UE48H6400 Grayscale Settings

[aliEnRIK]

I have very recently bought myself a Samsung UE48H6400 tv, of which I am VERY impressed with.
I have calibrated the greyscale myself using the eye one sensor and perhaps some people may be interested in the results :
Select MOVIE mode with WARM 2 for starters.
Turn off all extra processing (contrast enhance etc)

Backlight : 17

Contrast : 95

Brightness : 46

Sharpness : 0 (Can go up to 5 if you like, from the results I have seen)

Colour : 50

Gamma : -2

White Balance 2 point

10% R+34 G0 B+25
20% R+32 G0 B+36
30% R+25 G0 B+36
40% R+13 G0 B+43
50% R+9 G0 B+45
60% R+9 G0 B+43
70% R+8 G0 B+34
80% R+5 G0 B+32
90% R+7 G0 B+38
100% R+2 G0 B+34

As you can see, Green tracks pretty much perfectly in MOVIE mode Warm 2. Blue however is WAY off and red starts bad but comes together. Generally speaking you should calibrate your own tv, not just copy ones like I have posted. In this case though, if you you're not going down a calibration route, I probably would recommend trying these settings as blue is so far out on mine (And so I suspect that is 'generally' how all the tvs will be)
Gamma and brightness are generally down to where people have their tvs. These settings are for a little above all out dark. (Very easy for anyone to calibrate)

If anyone is interested, I have also just attempted to calibrate the 3D mode. However, the sensor readings were jumping around all the time, and it will only calibrate in Movie mode to a 2 point setting. Basically I found that without calibration, RED was way out, but with calibration I got most points fluctuating within +/- 5 (Much closer than it was).
The setup wasn't the best either as I taped the glasses to the sensor and the sensors not quite as close to the screen as I would have liked. That said, I am positive its far better than it was.

I hope someone finds these settings useful
Cheers
Rik

 

[Glacialpath]

Hi Rik.

That's interesting to hear what you have done.

In my opinion though no TV set up or calibration should be done with the pannel set to any thing other than Standard mode and Nuetral colour.

I'm not familiar with your TV and have to say I don't know what the Eye One sensor is. You say you did the grey scale yet you talk about the RGB colours. The grey scale is the Brightness and Contrast. I'm kind of confuesd with what you have done andfeel you might be throwing your picture way out from what it should look like.

All the TV's I've set up using either a DVE disc or my THX calibration disc the red and the blu end up nearly perfet (I think the would be if it was a full ISF calibration) and the green was only slightly out. Even a TV with full ISF calibration still might not reach the perfect green levels as a friend of mine who is ISF qualified told me.

What settings have you used to alter the levels? Did you do it in a dark room or a light room? How long had the pannel been on before you ade these setting changes?

No offence but I wouldn't recomend anyone try the setting you have ended up with. Of course that is their choice and if you are happy with your picture then that is also your choice.

 

[tele1962]

Standard or Nuetral are going to be to Blue, Cinema and Warm 2 will get you closest to where it should be.

 

[Glacialpath]

If that's the case then there is something wrong with the TV and it needs taking back. Do you both mean the picture looks cold?

No TV/video display is meant to be on Movie mode or warm as that is just adding to the signal coming from the source where all colour correction and treatment has already been done in post production. Standard and Nuetral are flat settings so the picture is not changed in any way. Ther Brightness, Contrast and colour are then adjusted to the correct level for the viewing area. Thats why you don't use someone elses setting because rooms are always different and no video pannel will work the same as the next even if it is the same model. I have set up 2 TVs of the same model with the same setting, put them next to each other in the same room and played the same content from the same source and the picture was different.

I think people have gotten so used to seeing TV pictures on the wrong setting they think that a picture set correclty look wrong. You only need to look at a properly set up picture then look at the real world around you and see which version looks closer to real life, Standard and Nuetral or Cinema and warm 2?

For movies and most new TV series you have to take into account the colour grading the do on the picture to set the mood. If you don't like how films look then by all means set the TV to cinema/movie mode and warm colour but you won't be getting the full detail from the picture that the director wanted you to see.

 

[Paul.]

Many reviews have stated that of all the Samsung profiles, Movie is closest to Rec709. TV manufacturers artificially include blues in the non Movie/THX/Cinema profiles as it makes whites look whiter, except white in real life is not arctic white as the colour temperature of the sun or artificial lighting makes it a bit yellow.

Rik, if I owned your TV I would be very greatful for your efforts.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Rik, if I owned your TV I would be very greatful for your efforts.

Thank you.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Hi Rik.

Hello

I don't know what the Eye One sensor is. You say you did the grey scale yet you talk about the RGB colours. The grey scale is the Brightness and Contrast. I'm kind of confuesd

It would seem so

as a friend of mine who is ISF qualified told me.

