The Samsung SP-A 800 B is a Full HD, DLP projector, optimised by Joe Kane. Although the technology might not look bang up-to-date, the A 800 is our laboratory’s reference model. Available since summer 2008, the device currently sells online for around 3,000 GBP.

Florian Friedrich, tested on January 6, 2010

Outstanding 24p picture.
High contrast ratio.
Sensational colours.
Easy operation.
Ultra-sharp zoom lens with lens-shift.

Weaknesses in 1080i de-interlacing.
480i/576i not possible via HDMI.

Our new reference projector! Why? Because the JKP-certified Samsung leaves the competition in the dust with its neutral pictures, pure colours, and excellent fine-detail reproduction. The versatile and precise lens-shift guarantees top HDTV quality, right up to the edges of the image. With pictures like this, it’s easy to look past the few slight weaknesses.

Opening Remarks

The quality seal of “Joe Kane Productions” — a valuable asset in today’s home cinema.

The first demonstration models of the SP-A 800 B appeared way back at the IFA 2007, and we instantly had high hopes for the new model, since Joe Kane himself had been involved in the tuning process. The American video expert has been one of the world’s leading specialists for more than 30 years, and has worked with Samsung on many occasions. Although the feature set might not look as cutting edge now as it did in 2008, the calibration matches the HDTV standards perfectly.

Features and Operation

The practical remote control provides handy direct-access buttons that light up in the dark home cinema.

This Samsung DLP projector still uses a 0.95-inch DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) from the second “Dark Chip” generation. Meanwhile, a three-chip DLP successor, the SP-A 900 B, has already been released in the USA, using fourth-generation Dark Chip DMDs. The differences between the DMD generations are actually slight, and barely affect the picture quality. Even with the older reflective chip, the SP-A 800 B achieves an On/Off contrast of 2,370:1 — and this figure climbs to up to 5,800:1 when you activate the “DynamicBlack” technology.

Unlike many current DLP projectors, the Samsung offers a vertical lens-shift function, simplifying adjustment of the projected image: A wheel control shifts the picture up to 60 percent upwards or downwards. In combination with the 1.3x zoom, this makes it easy to tailor the projection to all living-room and home-cinema setups.

Furthermore, the extremely precise high-definition lens proves to be one of the A 800’s highlights: The lens’ definition easily surpasses that of most competing models, even when you’re using lens shift. A practical extra feature: The remote control’s “Install” button switches directly between four positioning options, flipping the image horizontally and vertically as necessary to allow upright and upside-down mounting, as well as front and rear projection.

The backlit remote control also impressed, offering access to all of the important functions within just a few button taps. One example is the “Still” button, which not only freeze-frames finance tickers or weather maps, for example, but also allows you to carry out numerous picture adjustments without the picture constantly changing.

Picture Settings Galore

Once you’ve frozen the picture using the “Still” button, you can tweak all of the picture controls at your leisure. In the “Color Pattern” menu, you can even choose to display each colour signal — R, G, or B — individually. The advantage here is that you can then use test patterns to set the correct colour saturation, without needing to use special colour filters. The on-screen menu even provides some test patterns. But there’s more to come: If you press the “Info” button, perhaps the world’s most-extensive list of settings appears for the current HDMI picture — it’s a picture-enthusiast’s dream.

In the menu, the user can manually choose between the three colour standards — SMPTE C, HD, and EBU — although these only differ slightly from one another. The options don’t, however, extend to manual selection of the colour decoding — between BT 601 and BT 709 — for SDTV or HDTV signals. Instead, the Samsung automatically and — without fail — correctly detects the standard. In the factory setup (picture mode: “Movie1”), the colours are already excellently adjusted, thanks to the JKP certification, so it’s no major problem that only the service menu offers colour management for adjustment of the primary and secondary colours. For individual settings, the projector provides six further, freely adjustable picture modes, between which the user can switch directly using the remote control. Enthusiasts really will be in their element!

Where we will criticise the SP-A 800 B is for its refusal to play back HDMI signals in the 480i and 576i formats. Also, de-interlacing of HDTV movies in 1080i is better on some projectors with Silicon Optix processors. We have one more small criticism: The A 800 offers no motion-enhancing technologies such as those found on many current LCD projectors in this price class.

Joe Kane not only optimises projectors, but also makes a name for himself with test discs such as “DVE HD Basics”.

Light and Colours

The Korean model’s “Movie1” preset upholds the relevant standards precisely. The dimensions of the colour space are also optimal — there’s no sign of extended colours here.

The SP-A 800 B delivers its best colours in its brighter lamp mode, where the red components of the lamp’s spectrum appear fuller. The CIE diagram clearly demonstrates the quality of the colour setup: Apart from minimal deviations in cyan, the Samsung matches the primary and secondary colours perfectly.

In the factory setup, the gamma is set to 2.6 — ideal for the pitch-black home cinema.

