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Brand new 55 Q9FN, terrible panel quality

(Topic created on: 09-11-2018 03:05 PM)
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DarkKnight90UK
Apprentice
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Hi, 

 

I've just switched from a 49 MU7000 to a 55 Q9FN and was giddy with excitement about finally owning a top end TV. 

 

Unfortunately, I've either received a dud or there's an inherent problem with the tech; for HDR (and even SDR content), the screen goes /incredibly/ dark during dark scenes. We aren't talking perfect QLED blacks here; all detail is lost, UNLESS I leave a white menu screen up. 20180627_195814.jpg

 

20180627_195825.jpg

 As you can see from the photos. Annoyingly, I'm also using an S9 to take the photos so it does a better job of amplifying the incoming light, but believe me when I say it's even worse than the TV is showing. I would estimate that the unlit picture is displaying at <10 nits. 

 

I ascribed this to either a problem with local dimming or eco mode, but modifying both of those settings made no difference. It's making using the tv for anything other than bright content unusable, and I didn't honestly expect a £3000 TV to be notably worse than a £700 TV. 

 

Please advise. 

 

P.S: Why have Samsung removed the ability to change audio languages when playing from a USB source? All of my movies are playing in Italian or Portuguese with no way to change it. 

168 REPLIES 168
endpoint101
Navigator
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@Harry_P wrote:

I have a two week old Q9FN, and while watching "The Haunting of Hill House" I'm experiencing the brightness/flickering issue. That is,  during a dark scene, initially it is dim and then all of a sudden when subtitles show up the screen brightness goes up, as if someone turned on the room light in the scene. Really distracting and taking away from the immersion. 

I'd like to think that the issue is due to faulty panel otherwise I don't see how not too many people are complaining about it. It is terrible.


Same here; mine is 2 weeks old and I've noticed the same kind of issues you're describing here. I've seen it in brighter scenes too.. then the scene changes, and the TV noticably dims down to a new brightness level over the course of a second. 

 

It was very apparent on the Netflix profile selection screen; I'd have one of the icons selected & the brightness went right down, then move to an icon near the middle of the screen and it ramps up again, yet nothing has really changed on the screen.. just which icon was selected.

 

It's very frustrating that it's suffering from these kinds of issues when its the 2018 flagship model. I'm running the latest firmware (Oct). It feels like a software/algorithm issue to me.

 

I'm trying out the Natural mode with a few tweaks, which seems to be better (but very bright). And this is mostly with non-HDR content.. haven't watched enough HDR on Netflix to comment on that yet.

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Harry_P
Journeyman
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This is issue has actually been reported by several people as far as I know. Please let us know if you find some configuration that is good enough to watch and minimizes that brightness defect.

 

If it's a software/algorithm issue, then the only reason I can think of as to why Samsung hasn't fixed it yet in a firmware upgrade, would be that fixing that could break other stuff, which would suggest that the issue is never going to be fixed. But I'm guessing we're not going to get an update on that from Samsung.

 

Someone reported in this thread that it could be a Netflix specific issue and that many TVs behave the same way (i.e. dimming and then changing brightness level back up) but I've seen this in Amazon Prime and other content as well, so I don't think that's the case. For example, if it was an issue related to the HDR metadata passed on to the Samsung TV, as opossed to dolby vision meta data on TVs that support that format, then this shouldn't be happening on HDR10+ content right (i.e. Amazon Prime)?

 

it's really dissapointing that people are spending several thousand Euros/Dollars/<currency here> for a flagship TV, only to realize that the panel suffers from banding, DSE and dimming/brightness issues.

 

A week after purchasing the 65' Q9FN I went to a friend who owns a 5year old Sony TV to watch some football, and I was like, wow, the image is so good, no banding or DSE or any other distraction. It's a shame.  

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Harry_P
Journeyman
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If it's a an algorithm/software issue, then the only reason Samsung hasn't fixed it yet is because if they do, they'll break other stuff I assume.

 

Someone here mentioned it might be a Netflix issue that can be observed on several other TV brands, however I have the same issue on Amazon prime and other sources. So it's most probably not an HDR/HDR10+/luck of dobly vision issue.

 

People are spending several thousand dollars/euros/whatever to buy a flagship TV, only to find that it's suffering from DSE, banding and dimming/brightness issue.

 

I went to a friend the other day to watch football and was impressed by his 5y old Sony TV. No banding, no DSE just pure football. What a shame those new TVs.

 

Finally, where do you look when you want to buy a new TV? Reviews. and none of the reviewers seem to have hit any of the issues mentioned here. Or have they?

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paul1277
Black Belt 
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@Harry_P wrote:

If it's a an algorithm/software issue, then the only reason Samsung hasn't fixed it yet is because if they do, they'll break other stuff I assume.

 

Someone here mentioned it might be a Netflix issue that can be observed on several other TV brands, however I have the same issue on Amazon prime and other sources. So it's most probably not an HDR/HDR10+/luck of dobly vision issue.

 

People are spending several thousand dollars/euros/whatever to buy a flagship TV, only to find that it's suffering from DSE, banding and dimming/brightness issue.

 

I went to a friend the other day to watch football and was impressed by his 5y old Sony TV. No banding, no DSE just pure football. What a shame those new TVs.

 

Finally, where do you look when you want to buy a new TV? Reviews. and none of the reviewers seem to have hit any of the issues mentioned here. Or have they?


