The Samsung PS 63 A 756 TV is a Full HD, 63-inch plasma TV. Released in autumn 2008, the TV is now advertised online from 2,800 GBP.

Florian Friedrich, tested on December 21, 2009

Extremely bright for this size class.
Extensive network functionality.

Low maximum contrast.
Judder in 24p content.
High power consumption when displaying bright images.

We can’t help but be impressed by the sheer size of Samsung’s 63-inch PS 63 A 756. Detail-rich Blu-rays look absolutely superb on this giant screen, but home-cinema aficionados will dislike the relatively low maximum contrast, relatively pronounced plasma artefacts, and imperfect 24p reproduction. Purely in terms of video technology, current 50-inch, Full HD plasmas might be a better choice. But there are still plenty of reasons to buy the PS 63 A 756: The size is astounding, Blu-rays look great, and the price is more than acceptable for such an immense screen.

Most important connections:

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Multimedia

The Samsung’s connections panels provide everything you need for the modern home cinema, including a LAN socket for network playback.

Via the Ethernet socket on its rear panel, the PS 63 A 756 can connect to the Internet and retrieve free online content such as weather information or news tickers (RSS feeds). And thanks to the supplied USB wireless dongle, the TV can also connect to the net via a wireless router.

There’s more: If you install suitable “streaming server” software — TwonkyMedia or Windows Media Connect, for example — on a PC in your network, you can use the Samsung to play back music, photos, and videos from your hard disk.

Alternatively, you can also play back multimedia files via the side-mounted USB socket. The TV will also display a pixel-perfect picture from computer video signals in 1,920 x 1,080/60 Hz format.

Features

Analogue cable and DVB-T (for Freeview) tuners comprise the Samsung’s rather conventional reception capabilities — there’s no DVB-S (freesat) tuner, for example, and the TV also can’t receive display digital cable signals. So, unless you only want to watch Freeview — which you’d be mad to do on a screen like this — you’re going to need a set-top box for TV programmes.

Other standard features include, for example, a swivel pedestal, which should come in very handy when you want to rotate the 84-kilogram Samsung. A multitude of picture controls should appeal to picture-perfectionists, and the TV support the extended xvYCC colour space used by some current camcorders. In a practical test with one such camcorder, however, the picture looked too candy coloured.

Operation

The Samsung developers have made great advances in user-friendliness. Large, backlit buttons on the remote control provide much easier operation than on earlier Samsung handsets — this improvement easily makes up for the new handset’s slightly bulky feel. The on-screen menu has also been spruced up: It’s both visually attractive and very easy to navigate.

On request, the TV displays detailed information about the resolution and frame rate of the HDMI video signal. Actually, though, the operation isn’t one-hundred-percent perfect. OK, they’re only small irritations in the grand scheme of things, but they’re irritating nonetheless: Particularly bewildering was the lack of a channel list (virtually ubiquitous in the flat-panel genus), and we thought it odd that you have to go through the “Tools” button to get to the 16:9 format switching. The buttons for entering and exiting Teletext mode are also placed at opposite ends of the remote — again, it’s a small quirk, but it’ll quickly get on your nerves.

Picture Quality of Standard-Definition Signals

First off, we’ve got a tip: For a natural-looking picture, select the “Movie” preset and deactivate the noise filter (“Digital NR”) and the “Movie Plus” setting. With these adjustments in place, the Samsung displays a detailed TV picture with convincing skin tones. But even in its best setup, the Samsung cannot match the TV picture of the Pioneer PDP-LX 5090 H, for example.

As soon as the camera pans past buildings, the picture loses detail, and some diagonal lines show ugly stair-step effects. Thankfully, films display accurately, thanks to the Samsung’s film-mode detection, and errors in the form of line-flicker only appear at well-known tricky points, such as the picket fence in Chapter 8 of “Space Cowboys”. In dark areas of the picture, such as dark business suits, the TV picture lacks differentiation. There’s also an occasional but irritating judder — finance tickers, for example, appear to stop for a fraction of a second.

The best way to input external video signals — from a DVD player, for example — is via HDMI. The Samsung accurately processes the various resolutions transmitted by this connection, apart from 576i, which appears slightly blurred, unless you input the HDMI signal with RGB colour-encoding. Via Scart-RGB, the TV crops the signal significantly (overscan) but the picture remains impressively crisp. With the “Cell Brightness” turned up to full, the plasma’s gleaming picture exceeds the brightness otherwise found in this size class. The obvious downside to high brightness, however, is high power consumption — to reach this level, the Samsung consumes around 440 watts for normal TV material. The user can reduce the power consumption, but this makes the picture look pale in a dark environment.

Picture Quality of High-Definition Signals

Playback of Blu-ray films looks stunning on the Samsung’s massive screen. Unlike with smaller displays, you don’t have to sit close to the screen to get the best picture impression — viewing feels more relaxed. The picture looks extremely sharp, an even the finest details — such as those of a black and white checkerboard with one-pixel-sized squares — are displayed perfectly by the TV’s video processing. But with PC signals, the sharpness isn’t quite one-hundred percent, leading the screen to produce some minimal double images and interference effects in white areas of the picture. De-interlacing of 1080i signals works well for both film- and video-based material; neither stair-step effects no comb effects disturb the picture.

The stumbling 24p compatibility is irritating, and we’d expect better from a relatively recent TV such as this. With 24p input signals, motion judders just as it does with 60-hertz signals, giving a subtle stutter to the playing-card symbols moving horizontally across the screen in the opening of “Casino Royale”, for example. The integrated “Movie Plus” technology, which can be applied to both progressive and interlaced signals at 50 or 60 hertz, cannot replace proper 24p handling: “Movie Plus” makes motion appear smoother, but also changes the picture impression considerably — not for the better — and introduces pixel noise along objects’ edges.

Colours and Contrast

CIE diagram for the Samsung PS 63 A 756: the colour space matches almost exactly, but dark greyscales show a greenish tint.

In brightly coloured scenes, the Samsung produces consistent primary colours and a neutral colour temperature of 6,300 Kelvin (very close to the ideal value, 6,500 K). But black-and-white sequences, such as the opening scene of “Casino Royale”, still look as though they’ve been coloured using a filter. Depending on the brightness, some greyscales appear slightly purple, some slightly green — and, even with the colour controls, the user is powerless to remedy this error. In fades and fast camera pans, colour blends degrade and colour fringes appear relatively frequently, but these effects don’t detract from the Samsung’s cinematic overall look. One criticism does bear mentioning: Current Pioneer and Panasonic plasmas in the 50-inch class produce fewer such artefacts.

On paper, the Samsung’s maximum contrast doesn’t seem all that impressive — our measurements place it at just 1,200:1. So we were pleasantly surprised by the picture’s depth in practice. LCD TVs that have even twice as much contrast (nominally) cannot match this kind of performance: The Samsung depicts dark picture details accurately and with no discolouration, while also allowing spots of light to shine brightly.

Sound Quality

Even at high volume levels, the speakers produce sonorous bass and a largely neutral mid range. Music sounds great, and overall the TV sounds pleasingly mature. But Samsung’s choice to angle the speakers downward forfeits some potential, making the treble sound slightly whispery and indirect. This is particularly detrimental to speech reproduction.

Signal: 1080/24p

Mode: Movie

Cell Brightness: 10

Contrast: 95

Brightness: 50

Sharpness: 5

Colour: 50

Black Adjust: Off

Dynamic Contrast: Off

Colour Space: Auto

Edge Enhancement: Off

xvYCC: Off

Size: Just Scan

Digital NR: Off

White Balance: All controls set to 25

* 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 may necessitate slight adjustment.