The gamma mode “Film” has a preset gamma value of 2.6, which is ideal for dark home cinemas. The significantly brighter “Video” gamma preset, on the other hand, is only recommendable in rooms where ambient lighting tends to wash out dark shades of colours. The “Graphic” gamma mode increases the brightness differences in mid-contrast content, in order to convey a more dynamic look. The black level, at 0.078 cd/m2, is very dark for a DLP projector, and is only made possible by the “DynamicBlack” technology (and then only in the technology’s “Auto” mode). In this setting, which uses dynamic iris adjustment, black images are three times as dark (see box below).

The DynamicBlack setting only works dynamically in the “Auto” mode, where it increases the On/Off contrast and reduces the black level, but has almost no effect on the in-picture contrast.

Picture Quality of Standard Signals

The connections on the rear of the A 800.

With YUV signals, the Samsung produces fantastic picture quality. You can even deactivate picture-cropping (overscan), allowing — in combination with the flawless detail-reproduction and de-interlacing — a picture of almost HDMI-level accuracy. If, however, you’ve got a TV receiver or DVD player with a YUV interface, you’ll notice a dotted line above the video picture. With overscan turned off, you can neither shift this line out of the picture nor mask it with black, since the projector lacks a blanking function.

The tricky beach scene on the DVD “Six Days Seven Nights” shows how well the Samsung’s de-interlacing works via YUV: The picture looks perfect throughout as the camera pans across the sun loungers, for example. With TV pictures, too, we were impressed by the clean scaling and neat edge-smoothing. So it’s all the more irritating that the projector lacks support for the interlaced 480i and 576i formats via HDMI. We also weren’t exactly blown away by composite and S-Video pictures: Since you can’t deactivate overscan for these inputs, the relatively pronounced picture-cropping and visibly too-soft details both fail to match the quality of the superb YUV input.

In consolation, the Samsung delivers high picture contrast, fantastic colours, and beautifully natural pictures in all operating modes. Black-and-white films show uniform illumination right up to the edges of the picture, and neither light nor dark greyscales show any colouration — this performance contrasts with that of many LCD and D-ILA projectors, which often introduce colour deviations at various positions in the picture. Furthermore — another plus point — the Samsung’s single-chip technology is immune to convergence problems, since the colour mixing takes place with the help of a rotating, six-segment colour filter.

And if you’re now thinking that rainbow effects will be the problem instead, think again: The well-balanced colours limit the perceived intensity of this effect. Even long TV evenings or indulgent “Lord of the Rings” marathons, for example, won’t tire out the viewer’s eyes. For example, in the first film of the aforementioned trilogy, structures and colours in the night-time forest scene look extraordinarily clear. Even fast motion remains crisp, and the subtle expressions and tiniest pores of Gandalf’s face are visible in the dim moonlight. In the few daylight scenes in the first instalment, the Samsung displays the flourishing summer meadows of the hobbits’ village in splendid — but always natural — colours.

Picture Quality of HDTV Signals

With HDTV test patterns, the A 800 emphasises the importance of quality optics in producing an outstanding overall impression: No projector has ever produced such a contrast-rich image on our test lab’s screen. Even with the lens-shift active, the zoom lens maintains accurate focus and contrast into the very edges of the images — we’re genuinely impressed! Competing LCDs, such as the aforementioned Epson EH TW 5000, simply cannot match the Samsung’s quality.

But the superb sharpness applies to more than just contrast-rich test patterns. If you look closely, you can easily see the fine structures of textiles and other surfaces. In Sheryl Crow’s live concert “Soundstage”, for example, the bass guitarist’s silky-smooth shirt collar, the fine scratches in the guitar’s lacquer, and the singer’s sequined shoulder strap all display excellently, adding authenticity to the concert experience. The out-of-focus, blurred background supports this impression, thanks to the totally invisible pixel grid. Even hobby photographers will be impressed by the colour purity and the slide-like look of digital-photo projections.

The extremely positive impression continues with films in 1080p format — artefacts are nowhere to be seen! The Samsung’s projected pictures are sharp, colour-neutral, attractive, and highly cinematic. What’s more, the difference between a 1080/60p film picture and the visibly lower judder in 24p signals is testament to the A 800’s excellent motion depiction in Blu-ray films.

Ideal Settings

Mode: Movie1

Contrast: 53

Brightness: 47

Sharpness: 0

Colour: 49

Colour Temperature: 6,500K

Gamma: Film

DynamicBlack: Off

Digital NR: Off

Overscan: Off

Colour Standard: HD

Light Setting: Bright

These settings apply to realistic playback of HDTV/Blu-ray material through the HDMI interface in a darkened environment. Manufacturing and HDMI playback device deviations might necessitate slight adjustment.

If you want to share your opinion on this projector,
please reply to the thread accompanying this review on avsforum.com.