Seiki SE50UY04 3840x2160 50" TV ($1300)

toxsickcity said:
from memory this tv does not have backlight adjustments default..
on stardard firmware you have backlight in service menu
ie: Menu -> 0000

see backlight in there

otherwise read the last 3-4 pages of this post. and see details about the custom firmwares etc...

I know the seikidigital firmware on website support backlight with normal menu

but custom 50in firmware does not.. I use it in the service menu.

To flash a tv's firmware..

the install file from the firmware zip must be copied to a flash drive and formatted as FAT 32 or FAT 16 one of them..

no other files can be on the flash drive.. only the install file in the root..

goto Menu -> 0000 and see option to flash the firmware...

the instructions on their website are BULL$HIT..
Click to expand...

I flashed firmware (I've tried 2 or 3 different ones), and I've adjusted the backlight settings, from both the main configuration window, and the service menu. When I adjust it though, it doesn't seem to do anything (the brightness / backlight doesn't seem to change). Is there a significant different between 0 and 100?

edit: The backlight seems to go to full 'brightness' randomly. I noticed when I touched the back of the display it kept jumping back and forth between full brightness and what I have it set to. It almost seems like there's a hardware problem - I'm having the same issue with multiple different firmwares. Also, my display has a group of what appears to be 2 or 3 dead pixels near the center of the display (images).

Does anyone know what Amazon's exchange / return policy is? I love the display, and I could probably deal with the dead pixels, but the backlight issue is really annoying...

edit2: Contacting Amazon for a return. I'm glad I bought it with them, they're pretty easy to work with.
 
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I brought 2 tvs from amazon in australia from USA
2 of the tv's were dodgy like a weird scuff mark
not quite dead pixels like a panel scratch black line about 2-3mm long on both screens
1 in centre but lower 2/3 of the screen
the other was left most, 1/3 top

AMAZON paid for postage for the replacements and paid postage for me to send them back..
Amazon has great after service.

just ring them and go .. tell them your stressed and you wanted to resell it and tested it first to see it doesn't work properly..

regarding back-light.. in main menu 0-100 does nothing as it's not even there on my firmware..
but the latest 39in tv the firmware DID infact work. 0-100 backlight was dark-very bright
my 50in custom firmware on my 39in tv backlight only works in Service menu..
and works dark to very bright..

then main menu adjust the brightness and contrast..
 
To people who have used seiki's official 120Hz firmware, What kind of scaling are you seing at 1080p@120Hz. Is it still doing the 1 -> 4 pixel doubling or is it doing actual real (and thus crappy) scaling?
 
The one on the FB? I'll give it a try. Got a Nvidia card in so no worries on config. How would I determine bad scaling? That were jpeg looking banding in dark places?
 
Which firmware is the most recent / has the lowest latency for the 39"? I can't find the one the supposedly posted on their facebook page. Is the one 'with backlight and color temp' new (it is dated 2013)?

Basically, if I have a new 39" display, which firmware do you recommend?
 
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xur17 said:
Which firmware is the most recent / has the lowest latency for the 39"? I can't find the one the supposedly posted on their facebook page. Is the one 'with backlight and color temp' new (it is dated 2013)?

Basically, if I have a new 39" display, which firmware do you recommend?
Click to expand...

I am also confused. The firmware from the FB post has a creation date of 08/08/2013. It appears to be the same date as the current firmware on the Seiki website which doesn't do 120hz due to frame skipping.
 
I'm skeptical of the firmware posted on page 70, which is hosted on Dropbox. I haven't been able to find the Seiki Facebook post where this link supposedly originated. Does anyone have a link to the Seiki FB post?

As terracode points out, the last modified date is 8/8/13 on that file. The firmware from the Seiki site has dates of 8/27/13 and 8/28/13.
 
hannibl said:
I'm skeptical of the firmware posted on page 70, which is hosted on Dropbox. I haven't been able to find the Seiki Facebook post where this link supposedly originated. Does anyone have a link to the Seiki FB post?

As terracode points out, the last modified date is 8/8/13 on that file. The firmware from the Seiki site has dates of 8/27/13 and 8/28/13.
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Here's the Facebook post on it. https://www.facebook.com/seikidigital/posts/618887591530318
 
oldredfox, thanks for digging that up. I still find it hard to believe that after knowing about the false claims of 120Hz in their advertising for the 39" for about a year now that they release the fix at the bottom of a Facebook post not related to the issue at all.

I'm running the Facebook firmware now and can confirm no frameskip @ 120Hz. I do still have occasional blanking, as I did with the 50" and modded 50" firmware, as well as an audible buzz when displaying dark images at 1080p.

Someone earlier in the thread said that they ahd no audible buzz when running the display in torch mode-- is this just selecting retail after a firmware install, or is there a deeper setting to bump the backlight up higher than 100. If I could get this thing to stop sounding like a hive of bees I'd be quite happy.
 