If your 'friend' is ISF qualified then you should talk to him to explain what greyscale calibration really is

No TV/video display is meant to be on Movie mode or warm as that is just adding to the signal coming from the source where all colour correction and treatment has already been done in post production. Standard and Nuetral are flat settings so the picture is not changed in any way.

This is completely incorrect.
From the top :
Contrast settings are to set 'white crush'. That is to say if they're too high, the top level of whites will all gel together. If too low you wont be getting the brightest whites (Although there can be other complications when setting contrast)
Brightness and Backlight settings are to set for 'black crush' (The same as whites but in reverse)

Sharpness should generally be at 0 on most modern tvs, although you're correct when you say some Samsungs in particular require a higher setting (A fundemental flaw with any tvs that react this way).

Now greyscale is exactly what it says on the tin. A good tv will have 10 point (Or even better) 'white balance' controls. You cant set these accurately without a 'colour meter', which is what an eye one sensor is. Not the best by any means, but certainly way better than anyone could do using the naked eye.
So using a computer with relevant calibration software, a colour meter, a disc that has accurate greyscale setting pictures, a source to play it on and a tv to calibrate : you can then begin to look into calibrating the greyscale as I have done.

Example : 50% greyscale means 50% white and 80% greyscale = 80% white. Both are greys on the 'grayscale' settings.
using a colour meter and the software you measure the grey output at all the levels from 0 through to 100% white and adjust the 3 primary colours, red green and blue, to accurately set greyscale. Once they read under 3 dEs you are pretty much there (Which is generally regarded as the point at which the eye can notice colour changes). Anything under 3 is a bonus.

HDTVs are not like sound systems in that you set everything to neutral. They just dont work that way. Pretty much all tvs available to buy require proper calibration to look their best. And to do the very best you require someone ISF certified like your friend. But to do it at home with no help, the next best option (And hardly any difference between them), is to use software and a colour meter yourself.
'Most' tvs look their best out of the box once all extra processing is switched off (Contrast enhance and all that jazz), and Movie mode with Warm 2 is selected. Thats not to say ALL tvs will be at their best on these settings, but generally that is the case to get the picture closest to D65 (A fully accurately calibrated picture). Then use a colour meter to set it as accurately as you can. The movie and warm 2 settings just take you to the closest calibrated settings before really diving in.

This is why any tv worth its salt these days will have at least 2 point calibration settings, and why simply setting everything to 'neutral' like you do just isnt right.

All this is before we get into Gamma and Luminance etc

Cheers

 

[Glacialpath]

This is completely incorrect.From the top :Contrast settings are to set 'white crush'. That is to say if they're too high, the top level of whites will all gel together. If too low you wont be getting the brightest whites (Although there can be other complications when setting contrast)Brightness and Backlight settings are to set for 'black crush' (The same as whites but in reverse)

Sharpness should generally be at 0 on most modern tvs, although you're correct when you say some Samsungs in particular require a higher setting (A fundemental flaw with any tvs that react this way).

Now greyscale is exactly what it says on the tin. A good tv will have 10 point (Or even better) 'white balance' controls. You cant set these accurately without a 'colour meter', which is what an eye one sensor is. Not the best by any means, but certainly way better than anyone could do using the naked eye.So using a computer with relevant calibration software, a colour meter, a disc that has accurate greyscale setting pictures, a source to play it on and a tv to calibrate : you can then begin to look into calibrating the greyscale as I have done.

Example : 50% greyscale means 50% white and 80% greyscale = 80% white. Both are greys on the 'grayscale' settings.using a colour meter and the software you measure the grey output at all the levels from 0 through to 100% white and adjust the 3 primary colours, red green and blue, to accurately set greyscale. Once they read under 3 dEs you are pretty much there (Which is generally regarded as the point at which the eye can notice colour changes). Anything under 3 is a bonus.

HDTVs are not like sound systems in that you set everything to neutral. They just dont work that way. Pretty much all tvs available to buy require proper calibration to look their best. And to do the very best you require someone ISF certified like your friend. But to do it at home with no help, the next best option (And hardly any difference between them), is to use software and a colour meter yourself.'Most' tvs look their best out of the box once all extra processing is switched off (Contrast enhance and all that jazz), and Movie mode with Warm 2 is selected. Thats not to say ALL tvs will be at their best on these settings, but generally that is the case to get the picture closest to D65 (A fully accurately calibrated picture). Then use a colour meter to set it as accurately as you can. The movie and warm 2 settings just take you to the closest calibrated settings before really diving in.

This is why any tv worth its salt these days will have at least 2 point calibration settings, and why simply setting everything to 'neutral' like you do just isnt right.

All this is before we get into Gamma and Luminance etc

Cheers

Right my bad. So does working on the grey scale mean adjusting the cien, majenta and so on?

