SamyGO

How feasible is it to create a custom firmware that has no smart features and focuses the quad core processor 100% on image processing to get a highly responsive display?

That is, if anyone finds a way into the F series.

Not feasible. You can't "focus the quad core processor 100% on image processing", this CPU is not involved in image processing in any significant way (basically: not at all), and it most likely can't be used for that. Even if it somehow can be used, I very much doubt such approach will improve input lag in any way (probably quite the opposite).

Image processing is handled by separate circuits/subsystems, and there are various design decisions regarding those subsystems which are responsible for such-and-such consequential input lag. Theoretical limit (for 1920x1080p60 signal) is ca 9ms for 120Hz panels and 13ms for 240Hz panel. In practice, anything below ~17ms will require significantly more complicated designs, so IMO it's not likely to happen in F-series models; Samsung apparently thinks 34+ ms input lag is good enough for their TVs

So the quad core isn't even doing any image processing? It's dedicated solely for smart apps? Any idea what processor is on the board that handles image processing?

For example, on a Panasonic ST60, it has a single core processor dedicated to image processing and 3D, but it also seems to be running the Smart apps as well. The GT60 has a dual core responsible for image processing and 3D, and apparently it's running the smart apps too, and doing both faster than the ST60.

Sadly, this year's flagship F8500 is clocking in 60 ms and even higher depending if PC mode is enabled or not.

Oh well.

Moonchilde wrote:So the quad core isn't even doing any image processing?

Yeah, pretty much like that, especially when you are using the TV simply as monitor with HDMI input. Well, it may occasionally do some (simple and computationally insignificant) tasks indirectly related to image processing (like managing current backlight intensity, etc.), but typically all those ARM A15 cores will be just running on idle .

It's dedicated solely for smart apps?

Mostly. Not exactly solely; it's also handling quite a lot of stuff (USB & network interfaces, storage, interrupts, dma transfers, etc.; running linux kernel and OSD/UI) and managing all the other processors/hardware subsystems. But those other hardware subsystems (there are 30+ of them, typically integrated in 2 or 3 big chips in recent Samsung flagship models) do almost everything computationally intensive and/or related to image processing.

Quad-core ARM A15 CPU is probably a slight overkill just for smart apps, but it's quite cheap to add nowadays (I bet it is occupying less then 10% of main SoC chip die), so why not - it does have some extra advertising potential as well.

Any idea what processor is on the board that handles image processing?

Depends on the model (and what tasks exactly do you count as image processing). Eg., there is an integrated GPU (AFAIRC, it was Mali 400 in E-series Echo-P dual-core models, I don't know what GPU is used in F-Series) which is also not involved in processing the signal from HDMI inputs, but it is involved when you play the angry birds on TV .

Sadly, this year's flagship F8500 is clocking in 60 ms and even higher depending if PC mode is enabled or not.

Aw, that's pretty bad. Same thing for game mode, I guess? Perhaps it's somehow possible to force overexcessive/unneeded image processing off, in order to speed up things a little..

Thanks for the breakdown. I wonder why this year's set of TV's are all clocking in higher input lags. There was speculation that the Smart functions on both Panny and Sammy models were taking away from the core image processor. It actually may be true for the Panny plasmas, as in particular the ST60 has an image and 3D processing chip by Mediatek, which is single core and it seems the ST60 is fairly slow when it comes to menu items, smart apps (even the smart menu feels a little sluggish) and input lag. Compared to the GT60 and VT60, which have Panny's custom soc dual core Hexaprocessor which handles the image processing, 3D, and apparently apps too because the smart menu is speedier and more responsive, and of course, both sets have about half the input lag as the ST60.

Was wondering if it was the same for Sammy. Would be nice to get an nice, near reference TV with very low display lag.

On the other hand, it seems to me that Panny's firmware is FreeBSD based, supposedly 4.1 (from 1995??) and must be an ARM fork of some sorts. Or, they're just not telling us in their software license what OS they're really using.

BTW, is it possible to break into Panny's OS like it kinda is (with many work arounds) for Sammy's?

Edit: Game mode only drops it from 130 ms to 100 ms. You have to put the set into PC mode to get it down to 60 ms. It just boggles as to why it's so high