No sparkles that I have ever noticed on my S1 and no one has ever mentioned the green push that the S1 is supposed to have either. I love my TV
I have noticed when up close and warming my nose as Chris puts it, I can see black levels jumping around, lighter/darker in areas that are not 100% black, a gray area if you will; other than that it is all good.
What it looks like here when you say black levels are jumping around is more than likely as a result of a non-linear Gamma level up and down the scale, (i.e. the color balance at various brightness levels is not linear). This is a separate issue from gray scale which essentially only adjusts the levels of red, green and blue so that they are shown on the screen in the proper proportion at a pre-determined reference level as close as possible usually to the ISF level of 6500K. These adjustments can only be made with access to the internal service menu which the customer doesn't have plus you need the proper measuring devices and software to do it accurately.
The trouble is, even an experienced calibrator can only adjust any of these at two or three points in the monitor so, no matter what, it is essentially a compromise.
I have touted this in other forums and might sound like an A/B repeat tape loop, but even with a less expensive television, when you can interface the unit with something like a Video EQ or DVDO IScan Duo and their 11 point and up grayscale adjustment capabilities and color management systems built-in, you can attain a grayscale, gamma and color accuracy capability that will even considerably exceed the best calibrators work on the most expensive monitor.