You miss understand me about the Neutral and standard settings though. TVs out the box look awefull in my experience and as I said a lot of that depends on the viewing area. They generally default to Dynamic even when set to home mode, unless that has changed in the past few years. Been a while since I unboxed a new TV. I used to have a samsung and found the colour settings worked better or natural and believe me I tried all the combinations.

I only say set the Contrast, Brightness and colour neutral for peopl who don't have a setup disc, don't feel comfortable in doing a setup or can't afford or don't know anyone who knows a bit about setting up a video pannel as a safe suggestion.

Of course with a meeter such as the Eye One sensor you can be much more accurate than just with the naked eye and a set up disc but from one room to the next those readings will be different even if the TV is the same model. Personally I don't think it advisable for people to use other peoples setting which you clearly did in the correct fashion. Many people seem to do it so maybe it is ok.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Right my bad. So does working on the grey scale mean adjusting the cien, majenta and so on?

No worries

Cyan Magenta and yellow are the secondary colours. Greyscale setting is done via red green and blue. The three primary and three secondary colours can then be 'tuned' by the colour offset setting (Cant recall the exact name off my head). But playing about with these can really complicate matters. I personally would advise setting the greyscale then measuring the levels via the meter and software, and if theyre pretty close (Under 10 dEs), then I would leave them as they are.

You miss understand me about the Neutral and standard settings though. TVs out the box look awefull in my experience and as I said a lot of that depends on the viewing area. They generally default to Dynamic even when set to home mode, unless that has changed in the past few years. Been a while since I unboxed a new TV. I used to have a samsung and found the colour settings worked better or natural and believe me I tried all the combinations.

I did understand what you meant, I was simply stating that 'flat' on a tv is nothing like a flat response on a sound system.
Dynamic and Vivid settings in particular are generally awful

I only say set the Contrast, Brightness and colour neutral for peopl who don't have a setup disc, don't feel comfortable in doing a setup or can't afford or don't know anyone who knows a bit about setting up a video pannel as a safe suggestion.

Of course with a meeter such as the Eye One sensor you can be much more accurate than just with the naked eye and a set up disc but from one room to the next those readings will be different even if the TV is the same model. Personally I don't think it advisable for people to use other peoples setting which you clearly did in the correct fashion. Many people seem to do it so maybe it is ok.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and I used to do almost exactly the same as you until I decided to buy the colour meter.
As for the settings I have posted, if I was to measure someone elses tv (Same model) it would almost certainly measure slightly differently. However, the settings are so far out I am quite confident in saying that using my settings on any UE48H6400 tv would have far better results than just setting the brightness and contrast etc. They wouldnt be 'perfect', but they would be far better than just selecting MOVIE mode and WARM 2 and calibrating brightness and contrast etc

 

[nugget2014]

Strange how people suggest using warm 2, when I first got my tv I paused it and kept changing from warm 1 to warm 2 and it felt as if warm 2 was unrealistic and I preferred warm 1. Although I hope my picture settings are ok. I have a sony kdl46w905 tv and have sharpness on 50, colour 52, backlight 7 gamma 0 and other extras off which are not useful. I use true cinema motion although not sure about smooth gradation and reality creation, should I have led dynamic control on standard, or low, or off?

 

[billybifocals]

Ok, after hunting around on various sites I have found that most reviewers are unnecessarily cryptic and very reluctant to share their own calibration settings and would rather gloat about their calibrated screen than be helpful. At the end of the day, the settings im about to give you will allow for very impressive looking images. Regardless of the film, be it The Dark Knight Rises or Monsters Vs Aliens, you will see detail in all ranges of brightness and it will look natural.

I dont understand how anyone can say "movie mode" looks natural or the most realistic... it just makes the image a yellow blurred mess, as if you're looking through a layer of clingfilm.

Anyways my settings are as followed, with an explanation of why I have selected certain things. Some settings are from various people (so thanks) but are mainly from my own calibration:

Picture Mode: Standard

Backlight: 19

Contrast: 99

Brightness: 44

Sharpness: 70

Colour: 50

Tint: G50/R50

Apply Picture Mode: Current Source

Picture Size

Picture Size: Screen Fit

Advanced Settings

Dynamic Contrast: Off

Black Tone: Off

Flesh Tone: 0

RGB Only Mode: Off

Colour Space: Custom
Red - R49, G0, B7;
Green - R22, G50, B0;
Blue - R8, G8, B50;
Yellow - R48, G 48, B0;
Cyan - R15, G50, B47;
Magenta - R48, G0, B49

White Balance 2-Point:

Red Offset 25
Green Offset 24
Blue Offset 27
Red Gain 20
Green Gain 23
Blue Gain 21

White Balance 10-Point: (Available in Movie Mode)

10% R0 G+1 B0
20% R+1 G0 B-2
30% R0 G0 B+2
40% R0 G-1 B0
50% R-1 G0 B+1
60% R0 G-1 B0
70% R-1 G-2 B-2
80% R0 G+2 B0
90% R+1 G0 B0
100% R+2 G0 B0

