up to display the same scenes.

The 1013 update aims to provide a more subtle balance between the halo and the judder for those who don't like the out-of-box settings. We have to admit, we prefer the new settings, too.

However, in the interests of resolving this once and for all, Samsung has offered to lend us a TV, which will be installed in the Troubleshooter cocktail lounge for a few days. We'll get back to you on how things look.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home