Originally Posted by
JPC77 
Hey guys-- I am going to take my time posting a few things here in hopes it saves anyone who has a Samsung 6100 set w/a PS3 a lot of research and trial and error testing. I have had this set for 2 weeks now and no question it is a very good-excellent TV. However with the number of options it offers to the point of overkill, in conjunction w/the myriad of tweaks the PS3 offers as well, calibrating this set has neither been easy nor fun. If you research this set on the internet, basically you get told Movie Mode bottom line regardless of calibration. The fact is, the strength in this particular set is the color palette and detail in the picture. While Movie Mode may allow for a truer, more natural look, it kills the dynamics and vibrancy the TV offers as a sacrifice. Dynamic and Natural modes are worthless for the obvious reasons. But what I have attempted to do through online research, calibrations through others posted and recommended settings (including in this thread), Advanced calibration through Disney WOW, test runs w/the PS3 itself (and it's settings), etc. is to find balance in a "perfect" calibration while completely disowning all that this set has to offer. My previously posted calibration has only changed slightly but I am going to break all this down as I go since a couple of you have asked for a better explanation of how I came to these settings. Let's start w/the PS3 settings:
BD/DVD Video Output Format: Automatic
For the purposes of these calibrations and the next set of PS3 options, I have verified on at least 3-4 occasions there was no change in calibration between RGB & yb/bc/cr modes. With that said, leaving this on Automatic is best since you won't lose anything alternating between gaming and BD watching.
1080p 24 Hz Ouput (HDMI): Automatic
At the end of the day, I left this on Automatic. I verified through a few places our TV does offer 24 Hz output, but the other component is the BDs have to run in that mode as well. While 90%+ do, you may have older titles in your library that don't and you don't want to risk a crap picture by having this on unnecessarily. Likewise, why would you not want the PS3 to utilize this feature if it is available since our TV is capable of it when it is? For the purposes of calibration, it makes zero difference where this is set.
Video Output Settings: 1080p (no explanation needed hopefully)
RGB Full Range (HDMI): Limited
Y Pb/Cb Pr/CR Super White: Off
Deep Color Output (HDMI): Off
Okay-- let's get Deep Color Output out of the way 1st. In my myriad of tests, I noticed absolutely no difference under any settings of this being on or off affecting the final calibrated product. Bottom line is, since my calibration was done through Standard Mode, and this option on the set is only available when using Movie Mode, coupled with the fact it seemed to make zero difference under any circumstances anyway, I shut this off just to remove the wildcard of giving the PS3 something else to convert that it really doesn't need to.
Regarding the other 2, it is imperative RGB Full Range is Limited and Super White is Off. I know most posts will tell you different for the main 2 reasons: 1) RGB Full crushes blacks beyond recognition (true), and 2) Super White off inhibits your ability to properly calibrate Contrast/Whites which is true also. However, it seems the lack of manual control with the both the brightness and contrast settings turned people off to this (how can one calibrate a picture with the blacks & whites out of your ability to adjust after all?). What I learned through use of Disney WOW is that the PS3 is actually a lot smarter than given credit for. For those who have Disney Wow, on both the Brightness & Contrast tests w/Full Range Limited & Super White Off, both blacks and whites are already properly calibrated (blacks ever so slightly more than whites). With these settings, Ideal Black is +0 with everything above and below that range registering properly as it should. The default Brightness setting of 45 is actually already perfectly accurate. Even though adjusting it w/these settings will not affect further clipping (or lack thereof), it does affect the "visible" lines in making them darker or not. If you incrementally adjust the Brightness in either direction, you would notice 45 is where it needs to be with all Stars and +/- ratios being in perfect order. With the Whites/Contrast, the same can be said for these settings as well. I adjusted Contrast down to 96 from 100 for the same reason of following the "visible" line(s) which cuts off after -5 anyway. 95 is 1 metric too short for -5 and 96 lines it up perfectly so anything above begins to wash. The only mild drawback is that while the -1 star is visible, it borders on being Ideal White (0) but not quite. It is worth the trade off since when I calibrated the other way (with Super White turned On), you wind up +1 short the other direction missing the perfect white altogether and also begin to negatively affect your blacks if you try differently (downfall of an LCD). Your second witness to these settings being accurate is pulling up your Test Pattern #2 (color) from your Menu options (Advanced Settings) and you will see the 3 strip lines on the bottom, middle right & left w/your White & Black shades/levels (they have a black line in the middle) where you can see the separation also. One side note: the side angle viewing of these sets is very true. Sitting head on, some of these can look off but if you look @ the set from the left or right, you will see them in perfect calibration.
Sorry for the run-on paragraph but that all covered the same subject. The last thing I want to cover before re-listing my final calibration is Gamma. On the previous settings I had it at +1 but changed it to -1 here. Once everything is calibrated, the only thing this adjustment seems to affect the most is the detail of your whites and blacks (higher helps increase black detail but at the expense of your whites and vice versa). If you can see this on the Test Pattern #2 again w/the 3 strips I mentioned above. Ultimately I knocked it down a couple notches because whites needed slightly more help than the blacks w/these settings, and because on bright, colorful scenes, it really makes a difference, more than it helps when you watch darker ones (I watched Aliens last night and did not feel I was at a loss for black detail or experiencing too much black crush). I dropped the Backlight level down 1 more notch also, so I toyed w/putting Gamma back @ 0, but the XMB menu and games run hotter than BDs so I chose -1 for the overall balance/experience but you can toy with it as you please.
I really invested a ton of personal time on this because really through all my online research, I found no good answers. Yes I want perfect color, balanced blacks, proper flesh tones, etc but I also want this TV to look better than the DLP I gave up to replace it with. Even if you attempt to match my calibration on Movie mode, it is still sucked dry of color, is green-tinted, and does not do justice to games, movies, or this TV. Standard naturally brings out more color and detail. Most calibrations and reviews say to keep the Dynamic Contrast setting off. I did this forever but once I started building my calibration with it on Low instead, I gained an entirely new dimension of color and detail. Granted you lose a touch of proper detail w/blacks being a tad darker than you would prefer, but factoring the entire experience and viewing the overall picture (i.e. watching BDs), I would hold these settings up to any that are out there in Movie Mode and say it is not even a comparison. I hope this all comes to help somebody out who was looking for the same things I was and were unable to find the answers. Feel free to post any feedback or questions and I'll check up on this periodically to help if I can.
CALIBRATED SOURCE: PS3
MODE: Standard
BACKLIGHT: 10
CONTRAST: 96
BRIGHTNESS: 45
SHARPNESS: 15 (subjective)
COLOR: 35 ( I know that is low for some people but anything higher, colors start to wash and you lose actual colors from your pallet)
TINT (G/R): 50/50
PICTURE SIZE: Screen Fit
POSITION: Default
DYNAMIC CONTRAST: Low
BLACK TONE: Off
FLESH TONE: 0
RGB ONLY MODE: Off (but use the Blue setting liberally to cross check my color/tint calibrations w/Test Pattern #2)
COLOR SPACE: Auto
WHITE BALANCE: 25 (Default)
GAMMA: -1
EXPERT PATTERN: Off (use them both to calibrate other sources however-- i.e. cable box, separate DVD player, etc)
MOTION LIGHTING: Off
COLOR TONE: Standard
DIGITAL NOISE FILTER: Off
MPEG NOISE FILTER: Off
HDMI BLACK LEVEL: Low
AUTO MOTION PLUS: Off
LED MOTION PLUS: Off