Gamma: +1

Motion Lighting: Off

Picture Options:

Colour Tone: Standard

Digital Clean View: Auto

MPEG Noise Filter: Auto

HDMI Black Level: Normal

Film Mode: off or Auto2 (If the option is available)

Motion Plus: Smooth

Ok, reasons for some of the above settings:

Sharpness is at 70 because this appears to be the maximum sharpness you can go up to before the image starts displaying strange artifacts. Some reviewer suggested having it set at 0 so I tried it. It made my pin sharp realistic looking photos from the top of the Rockerfeller building in New York look like I was seeing the same photos through a few layers of clingfilm, all detail is lost if you put the sharpness at 0, so dont do it.

Colour is at 50 because if you increase it any higher colours start to bleed into each other and it doesn't look realistic. If you think your colours look too dull I suggest watching Speed Racer on bluray. Its a daft film but I guarantee that you wont have ever seen anything more colourful and vibrant, then you'll see that setting colour at 50 is more than sufficient.

Backlight and contrast aren't at maximum because I found that you actually lose fine details in bright areas on the screen by having them cranked up to full.

Tint is spot on at 50/50, I used a blue screen filter and carefully checked Red, Green, Blue , Yellow , Cyan and Magenta to ensure that none of these colours started to look like each other when the blue filter was on.

Gamma is at +1 otherwise you lose detail in dark scenes during films. I would suggest putting this up to +3 when watching 3D films because the glasses reduce the screen brightness by about 30%.

Set the colour space and white balance exactly as I have done. These settings create the most accurate colours.

Digital Clean View and MPEG Noise filter are set to Auto because I found these work the best. They remove the awful film grain you often notice in films. The worst thing I have ever seen for film grain is Expendables 2, it was absolutely unwatchable on my previous Samsung 6000 series tv, I might put it on to see if my new settings improve the quality of that film so I can enjoy it as much as I did in the cinema.

For the many films I have watched since getting this TV, such as the three Dark Knight films, Avatar, Life of Pi, Gravity, Prometheus, and StarTrek into Darkness ( to name but a few) they all look absolutely amazing. The very fine film grain that they had is removed by setting both options set to Auto. I found that the "High" options reduces the overall detail of the screen considerably, everything looks much softer and generally awful.

HDMI Black level needs to be set to Normal. Dont set it to "Low" because you lose a ridiculous amount of detail in darker scenes. I accidentally had it switched to Low instead of Normal while I was watching "The Desolation of Smaug" and kicked myself halfway through it, I wondered why the screen was so frigging dark, the film was almost unwatchable because of that.

Motion plus set to "Smooth" makes your films look great. Im still torn between "Smooth" and "Clear", in various reviews people have suggested changing it to "Clear" but there's barely any difference. The only stuttering of the picture that I have seen by having it set to "Smooth" was during the 2nd Hobbit film. It occured when there was a huge sweeping camera movement from right to left, overlooking a castle. But that's the only time ive experienced it and its not that distracting.

Anyways, I hope my above info and settings prove useful to people. Its a shame reviewers have to be so cryptic and unhelpful.

I calibrated my tv by using the Disney WOW calibration bluray that I imported from America and by staring at a pure white screen, raising and lowering various colours until there was only white visible. For example, most uncalibrated screens have too much red and this results in an ever so slight pink tinge to the screen when looking at whats meant to be a pure white screen.

The 2 point and 10 point fine tuning of the colours was done by a Sencore OTC1000 Meter with AV Foundry VideoForge Source and Direct Display Control.

Im very happy with my settings and when ive had people round and they see the quality of the image they cant get their heads around it, they say its like looking through a window/portal or as if they are in front of the actors. As far as im concerned, if a persons eyes cant tell the difference between a film and real life, i'd consider that mission accomplished

Billy

 

[billybifocals]

I have very recently bought myself a Samsung UE48H6400 tv, of which I am VERY impressed with.I have calibrated the greyscale myself using the eye one sensor and perhaps some people may be interested in the results :Select MOVIE mode with WARM 2 for starters.Turn off all extra processing (contrast enhance etc)

Backlight : 17

Contrast : 95

Brightness : 46

Sharpness : 0 (Can go up to 5 if you like, from the results I have seen)

Colour : 50

Gamma : -2

White Balance 2 point

10% R+34 G0 B+2520% R+32 G0 B+3630% R+25 G0 B+3640% R+13 G0 B+4350% R+9 G0 B+4560% R+9 G0 B+4370% R+8 G0 B+3480% R+5 G0 B+3290% R+7 G0 B+38100% R+2 G0 B+34

