@UpsetSmiley ,
I have a SAMSUNG as well.
A little hard to troubleshoot that exactly...but...
*Firstly- don't watch so close! A 32 inch screen optimal distance for viewing is 4.5-10 feet. (4.5 is optimal,
technically, for 1080p resolution at that size screen- but
no one sits that close!!).
*Make sure any Image smoothing technology is off. (This is the dreaded SOAP OPERA effect. y'know, makes movies look like video TV shows). This has nothing to do with your problem, but I have to hunt down and kill people who use that feature, because it goes against all that is holy. (Except for sports. You can have it on for sports!). It goes by different names on different brands. On Samsung its called Auto Motion Plus.
*Going as low as 8 out of 100 on sharpness is fine. HD actually requires little to no sharpness adjustment. If you have anything coming through at standard Def, an adjustment to 20 is enough.
*Samsungs have a setting called Film Mode. Usually auto1, auto2. Try these out and see what you may get.
*try toying around with Digital Clean View settings and the MPEG noise filter. I don't really use those, except to have the filter low.
It can be a bit trying to have to noodle around to find what you like.
Another thing is- a lot of people forget that when you get an HDTV, you are getting such a clear image, that the clarity is jarring- as it is showing image imperfects AND effects that you aren't used to.
(Example: why are the lines on a man's herringbone suit strobing in the image? Because it is THAT CLEAR an image. In 480p SD the lines on the suit visually
Smeared into each other with no delineation.)
A more extreme example would be shots of wheels turning in high frame rates no longer appear to spin backwards as they do in low frame rates...
*make sure your color and light calibration is correct. HD is more about light and color than pixel count.
Brightness should always be lower than contrast. Brightness controls your black levels, and contrast controls the intensity of whites
within. High brightness just washes black out to grey. (Another rule of thumb- when you arrive at a black screen, (say in between credits at the open of a movie) your TV should look like it is OFF. if you paused the screen, you should not be able to tell if it is paused or off. That is the black level you want.(or at least to start at before you adjust for your personal taste.)
*Environmental controls. This one pisses me off a bit. Samsung has the settings NATURAL, MOVIE, STANDARD, and DYNAMIC. I use ALL OF THEM. Why? Everything is lit differently. There are TV shows than blow hot on the white side, and Blu Ray movies that run VERY DARK. I'll set DYNAMIC to a COOL color setting, and NATURAL to a WARM setting, etc. I find that I will almost always adjust slightly per movie (TV shows I kinda just let be warm). 3D blu rays are Another adjustment because 3D films are shot with a LOT of light, BUT tend to show DARKER in home video with both Passive and Active glasses.
The Samsung TVs have an energy saver mode in the STANDARD setting. I am NOT a fan. It dims according to ambient light to save energy. If you have a scene that goes from light to dark a lot the effect is maddening.
There is a master energy save switch in the general settings you can turn off, but the STANDARD setting still uses it. The annoying this is- the STANDARD setting has ADVANCED picture controls. And I mean A LOT of controls. This is fantastic. And a bit daunting. But these controls are ONLY available in STANDARD. why? I wish I knew.
So, there are two ways of attacking getting the picture you want if you Don't want to be in STANDARD setting with the annoying energy saving AutoDimming.
1) see if you can deal, and find the picture you like within the limited controls of the other 3 settings. -OR-
2) you can go into STANDARD, and make the rudimentary adjustments in all the fields (there are quite a bit. But that is what FINE TUNING IS.) and apply the changes ACROSS ALL SETTINGS.
(With all 4 MAIN PICTURE MODES there is a setting
Apply Picture Mode where you can choose to save your changes to JUST the picture mode you are in, or ACROSS ALL PICTURE MODES.
So in essence, you make a Holistic MAIN setup in STANDARD, THEN fine tune each of the other ones after.
(I hope that makes sense to you)
Or, maybe you will have no problem with the standard setting's dimming feature?
When I got my TV, I did buttloads of additional research on top of what I already knew from years of this stuff.
There was a guy, who did the 'big calibration', and shared his settings. VERY HELPFUL.
So, I pass it on to you, fellow Samsung-ian! (By the way- warts and all, still the best in my opinion!!)
One last thing- it COULD be a bum set, but I can't make that call from what you have described!
So here's the link for some cool info and Calibration...
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1M4VT735FF5T5/ref=cm_cd_pg_next?ie=UTF8&asin=B00BCGROFU&cdForum=Fx2OPA4BOPKDMST&cdPage=5&cdThread=Tx1UMHL9KXIKYF8&store=electronics#wasThisHelpful&tag=hidefnin-20