Colors and Ideal Settings

Fine-tuning for the optimal picture, just like they see in the film studio: In this chapter, we'll show you how good the UE 40 B 7090's colors and presets really are, and how to get the best out of the TV's picture.

Color Fidelity:

The TV's color spectrum tells the expert what type of light source the TV uses. The Samsung's color spectrum indicates that so-called "White-Light LEDs" provide the necessary brightness for its screen.

This diagram shows how the color temperature varies across various grayscales - from nearly black right through to white.

In the most natural preset, MOVIE, the color temperature varies between 9,000 and 7,200 Kelvin. The average value, 7,500 Kelvin, is a little too high compared to the 6,500-Kelvin ideal, resulting in a slight bluish tint, particularly in black-and-white movies.

A CIE diagram indicates the color gamut of the TV (reproduction of saturated colors), as well as the color coordinates of various light grayscales. The black triangle shows the ideal values; the white triangle is the gamut of the tested TV. In the ideal case, you would see just one spot inside the triangle, and this would lie at the point where the dotted lines meet (the D65 point). The more visible spots, the bigger the color deviation.

The Samsung's color gamut matches the HDTV (REC709) color space exactly, and the PAL (EBU) color space almost exactly, so saturated colors appear with the correct tint and saturation. Inside the triangle you can see some spots that are shifted slightly toward blue, making the picture look a little on the cool side.

Overall, the Samsung's color fidelity is decent in the most natural preset, MOVIE. Experts can achieve improvements by fine-tuning the color temperature, resulting especially in more-natural skin tones and grayscale reproduction. We'll discuss how to do this in the next chapter.

Saturated colors display accurately.

Picture Settings:
Ever more manufacturers fit their TVs with comprehensive adjustment options. The extended settings are aimed foremost at expert users that want to use test discs and special measurement devices, such as a color analyzer, to perfect the TV's picture. Their goal is to make the picture as honest as possible, and to comply with relevant studio standards.

Information for Experts:
Since the following paragraph is therefore aimed at experts with some prior knowledge of video technology, it contains a few technical terms.

The Samsung's video settings include controls for the following parameters:

• COLOR TONE: five predefined color temperatures (T=5,800 K ... T>10,000 K).

• WHITE BALANCE: fine-tuning of color temperature using R/G/B settings for two measurement points (R/G/B-Offset & R/G/B-Gain).

• FLESH TONE: adjusts the tint, similarly to the TINT control, from greenish to reddish, but only affects skin tones.

• GAMMA: seven predefined gamma curves.

• COLOR SPACE and xvYCC: choice of color spaces (Auto, Native, Custom, xvYCC). Selecting CUSTOM allows you to adjust the color coordinates of the primary colors (red, green, and blue) using R/G/B controllers.

• BLUE ONLY MODE: built-in electronic color-filter. The TV displays only the blue component of the image. This setting replaces the color-filter sheets that certain test patterns require, generally those used for setting the color saturation.

• 100 Hz MOTION PLUS: setting with various levels for enhancing motion clarity in TV pictures and for removing judder from movies.

• FILM MODE: selection of three de-interlacing algorithms for interlaced input-signals.

Calibration:

Well equipped: The Samsung offers nearly all the picture controls that a professional might use to optimize color fidelity.

It's worth the effort: Fine-tuning with the WHITE BALANCE controller allowed us to improve the color setup considerably. The slight blue tint disappeared, and the color temperature was almost constantly 6,500 Kelvin across all grayscales - this is the ideal value for unadulterated playback.

Grayscale-Linearity:

After correction, the Samsung displays excellent grayscale-linearity, making black-and-white movies such as "Casablanca" color-neutral - like they would be at the movie theater - and no longer slightly sterile-looking as they were in the best preset.

Gamma Characteristic:

The gamma diagram shows whether the TV reproduces different brightness levels accurately. The red curve gives the ideal values, the blue curve the values for the tested device. The TV's gamma curve deviates somewhat from the ideal values and is bent slightly into an S-shape. This distortion emphasizes dark and bright areas of the picture, making it look subjectively more contrast-rich - this is still, however, an artificial manipulation. The GAMMA control allows you to change the gamma value - the steepness of the curve - but there's nothing the user can do about the S-shaped distortion.

Ideal Settings

We achieved an optimal Blu-ray HDTV movie picture using the settings listed below. You may need to make slight changes to these settings as a result of manufacturing variations, HDMI-transmission variables, and differences between Blu-ray players.

Mode: Movie

Contrast: 95

Brightness: 44

Sharpness: 00

Color: 49

Tint: G50/R50

Advanced Settings Menu:

White Balance: R/G/B-Offset: 25/25/22; R/G/B-Gain: 33/25/14

Black Tone: Off

Dynamic Contrast: Off

Gamma: 0

Color Space: Auto

Flesh Tone: 0

Edge Enhancement: Off

xvYCC: Off

Picture Options Menu:

Color Tone: Warm2

Size: Screen Fit

Digital NR: Off

100 Hz MotionPlus: Off

Blue Only Mode: Off