The one thing I don't really get is why you would hook up your x-box to your TV and afterwards your TV to your X-box for sound. Seems normal that you would get a lag there => why don't you connect your x-box to your receiver via optical out => there will be no more audio-lag and you'll get digital sound.
Sorry for the confusion (and slow delay in replying) My Xbox is linked up to the available HDMi sockets on the TV, then the TV connected to my amp via the red and white phono jacks. unfortunately not having a digital amplifier there is no other way for me to connect the two.
as for my Brightness problem...
For anyone who has the same problem as me and finds this thread on a random search i'll leave the following:
I eventually rang Samsung and spoke to their technical department. It seems the problem i was having is a setting called "dynamic dimming", and the only way it can be accessed to turn it off is through the service menu that only engineers can do. Dynamic dimming has nothing to do with the amount of ambient light in the room, but with the amount of lights and darks on the screen at a specific time, this being obviously the case as no matter what the level of light in my room the change between light and dark was significantly obvious, rather more so because i was looking out for it and getting vexed everytime it happened, probably every 30 seconds or so...
After the engineer had done the task (i was at work at the time and my girlfriend sat in while they did it) i later checked to see if the problem was sorted. Much to my annoyance it didnt seem to be. So i rang Samsung once again and spoke to the technical department who advised me that the problem will go away, the TV just needs to settle in for a few days. Im not sure what he meant by this so if anyone can shed some light on plasma screens needing time to "settle in" i'd much appreciate it lol
over and out
Tony