Samsung UNxxC5000 1080P LED LCD

For Samsung's 2010 LCD line-up, they have announced both LED and conventional CCFL displays available from a maximum of 55 inches (CCFL) to 65 inches (LED).

Samsung's marketing literature for their LCD flat panels is somewhat misleading, even for an industry routinely plagued by misleading advertising. They describe their LED-backlit displays as 'LED TV" leaving the false impression that they represent an entirely new type of display technology. They don't. It is still just LCD. An LED's only function is to provide the backlighting necessary for LCD light output.

LED backlighting per se does not offer any advantages in terms of image quality. In fact, the edge-lit models have shown somewhat worse performance when it comes to providing uniform illumination across the screen. The high-end local dimming backlit LEDs can improve image quality only because the LEDs can be selectively turned off and on for higher contrast across the screen. However, even these high-end models suffer from varying degrees of softness or halos around dark/light boundaries. The problem is that there are many fewer LEDs than pixels, which results in some bleed across sharply defined light/dark boundaries. The main advantage of LEDs has nothing to do with performance, but with ergonomics. LED LCDs can be made very thin, which seems to be in vogue these days.

Plasma displays offer better motion resolution and considerably better off-axis performance than LCDs. However, plasmas no longer have any advantage when it comes to contrast, at least on-axis. LCDs have improved enormously in this area as we shall see.

I recently had a chance to spend some time with a 5000 series Samsung LED model, and my impressions were generally quite good, with one exception. Read on for details.

Black Level, Peak Output, and Contrast

After turning off the Eco Sensor (this automatically adjusts the backlighting depending upon the amount of the light sensed in the room) optimizing Brightness, Backlighting, Contrast, and Gamma, and turning off all of the dynamic contrast features, I measured a black level of 0.006 fL. The peak output was just slightly over the ideal 35 fL target for a native contrast ratio of 5500:1. This is excellent performance. In fact, this is good enough that I question the value of spending a lot more money for the local dimming model. Consumers should get into the habit of ignoring manufacturers' grossly inflated claims about contrast ratio, which are routinely generated by the marketing department. The best measure of a panel's true contrast ability is its native contrast--that is, the contrast measured after all other image parameters have been optimized and the dynamic contrast features have been disabled.

This panel is capable of much higher peak output than what I settled on, but I prefer to set the display at the SMPTE-recommended 35 fL. This level provides plenty of punch without overdriving the panel (which can increase image noise viewing fatigue) and is bright enough for daytime viewing, but not so bright as to cause eye strain when watching in a darkened room.

Grayscale Tracking

Grayscale tracking indicates a display's ability to produce a neutral shade of white from the brightest whites to very dim grays. This is arguably the most important aspect of a display's color performance, because without a neutral shade of white at all levels of output, all colors will appear unnatural.

Samsung's Standard Mode, which is the default picture preset, results in a very blue grayscale. Fortunately, Samsung also includes a Movie Mode, which is a reasonably accurate preset. It also offers all the tools necessary for a custom grayscale calibration located conveniently in the user menu. I measured the grayscale performance first in the Standard mode and then again in the Movie mode, which automatically selects the Warm 2 Color Tone preset.

Warm 2 is reasonably accurate, though it was rather blue deficient, especially at the top end of the grayscale. Thus, I had to refine the performance further by using the White Balance adjustments.

As you can see, the post-calibration grayscale is nearly perfect all the way down to 10% stimulus, which is unusual and a noted improvement from previous Samsungs that tended to go blue, especially at the low end. The average Delta-E (the standard metric for color error) was 25 in the Standard Mode and just 1.0 post calibration. SMPTE's error tolerance is 4.0 or lower, so this is just about as good as it gets. Very impressive.

Color Accuracy

The one area where this display's performance was less than exemplary was color accuracy. In the past Samsung's Movie Mode has offered very accurate color. In some models it was so good that improving it further through custom calibration was hardly worth the effort. However, in the 5000 series at least Samsung has taken a step backward in this area. Not only is the Movie preset not nearly as accurate as it has been in some past models, but the 5000 series lacks Samsung's great color management system that allows a calibrator with the proper tools to improve it further.

Before (Standard Mode)

After (Movie Mode)

As you can see, the secondary colors are much more accurate post-calibration, but this is only because of the greatly improved grayscale tracking. The primary colors are essentially unchanged, except the luminance of blue is considerably worse. Although a substantial improvement over the Standard mode (the average dE is cut by approximately half), this would definitely benefit from a custom calibration. For just a little more money you can get the 6000 series that includes Samsung's world-class color management system, which would resolve all of these problems and presumably maintain the other virtues of the 5000.

Gamma

The Samsung offers several gamma presets. The 0 setting ±1 is usually the best. In this particular case, -1 proved the most accurate. In fact, as with the grayscale, I was particularly impressed by how well the 5000's gamma turned out.

Notice the pre-calibration gamma response. The panel was able to produce an extremely high peak output at the cost of a drastically compromised gamma at the top end. Achieving a correct gamma response is essential for good shadow detail, image depth, and high contrast. The Samsung measured very flat well within the recommended range of 2.2-2.35.

User Menu Settings

For the best image quality without custom calibration use the following settings:

• Mode: Movie
• Backlight: 9
• Contrast: 95
• Brightness: 45
• Sharpness: 20
• Color: 50
• Tint: 50/50
• Gamma: -1
• Color Tone: Warm 2
• Digital NR: Low
• HDMI Black Level: Low
• Size: ScreenFit

Subjective Impressions

Displays like this generally look about as well as the measure and--except for the color errors--the Samsung 5000 measured very well indeed. Its contrast, peak output, grayscale tracking, and gamma response were all nearly reference level. Other than the standard issues with LCD displays in general (poor off-axis performance and limited motion resolution), this display looked quite good. My recommendation? Spend just a little more and get the 6000.