As you can see, Green tracks pretty much perfectly in MOVIE mode Warm 2. Blue however is WAY off and red starts bad but comes together. Generally speaking you should calibrate your own tv, not just copy ones like I have posted. In this case though, if you you're not going down a calibration route, I probably would recommend trying these settings as blue is so far out on mine (And so I suspect that is 'generally' how all the tvs will be)Gamma and brightness are generally down to where people have their tvs. These settings are for a little above all out dark. (Very easy for anyone to calibrate)

If anyone is interested, I have also just attempted to calibrate the 3D mode. However, the sensor readings were jumping around all the time, and it will only calibrate in Movie mode to a 2 point setting. Basically I found that without calibration, RED was way out, but with calibration I got most points fluctuating within +/- 5 (Much closer than it was).The setup wasn't the best either as I taped the glasses to the sensor and the sensors not quite as close to the screen as I would have liked. That said, I am positive its far better than it was.

I hope someone finds these settings useful CheersRik

I tried your exact setup as provided but noticed that everything had a slight pink tinge. It was definately noticible in peoples faces and when looking at white objects.

I have since fine tuned everything and im very happy with the results.

If the above settings dont seem to work well on your tv give mine a try. Mine dont require the movie mode so you can switch between "movie mode" and "standard"
In order to quickly see the differences. Movie mode is just far too dull unfortunately and doesn't look realistic despite what most reviewers say...

 

[Glacialpath]

Strange how people suggest using warm 2, when I first got my tv I paused it and kept changing from warm 1 to warm 2 and it felt as if warm 2 was unrealistic and I preferred warm 1. Although I hope my picture settings are ok. I have a sony kdl46w905 tv and have sharpness on 50, colour 52, backlight 7 gamma 0 and other extras off which are not useful. I use true cinema motion although not sure about smooth gradation and reality creation, should I have led dynamic control on standard, or low, or off?

Hi. I've set up many Sony TVs. Your sharpness should be off (0) as sharpness is only adding to the signal coming from the source it is not actually making the picture sharper. It only appears to look sharper. It was added to American TVs because where we had 576 lines of picture in SD they only had 480 so sharpness added chroma to lets just say fill in the gaps. You don't need it. I promise.

Unlike the samsung your colour setting should be on standard not warm 1 or 2. Motion flow should be off too. Jitter is caused buy the compremise in frame rate the US came up with 23.98fps as aposed to 24fps again due to their TV standard.

 

[Glacialpath]

Ok, after hunting around on various sites I have found that most reviewers are unnecessarily cryptic and very reluctant to share their own calibration settings and would rather gloat about their calibrated screen than be helpful. At the end of the day, the settings im about to give you will allow for very impressive looking images. Regardless of the film, be it The Dark Knight Rises or Monsters Vs Aliens, you will see detail in all ranges of brightness and it will look natural.

I dont understand how anyone can say "movie mode" looks natural or the most realistic... it just makes the image a yellow blurred mess, as if you're looking through a layer of clingfilm.

Anyways my settings are as followed, with an explanation of why I have selected certain things. Some settings are from various people (so thanks) but are mainly from my own calibration:

Picture Mode: Standard

Backlight: 19

Contrast: 99

Brightness: 44

Sharpness: 70

Colour: 50

Tint: G50/R50

Apply Picture Mode: Current Source

Picture Size

Picture Size: Screen Fit

Advanced Settings

Dynamic Contrast: Off

Black Tone: Off

Flesh Tone: 0

RGB Only Mode: Off

Colour Space: Custom Red - R49, G0, B7; Green - R22, G50, B0; Blue - R8, G8, B50; Yellow - R48, G 48, B0; Cyan - R15, G50, B47; Magenta - R48, G0, B49

White Balance 2-Point:

Red Offset 25 Green Offset 24 Blue Offset 27 Red Gain 20 Green Gain 23 Blue Gain 21

White Balance 10-Point: (Available in Movie Mode)

10% R0 G+1 B0 20% R+1 G0 B-2 30% R0 G0 B+2 40% R0 G-1 B0 50% R-1 G0 B+1 60% R0 G-1 B0 70% R-1 G-2 B-2 80% R0 G+2 B0 90% R+1 G0 B0 100% R+2 G0 B0

Gamma: +1

Motion Lighting: Off

Picture Options:

Colour Tone: Standard

Digital Clean View: Auto

MPEG Noise Filter: Auto

HDMI Black Level: Normal

Film Mode: off or Auto2 (If the option is available)

Motion Plus: Smooth

Ok, reasons for some of the above settings:

Sharpness is at 70 because this appears to be the maximum sharpness you can go up to before the image starts displaying strange artifacts. Some reviewer suggested having it set at 0 so I tried it. It made my pin sharp realistic looking photos from the top of the Rockerfeller building in New York look like I was seeing the same photos through a few layers of clingfilm, all detail is lost if you put the sharpness at 0, so dont do it.