So what's the latest news on the aftermarket board to up the display to 60Hz via DP?

I haven't been paying attention lately since I've been busy with my 3D Printer (which fucking rocks, btw)
 
notarat said:
So what's the latest news on the aftermarket board to up the display to 60Hz via DP?

I haven't been paying attention lately since I've been busy with my 3D Printer (which fucking rocks, btw)
Click to expand...
He said 3-4 weeks for prototype, I really hope it works because they can't take my money fast enough.
 
Fuckit I bought one for fun. If aftermarket board shows becomes a possiblity that'll be icing on cake.
 
shiznit said:
He said 3-4 weeks for prototype, I really hope it works because they can't take my money fast enough.
Click to expand...

Here's hoping it comes quick! I've been itching for a second monitor and I can't justify a second 39" seiki unless I can get some 4k60hz action :p
 
This upgrade is gonna have to contend with my need for a 2nd 3D Printer so...I think I may have to flip a coin soon...
 
39" just got delivered, or it did earlier but I just now got home to mess around with it.

Upgraded firmware, 0 sharpening, noise reduction off.. for $500 image is better than I expected.

Desktop with 30hz... yeah mouse just feels sluggish... borderline too sluggish. Turning Aero off feels much better, but then with tons of tearing. I'm going to live with the tearing, the sluggish mouse is just too annoying. 4k is awesome for desktop. 39" is almost too large for desktop.

Gaming. I'm coming from a Yamakasi 27" 1440p@100hz-ish. First of all 39" is awesome, at least so far I'm finding it much better experience than 27". Only 1080p... oh well. 120hz... feels as good as Yamakasi. Input lag... not really noticeable... although I don't really have any FPS games installed at the moment.

Overall, no regrets with the purchase. If upgrade board comes out I'll most certainly buy it.

Oh and... most impressive thing about 4k... MilkDrop2 plugin fullscreen. I could watch this all day.
 
bexamous said:
Gaming. I'm coming from a Yamakasi 27" 1440p@100hz-ish. First of all 39" is awesome, at least so far I'm finding it much better experience than 27". Only 1080p... oh well. 120hz... feels as good as Yamakasi. Input lag... not really noticeable... although I don't really have any FPS games installed at the moment.
Click to expand...


I was coming from the same and I have to say that actually 120Hz felt a bit smoother than the 100Hz I was running my yamakasi off of and the very small 8-9ms of input lag only bugged me on one game and that was quake live. Counter-strike source, tf2, urban terror, etc.. were all fine for 1080p@120Hz but for quakelive (which I play quite competitively) I needed that extra 4-5ms of input lag removed and ran that at 1280x720@240Hz.
 
Maybe obvious but I didn't get this at first: If at 4k you turn off noise reduction, and set color temp and stuff, if you then open a game at 1080p you have to again go in menu to do those things again, in addition there is a new setting zoom mode with standard or dot-to-dot.

I was sitting at starcraft2 new game screen and the dark background that is just a static image looked like it was animated when I moved my mouse near it, due to noise reduction going nuts.
 
bexamous said:
Maybe obvious but I didn't get this at first: If at 4k you turn off noise reduction, and set color temp and stuff, if you then open a game at 1080p you have to again go in menu to do those things again, in addition there is a new setting zoom mode with standard or dot-to-dot.

I was sitting at starcraft2 new game screen and the dark background that is just a static image looked like it was animated when I moved my mouse near it, due to noise reduction going nuts.
Click to expand...

Yes its because the settings for scaled modes vs non-scaled modes is saved seperately... which is a good thing because color changes in the scaled modes and I have to set the color value up way higher (90%+)
 
bexamous said:
Desktop with 30hz... yeah mouse just feels sluggish... borderline too sluggish. Turning Aero off feels much better, but then with tons of tearing. I'm going to live with the tearing, the sluggish mouse is just too annoying. 4k is awesome for desktop. 39" is almost too large for desktop..
Click to expand...

I set my logitech G500 for 2800, 4200 and 5700 dpi, and 4k is the only resolution where 5700 dpi does not feel overkill but actually the bare minimum for usability. also turned mouse aceleration ON, something that i avoided since the windows 95 days. :p
 
:/ Only thing that really bugs me so far: After computer goes to sleep, monitor eventually turns off. When computer wakes back up monitor stays off. Computer thinks no monitor is attached and resizes to 640x480. I turn TV back on and Windows beeps like I plugged in a new device, screen is resized to 4k but windows are all at 640x480 in the upper left corner.
 
bexamous said:
:/ Only thing that really bugs me so far: After computer goes to sleep, monitor eventually turns off. When computer wakes back up monitor stays off. Computer thinks no monitor is attached and resizes to 640x480. I turn TV back on and Windows beeps like I plugged in a new device, screen is resized to 4k but windows are all at 640x480 in the upper left corner.
Click to expand...