I will always say report it as a fault to your retailers straight away. They are responsible under consumer law not Samsung. If in the first 4 weeks and you report it and tell them you are waiting for Samsung to fix and if they do not then you should be covered for a replacement or refund. If you leave after 4 weeks then it is normally up to Samsung to decide if it is fault or not and if they send an engineer around who says no fault you could end up paying for the visit. I had a q9f which was awful dull HDR in Netflix,  blooming and Samsung tech said it was within spec!  They did agree to a refund through. 

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Harry_P
Journeyman
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I had already a panel replaced. The new one is better with regard to DSE, banding etc. but it's still there, which for such an expensive TV set, is not nice. Or the issue with the dimming/brightness which is the main topic of this thread. I'm not going to play the panel lottery game and exchange 10 TVs or replace panels until I find one that is better than the others. Simply put, for me not being satisfied means that I won't be buying any more samsung products or recommend them to others.

If Samsung was a more customer centric company, i.e. follow all these problems mentioned in this forum and give some updates, it'd be totally different. For example, is this issue with the dimming blacks actually an issue on some TVs, or all Samsung TVs of that model? Is it software/hardware? If it's former, is Samsung working on a fix for it in a future firmware update?
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Ainkurn
Explorer
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Hello there

I just bought a 55q9fn and I have the same issues with subtitles. The whole panel brightness goes up as soon as the subtitles appear. Any solutions?

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endpoint101
Navigator
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I've been perservering with the TV (55" Q9FN) over the last few days. What I ended up doing was resetting the picture modes, then tweaked them a bit to my liking. I was actually blown away by Altered Carbon in HDR on Netflix (built-in app), and Gravity (HD on Netflix) looked great too.. very little issues with the brightness levelling up/down. I do notice it now and again though, so the problem hasn't gone completely.

 

Here are the settings I used; 

- Turn off eco mode + ambient light detection

- Tweaked 'Standard' (non-HDR) mode to;

  • Bl: 36
  • Br: 0
  • Con: 50
  • Sh: 0
  • Col: 25
  • Tint: 0
  • Dig Cl: Auto
  • M+: Off
  • Loc Dim: Standard
  • Cont En: Low
  • Col Tone: Standard

I didn't see any big problems with subtitles, certainly nothing like I was seeing a few days ago.

It isn't perfect, but is a big improvement from the awful full-screen dimming behaviour I saw before.

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Ainkurn
Explorer
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@endpoint101 wrote:

I've been perservering with the TV (55" Q9FN) over the last few days. What I ended up doing was resetting the picture modes, then tweaked them a bit to my liking. I was actually blown away by Altered Carbon in HDR on Netflix (built-in app), and Gravity (HD on Netflix) looked great too.. very little issues with the brightness levelling up/down. I do notice it now and again though, so the problem hasn't gone completely.

 

Here are the settings I used; 

- Turn off eco mode + ambient light detection

- Tweaked 'Standard' (non-HDR) mode to;

  • Bl: 36
  • Br: 0
  • Con: 50
  • Sh: 0
  • Col: 25
  • Tint: 0
  • Dig Cl: Auto
  • M+: Off
  • Loc Dim: Standard
  • Cont En: Low
  • Col Tone: Standard

I didn't see any big problems with subtitles, certainly nothing like I was seeing a few days ago.

It isn't perfect, but is a big improvement from the awful full-screen dimming behaviour I saw before.


Hey there. Thanks for the answer.

I've seen some post about the same problem at other forums. Do you think is a faulty panel or just a firmware issue?. I only see the problem with hdr content I think because the nits of the whites are higher than non hdr content. Do you think this is the problem? Thanks

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paul1277
Black Belt 
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@Ainkurn wrote:

@endpoint101 wrote:

I've been perservering with the TV (55" Q9FN) over the last few days. What I ended up doing was resetting the picture modes, then tweaked them a bit to my liking. I was actually blown away by Altered Carbon in HDR on Netflix (built-in app), and Gravity (HD on Netflix) looked great too.. very little issues with the brightness levelling up/down. I do notice it now and again though, so the problem hasn't gone completely.

 

Here are the settings I used; 

- Turn off eco mode + ambient light detection

- Tweaked 'Standard' (non-HDR) mode to;

  • Bl: 36
  • Br: 0
  • Con: 50
  • Sh: 0
  • Col: 25
  • Tint: 0
  • Dig Cl: Auto
  • M+: Off
  • Loc Dim: Standard
  • Cont En: Low
  • Col Tone: Standard

I didn't see any big problems with subtitles, certainly nothing like I was seeing a few days ago.

It isn't perfect, but is a big improvement from the awful full-screen dimming behaviour I saw before.


Hey there. Thanks for the answer.

I've seen some post about the same problem at other forums. Do you think is a faulty panel or just a firmware issue?. I only see the problem with hdr content I think because the nits of the whites are higher than non hdr content. Do you think this is the problem? Thanks


I have had a ks9500 brill HDR,  q9f terrible HDR and 8k telly which is brill. The q9fn is top of the range and should not disapoint. If within the first 30 days you can say you are not happy and ask for a replacement and then be sure. 

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Harry_P
Journeyman
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Most probably firmware. I've had the same issue on two different panels. Oh, and no comments from Samsung on this, most probably means we're stuck with that behavior.

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