Colour is at 50 because if you increase it any higher colours start to bleed into each other and it doesn't look realistic. If you think your colours look too dull I suggest watching Speed Racer on bluray. Its a daft film but I guarantee that you wont have ever seen anything more colourful and vibrant, then you'll see that setting colour at 50 is more than sufficient.

Backlight and contrast aren't at maximum because I found that you actually lose fine details in bright areas on the screen by having them cranked up to full.

Tint is spot on at 50/50, I used a blue screen filter and carefully checked Red, Green, Blue , Yellow , Cyan and Magenta to ensure that none of these colours started to look like each other when the blue filter was on.

Gamma is at +1 otherwise you lose detail in dark scenes during films. I would suggest putting this up to +3 when watching 3D films because the glasses reduce the screen brightness by about 30%.

Set the colour space and white balance exactly as I have done. These settings create the most accurate colours.

Digital Clean View and MPEG Noise filter are set to Auto because I found these work the best. They remove the awful film grain you often notice in films. The worst thing I have ever seen for film grain is Expendables 2, it was absolutely unwatchable on my previous Samsung 6000 series tv, I might put it on to see if my new settings improve the quality of that film so I can enjoy it as much as I did in the cinema.

For the many films I have watched since getting this TV, such as the three Dark Knight films, Avatar, Life of Pi, Gravity, Prometheus, and StarTrek into Darkness ( to name but a few) they all look absolutely amazing. The very fine film grain that they had is removed by setting both options set to Auto. I found that the "High" options reduces the overall detail of the screen considerably, everything looks much softer and generally awful.

HDMI Black level needs to be set to Normal. Dont set it to "Low" because you lose a ridiculous amount of detail in darker scenes. I accidentally had it switched to Low instead of Normal while I was watching "The Desolation of Smaug" and kicked myself halfway through it, I wondered why the screen was so frigging dark, the film was almost unwatchable because of that.

Motion plus set to "Smooth" makes your films look great. Im still torn between "Smooth" and "Clear", in various reviews people have suggested changing it to "Clear" but there's barely any difference. The only stuttering of the picture that I have seen by having it set to "Smooth" was during the 2nd Hobbit film. It occured when there was a huge sweeping camera movement from right to left, overlooking a castle. But that's the only time ive experienced it and its not that distracting.

Anyways, I hope my above info and settings prove useful to people. Its a shame reviewers have to be so cryptic and unhelpful.

I calibrated my tv by using the Disney WOW calibration bluray that I imported from America and by staring at a pure white screen, raising and lowering various colours until there was only white visible. For example, most uncalibrated screens have too much red and this results in an ever so slight pink tinge to the screen when looking at whats meant to be a pure white screen.

The 2 point and 10 point fine tuning of the colours was done by a Sencore OTC1000 Meter with AV Foundry VideoForge Source and Direct Display Control.

Im very happy with my settings and when ive had people round and they see the quality of the image they cant get their heads around it, they say its like looking through a window/portal or as if they are in front of the actors. As far as im concerned, if a persons eyes cant tell the difference between a film and real life, i'd consider that mission accomplished

Billy

Well using the Digital and MPEG4 filters will take detail out of the picture and why do you want to get rid of film grain? Most of the time it has actually been added on neww films because the filming process has become so clean and the director has had it added in which means you aren't seeing the film the way it's meant to be seen. Aslo with the sharpness set so high you've added Croma to the picture that wasn't there in the first place. Sharpness in only there to be used for NTSC SD content and shouldn't be used for HD at all. Samsung video pannals have a tendency to out of focus when sharpness in on 0 so it should either be left on 50 (neutral) or about 5 to stop things looking fuzzy.

I'm not sure why you would have your contrast so high also. Ok maybe bbecause you've calibrated the white balence your not blooming the withes with it set that high. What BD player do you have and what are it's picture output settings because if they aren't right then they won't displey the test patterns from the disc you used correctly which means all your calibration is totally off and you have just compensated for what the disc is sending to the TV.

I worry when I read these posts of setting people have done themselves that they forget about player settings too. I'm not saying you have but yu don't mention them. Propper Calibration is doen all from test signal generators, all the Pluge, Grayscale, colour bars, gamma and so on. This avoids 3rd party signal prcessing giving in correct signals to the screen. Yes discs can be used like the Digital Video Esentials disc and the THX disc and your Disney WOW on as long as the BD player settings are set correctly in the first place.

 

[billybifocals]

Strange how people suggest using warm 2, when I first got my tv I paused it and kept changing from warm 1 to warm 2 and it felt as if warm 2 was unrealistic and I preferred warm 1. Although I hope my picture settings are ok. I have a sony kdl46w905 tv and have sharpness on 50, colour 52, backlight 7 gamma 0 and other extras off which are not useful. I use true cinema motion although not sure about smooth gradation and reality creation, should I have led dynamic control on standard, or low, or off?