If it really bugs you its probably worth $80 to fix it by getting an HDMI detective. This really bugged my dad as well so I got one for him and he hasn't had that problem since.
 
That is pretty sucky. Lame that Nvidia's Linux driver has a way to fake connected monitors, you can do like:
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0"
Option "CustomEdid" "DFP-0:/home/asdf/Seiki.edid"

So doesn't really matter if monitor is connected or not, it scans out like it was.

Anyways... hmm... in service menu you can set to turn on when plugged in. Wonder if one of these would work:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003P2UMQ2/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

When computer sleeps power strip unplugs the TV, when computer turns back on it plugs in TV again making the TV power on... wonder if its fast enough to avoid Windows resizing desktop.
 
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Pitty that's nvida specific solution. Some time ago had to fight a bit for X server to start normally on remotely rebooted box w. intel video & switched off monitor. Back then i had to downgrade to pre KMS X server and lock updates to it :/. No experience with how relatively recent ati gpus in linux do or do not with enforcing outputs on. I hate when under flags of simplifying usage experience control is taken out of hands for those with more clue with old expected behaviour removed, and new replacement functionality implemented in buggy way if at all. There are times when enforcing output & mode or at very least EDID is must have (eg. workaround for buggy KVM often not passing EDID nfo).
 
bexamous said:
:/ Only thing that really bugs me so far: After computer goes to sleep, monitor eventually turns off. When computer wakes back up monitor stays off. Computer thinks no monitor is attached and resizes to 640x480. I turn TV back on and Windows beeps like I plugged in a new device, screen is resized to 4k but windows are all at 640x480 in the upper left corner.
Click to expand...

I commented on this before.

My AMD290x does wake up my monitor, the GTX570 didn't.

Whilst I was stuck with the GTX570, I implemented the free program AUTOSIZER, and set up autosizing for Firefox and my email client, then bound those to CTRL-8 (since I don't use that for anything else), and it works fine now, if I resize my desktop by going to 1920 * 1080, then switch back, CTRL-8 invokes Autosizer to fix up the applications.

There is some complex registry settings you can fiddle with which have the 'virtual' desktop size defaults, for when the drivers fail to recognise a display.

But Autosizer is free, and it just works. At least for me.
 
bexamous said:
:/ Only thing that really bugs me so far: After computer goes to sleep, monitor eventually turns off. When computer wakes back up monitor stays off. Computer thinks no monitor is attached and resizes to 640x480. I turn TV back on and Windows beeps like I plugged in a new device, screen is resized to 4k but windows are all at 640x480 in the upper left corner.
Click to expand...
No problem here with Ubuntu.
 
bexamous said:
Maybe obvious but I didn't get this at first: If at 4k you turn off noise reduction, and set color temp and stuff, if you then open a game at 1080p you have to again go in menu to do those things again, in addition there is a new setting zoom mode with standard or dot-to-dot.

I was sitting at starcraft2 new game screen and the dark background that is just a static image looked like it was animated when I moved my mouse near it, due to noise reduction going nuts.
Click to expand...

Oh man, that's exactly the problem I was having. I just could not articulate what the hell I was seeing in words. Noise Reduction off and it's purdy!

Thanks for the fix. :cool:
 
hannibl said:
oldredfox, thanks for digging that up. I still find it hard to believe that after knowing about the false claims of 120Hz in their advertising for the 39" for about a year now that they release the fix at the bottom of a Facebook post not related to the issue at all.

I'm running the Facebook firmware now and can confirm no frameskip @ 120Hz. I do still have occasional blanking, as I did with the 50" and modded 50" firmware, as well as an audible buzz when displaying dark images at 1080p.

Someone earlier in the thread said that they ahd no audible buzz when running the display in torch mode-- is this just selecting retail after a firmware install, or is there a deeper setting to bump the backlight up higher than 100. If I could get this thing to stop sounding like a hive of bees I'd be quite happy.
Click to expand...
i had the same problem with the buzzing on dark scenes, seiki customer support said it was defective and suggested exchange it so I did. There is still some buzzing but hardly noticeable.
 
Could you guys provide some feedback on seating distances, etc.

How far do you sit from your Seiki?
What size screen are you using?
What scaling are you using in Windows 8?

I'm trying to figure out if 3 to 4 feet will work for me with a 50 inch screen. I find my 27 Inch 1440P monitor to be difficult to read if it's more than 2.5 feet away. I also run Large fonts.

Note: I have 20:20 vision in both eyes but I don't like to strain to read text. Thanks for your opinions in advance.
 
I have the 50", and I sit about 3.5' away. My eye-level is about 6 inches above the midpoint of the monitor. I find that I keep most of my windows around the center of the monitor. The edges are still very visible and bright, and often used for extra information, but I never put windows there if I am going to focus on them.