Hi. I've set up many Sony TVs. Your sharpness should be off (0) as sharpness is only adding to the signal coming from the source it is not actually making the picture sharper. It only appears to look sharper. It was added to American TVs because where we had 576 lines of picture in SD they only had 480 so sharpness added chroma to lets just say fill in the gaps. You don't need it. I promise.

Unlike the samsung your colour setting should be on standard not warm 1 or 2. Motion flow should be off too. Jitter is caused buy the compremise in frame rate the US came up with 23.98fps as aposed to 24fps again due to their TV standard.

I really wouldn't advise setting the sharpness to 0 on this particular tv. 50 appears to be the default sharpness. By changing the sharpness on this tv to 0 you lose all sharpness, it completely detracts from the existing sharpness. Its like looking through multiple layers of clingfilm if its set to 0, it looks truly awful and my eyes couldn't cope with it for longer than a few seconds. If you want all your pristine HD content to look like oil paintings crank it down to 0 and look forward to headaches and eyestrain. Ive got my samsung tvs sharpness set to 70 and it looks mint.

 

[billybifocals]

Hi, im only rocking a PS3 and Ps4 but both images look identical when output to the tv. I have everything going through a Sony STRDH810 amp. Id rather have a nice bright image than a muddy one. With that sharpness set at 70 it really doesn't make much difference to the picture, slamming it down to 0 makes it awful however. Ive used various sharpness test images, in particular the ones that came on my Disney WOW calibration bluray and i found that i could easily get away with 70 without causing weird chroma artifacts. Ive compared the image with and without processing on and off at various settings and Auto for me gives the best results. At the end of the day there's nothing wrong with people messing about with their tv settings if they're already starting with default. Worse case scenario the picture doesn't look quite right so its either a matter of fine tuning the settings im personally loving or simply resetting them. If people weren't so cryptic and unhelpful when it comes to sharing their own calibration settings I wouldn't have bothered typing anything up. I dont like film grain because its distracting. They ruined Expendables 2 and 300 because of the unnecessary film grain. 300 on DVD looks amazing.

 

[Glacialpath]

Hello again Billybifocals. Cool name by the way.

My suggestion to nugget2014 for setting his sharpness to 0 was because he has a Sony TV. You are right Samsung TV and some other brands have the sharpness neutral at 50 in which case it shouldn't be touched.

Not sure if you know why sharpness was added to TVs so here goes. It's only for the NTSC market and SD content only. Its there so people could turn it up and add chroma to make up for the fact they only really had half a picture. You have to excuse me as I don't know where you are from. But for us with PAL our standard Def picture has more lines than PAL so we never needed it. Of course most of the TVs made today are from the NTSC part of the world so I guess that's why they still add it to TV setting. The fact you imported a Disney disc is the reason why it has Sharpnes test patterns on it. Of course if you are happy with the setting at 70 then thats your personal preference. To me if the TV needs Chroma added to the incoming signal then theres something wrong.

This is why I don't agree with people putting up their setting as some of them are personal preference, which is fine and if people don't like them then of course they won't use them. Also each room and even a display pannel of the same model are different so no one set of setting will be the same.

What are the display settings of your PS3 and PS4 and the Video setting too? I'm sure you've set them right before using your set up disc but I'm curious if you don't mind.

I can understand why you don't like it but the film grain is intentional on 300. It's part of the film grading. Obviously most of the film was shot on Blue or Green screen. The same goes for Expendables 1 and 2 it's all been added in post production so you are actually getting rid of some of the picture detail and clarity, but again it's your porogitive and your TV.

Check how clean and detailed the Lionsgate Key logo is at the beginning of the film with the Digital and MPEG4 setting off.

 

[billybifocals]

Hi, thanks

It was a college nickname that stuck lol.

The ps3 is set up as followed:

"BD/DVD Cinema Conversion" is Normal.

"BD/DVD Video Output Format (HDMI)" is "Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr"

"BD 1080p 24 Hz Output (HDMI)" is Automatic

"BD/DVD Dynamic Range Control" is off

"BD/DVD Audio Output Format (HDMI)" is Linear PCM

"BD/DVD Audio Output Format (Optical Digital)" is Bitstream.

RGB Full Range (HDMI) is Full

Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr Super-White (HDMI) is On.

Overview
Video Settings
BD Internet: "Allow"
BD/DVD Cinema Conversion: "Automatic"
BD/DVD Upscaler: "Normal"
BD/DVD Video Output Format (HDMI): "Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr" for TVs, "RGB" for PC Monitors
BD 1080p 24Hz Output: "Automatic"
BD/DVD Dynamic Range Control: "Off"
BD/DVD Audio Output Format (HDMI): "Linear PCM"
BD/DVD Audio Output Format (Optical Digital): "Bitstream"
Display Settings
RGB Full Range (HDMI): "Full"
Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr Super-White (HDMI): "On".