My desk is only 72" deep, so I can't get any further away than I am. I'd like to try sitting even further back (5') and increasing the DPI in windows to compensate.. but I'll have to wait until I get a new place to try that.
 
39" here, I sit with the monitor about 15 inches in front of me, same as with a normal monitor (perhaps a couple of inches further away)

I also have Windows GDI up from normal (100%) to 125%, otherwise reading the fonts at native (3840 * 2160) is incredibly difficult. (Windows 7).
 
kru said:
I have the 50", and I sit about 3.5' away. My eye-level is about 6 inches above the midpoint of the monitor. I find that I keep most of my windows around the center of the monitor. The edges are still very visible and bright, and often used for extra information, but I never put windows there if I am going to focus on them.

My desk is only 72" deep, so I can't get any further away than I am. I'd like to try sitting even further back (5') and increasing the DPI in windows to compensate.. but I'll have to wait until I get a new place to try that.
Click to expand...

What font is the current font scaling set to.

At home I use the 50 inch. I sit about 3.5-4 feet away (very deep desk). I have x-windows set at 75 DPI font sizes so a bit smaller fonts than windows which is 96 DPI by default.

At work I use a 39 inch seiki and I sit around 20 inches away from that and also 75 DPI font settings with absolutely no issues. I could actually probably stand to have the 50 inch another 50% away and the 39 inch 35 inches away and not have any problem with the font size.
 
Got my 39" a couple of days ago, 120hz and 4k work with my 6950. Backlight uniformity is pretty terrible on static color background. It goe blank from time to time for about a second then the image reappears with the resolution/refresh rate in the corner as if it reset itself or something. Does anyone smarted than me know what could cause that? I'm using the supplied cable but I can try another.
 
The cable that came with my 39 inch had that problem too. I replaced it with the *identical* looking cable that came with my 50 inch display and had no issues since then. Not a single dropout. It could also be something with the HDMI controller on your video card. You can get a accel DP 1.1 -> HDMI 1.4 active adapter as well to test to see if it improves the situation but I would try a new cable first.
 
houkouonchi said:
The cable that came with my 39 inch had that problem too. I replaced it with the *identical* looking cable that came with my 50 inch display and had no issues since then. Not a single dropout. It could also be something with the HDMI controller on your video card. You can get a accel DP 1.1 -> HDMI 1.4 active adapter as well to test to see if it improves the situation but I would try a new cable first.
Click to expand...

I used to have the problem too (few second blank\black screen) with 1080p@120hz and tried a few cables without resolving problem. What worked for me was the settings that houkouonchi set in post 821 of this thread http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040522861&postcount=821 and haven't seen issue since . The CRU setttings in post:
1920x1080
Front Porch: 88,4 (Horizontal, Vertical)
Sync Width: 44,5
Back Porch: 148,36
Blanking: 280,45
Total: 2200,1125

Refresh Rate: 119.878
Horizontal: 134.863
Pixel Clock: 296.70
 
I suppose I was first to try Nvidia 3D Vision glasses with the 50" Seiki?
I had high hopes that they'd work with 1080p 120Hz.
Alas, no such luck.
I spent a couple hours trying to make them work using EDID from Asus monitor, finally everything worked, but ghosting is really bad, it's like, double image with a slight hint of 3D...
:mad:
 
For anyone watching for the price to drop on this, Amazon has it for $426, and Tigerdirect has it for $400. I bought mine from Amazon, and have been very happy. No shipping charge, and they were happy to replace it for free since mine was having issues.
 
Hi all,
I bought 39" monitor yesterday at tigerdirect canada. They had a 1 day sale $450.
I'm not really a gamer so my purpose is for large 4k desktop real state space for trading. And I'm impressed so far. My 24" feels so small now haha..
Hoping to get the 60Hz Sinuhet mod aswell!

I got 4k working on my Haswell i5 desktop (yes integrated gfx). When I first got the tv connected it was flickering every few seconds. I upgraded firmware didn't help.

Found out intel graphics properties it was detecting TV at 29Hz.
switched the settings for refresh rate to 30Hz and problem solved!
Tried some 4k youtube and its not bad. a few drop frames but nothing terrible.
will upgrade gfx card once the 60Hz mod comes out!
 
looks like tigerdirect and amazon are back up to the $500 price point on the 39's.

For those that have the monitor how difficult is it to switch between 1080p@120hz and 4k@30hz. Is it just a simple touch of a button or do you have to reconfigure a bunch of settings each time?

I wish there was a more elegant solution with a 39" size 1440p/1600p monitor that could do at least 60hz. Otherwise has anyone made any progress or is it possible to make progress on a hack that would avoid the double scaling to get 1600p?

Thanks for everyones expertise, it's been a great thread to read through.
 
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