With these above settings I see no abnormalities using the various calibration discs ive used.

I live in the UK but every tv ive had over the years, include all tube tvs, have all had sharpness knobs or settings.

And yeah due to the torrent of posts on here I thought you had advised someone to change the sharpness to 0, as this thread is meant to be discussing the samsung tv, I didn't see any mention of a Sony tv so my bad.

Yeah 50 seems to be the default sharpness settings on samsung tvs, just as the colour is.

I can appreciate that some amount of "detail" is lost by eliminating film grain but I dont consider video noise to contribute to my enjoyment of a film. The only time I haven't minded the film grain was on The Pacific and Band of Brothers series, they look amazing.

By having the MPEG and other noise reduction settings set to auto I just find that peoples faces and surroundings look much more realistic. They dont look like youre watching a "soap opera" as a few people have commented, nor do they look like waxwork dummies. I watched I am Legend yesterday and there is an incredible amount of detail in Will Smiths face, despite me having stuff set to Auto.

 

[Glacialpath]

Ah cool. Most people don't know about the display setting and don't have the Whites at full and Dynamic range on and all the other rubbish that should be off.

Yeah they added Sharpness to CRTs too for the same reason most of them came from Asia and it seems like a gimmic and people think they are getting a clearer picture.

Band Of Brothers and The Pacific are awesome. I think B.O.B. is better than the Pacific though.

I noticed you have the HDMI audio output set to PCM. Do you have and AV receiver? If so you want it set to Bitstream so the AVR does the decoding. and amp will do a better job than the internal decoder of the PS3.

I have to say I haven't seen the pic on the Samsung you guys have so without having a play with the settings I can't truly comment on how it looks on what settings. I'm just going by what I know about TV settings.

Glad you enjoy your settings and have managed to deal with film grain to your liking

 

[aliEnRIK]

Ive been curious as to what everyone is talking about so I have just now booted up my PC via my tv. Sharpness is currently set to 5 (As the test disc I used showed over that it started to 'scew' the test screen)
The picture is absolutely pin sharp with HD photos (Staggeringly so). I would seriously check your settings if 70 is what you claim to be about right. I even have to ask : is it the same tv?

 

[aliEnRIK]

HDMI Black level needs to be set to Normal. Dont set it to "Low" because you lose a ridiculous amount of detail in darker scenes. I accidentally had it switched to Low instead of Normal while I was watching "The Desolation of Smaug" and kicked myself halfway through it, I wondered why the screen was so frigging dark, the film was almost unwatchable because of that.

Assuming you're watching everything through your ps3, its because you have set RGB FULL on the PS3. Thats good for games, but all films will be converted into FULL RGB (Any conversion processes going on are generally bad)

 

[billybifocals]

It is the same tv that everyone is banging on about, im not insane.

So you've booted your pc via your tv? What's that got to do with the price of bread? Im not sat 2 feet from my tv, im sat about 3 times the height of the screen, which is where im meant to be sat for this screen size... sure if I sat on top of the screen I wouldn't need to have the sharpness set at 70, I could probably leave it at 50...

 

[billybifocals]

Hi, yes Ive got a decent AV receiver (Sony STRDH810) and I did used to have the PS3 output as Bitstream but in made the audio far too quiet and I noticed that certain sounds on certain tracks weren't even audible. I think its a bug that Sony unfortunately never bothered to fix, some kind of incompatibility with my reviever and the PS3. PCM sounds mint regardless on my Boston Acoustics surround sound system. The sub is equally ridiculous.

 

[billybifocals]

The reason why ive got RGB Full Range (HDMI) set to Full is because "Limited" delivers a more subdued, albeit more naturalistic, color range, while "Full" produces both brighter and richer tones on both ends of the spectrum. As a result of the "Full" spectrum, many intermediate shades get lost in the mix. On the other hand I find that "Full" is better for this particular samsung TV. Its all about preference at the end of the day. I can't see there being much difference from one identical model of this tv to another. That's as mad as saying one car built on an assembly line will have more horse power than an identical car built on the same assembly line. That makes no sense. The only thing that might cause differences is tv firmware. This tv automatically updates itself anyway.

 

[aliEnRIK]

The price of bread? Nothing. Who said anything about 2 feet?
As for HD photo quality : everything. The HD pictures are absolutely pin sharp at 5 sharpness (And probably would be at zero, im still testing it). I was watching HD golf yesterday through its inbuilt tuner and I set sharpness to 20 and the grass looked awful. There were definite 'convergence errors'

I dont understand how anyone can say "movie mode" looks natural or the most realistic... it just makes the image a yellow blurred mess, as if you're looking through a layer of clingfilm.

All I can say is your settings are very odd to me. Sounds like your AV receiver is changing the signal somehow (Or there are other possible causes)