Sony KDL-40HX723 3D LED LCD TV Review

Sony recently delivered a sample of its 40-inch HX723 BRAVIA LED LCD TV for review, hot on the heels of the top-end HX923. A quick glance over the specs suggests that the HX723 features many of the favourable attributes of that flagship television, but at around half the price. Not surprisingly, this KDL-40HX723 lacks the LED local dimming function which made the 923 so unique (which should result in contrast performance that we more commonly associate with standard LED LCD TVs), and features the lower-specced Motionflow XR 400 rather than the top-end XR 800 (we’ll see how big the difference is during the review). Also, unlike the HX923 the Sony KDL40HX723 doesn’t ship with any Skype webcam/microphone unit nor 3D glasses in the box.

However, there are still 4 inputs, a Freeview HD tuner, 3D capability, and the sort of internet features that you’d expect a modern HDTV to have on its spec sheet. Let’s see how the Sony KDL-40HX723 competes against similarly priced LED LCD rivals…

Note: The specific model we tested was the Sony KDL40HX723BU, which denotes the 3-pin-plug UK version.

Jump To: Operation • Calibration • Picture Performance • Conclusion

Design

Design is a very subjective thing, as is evidenced by the fact that we personally found the design of the Sony HX723 more appealing than the HX923. The reason? This cheaper LED TV includes a greyish, brushed steel finish below the LCD panel, which contrasts nicely with the black plastic that surround the other three edges (and surrounded the entire screen on the aforementioned higher-up model). It’s also worth mentioning that the LCD panel is “bare” on the KDL40HX723, rather than being covered in the sheet of “Gorilla Glass”, as on the 923.

The KDL-40HX723 fits easily to the supplied tabletop stand assembly, which is styled in black, with a brushed steel appearance.

Connections

Not surprisingly for a modern HDTV, the Sony KDL40HX723′s notable inputs include 4 HDMIs, the mandatory analogue Component input, an input to which SCART devices can be connected to with a break-out adapter cable, a feed for its Freeview HD tuner (which also accepts cable feeds, if you live in a country where your operator supports it), and a LAN input, which you’ll need to use in order to hook the TV up to the internet (unless you have a compatible USB Wireless accessory already).

Rear: 4 x HDMI, VGA, Component, SCART, aerial, ethernet & audio outs

Operation

None of the major brands has ever put on an HDTV with a truly bad user interface, so unsurprisingly, there’s little to say in this area. Sony’s menus have undergone some partial redesigns over the years, and the current implementation is basically a new front end with older menus lurking underneath. The design feels a little inconsistent as a result, but that’s a very minor complaint… the menus feature clear, legible fonts and are fairly well laid out.

[Picture] menu

There’s a good amount of picture options available, which should let us adjust the Sony KDL-40HX723′s images, should it be committing any image inaccuracy sins in its default “Cinema” mode. Most importantly, control over the Motionflow system is given, which should allow us to achieve an appropriate balance between motion clarity and processing artefacts (even the best MCFI-assisted LCD TVs have them). Unsurprisingly, but still disappointingly, there is no advanced colour controls on the KDL40HX723BU, as is the case with all of Sony’s lineup this year.

2D Calibration

Note: Our Sony KDL-40HX723 review sample was calibrated using Calman Professional, the industry-leading video calibration software.

Prior to taking any measurements from the Sony KDL-40HX723, we used our prior experience to set the TV up to give it the best “fighting chance” of producing an accurate picture. In other words, we selected the “Cinema” scene mode and the “Cinema1″ picture preset, then shut off any unwanted processing (Advanced Contrast Enhancer, etc.) for a “hands off” picture.

2D Mode Greyscale

Pre-calibration RGB tracking and delta errors (dEs)

In this mode, the Sony KDL-40HX723 was doing a good job of presenting tint-free Grey shades (when judged by “out of the box” standards). Because the components in each panel – such as the sidelighting, the light guide plates, and the colour filters – vary from unit to unit, it’s not really commercially practical for manufacturers to provide a perfectly coloured picture out of the box. For users who won’t be calibrating their TVs – and as enthusiasts who calibrate TVs on a day to day basis, it’s important for us to remember that that’s nearly everyone – the Sony KDL-40HX723 does a very good job. However, it suffers from the common LED LCD flaw of featuring slightly frosty, blue-tinted shadows.

Post-calibration RGB tracking and dEs in [Cinema 1] mode

Cleaning this up was a cinch with the [White Balance] menu, though. The KDL-40HX723 also suffers from the lack of precision in the low-end adjustments that we noted on the HX923 model, which is why we couldn’t get a completely flat, tint-free result at the 10% and 20% brightness levels (far left of the chart). We do think that Sony should also catch up with other manufacturers, who are typically providing more specific 10-point White Balance adjustments on similarly-priced screens (or in the case of the Korean brands, on lesser-priced ones, too).

Gamma curve in [Cinema 1] mode	Corresponding gamma tracking

Most Sony HDTVs we’ve reviewed lately have done very well with Gamma, and the KDL40HX723 was no exception. We didn’t have to make any adjustments (beyond our usual Greyscale tracking) to achieve the above, highly linear result: the level of brightness at each level was very, very close to perfection. As a result of its highly accurate Gamma tracking, the Sony KDL-40HX723′s images appear free of TV-added contouring artefacts and a sense of believability.

2D Mode Colour

Sony still doesn’t offer any advanced colour controls on any of its screens – there’s an arbitrary [Live Colour] feature which simply exaggerates the brightness of the colours, and the basic [Colour] and [Tint] controls. Fortunately, the KDL40HX723 doesn’t really suffer from this ommission, with all colours being suitably accurate. Most notably, Blue is a little bit desaturated, which is something we commonly see with edge-lit LED LCD televisions.

Post-calibration CIE chart with reference to HD Rec.709

Post-calibration colour luminance (coloured bars = targets; black bars = measured values)

3D Calibration

Prior to advanced calibration of the KDL-40HX723′s 3D mode, we popped on the supplied Sony TDG-BR250 3D eyewear and used our basic 3D test patterns to adjust Brightness and Contrast – in other words, things which could be set by eye, and don’t require specialist measuring equipment. As in 2D mode, the Brightness was set slightly too high in the default position, revealing just a little bit of extra shadow detail (Sony’s glasses do cause a darkening of the image, but they don’t throw away shadow detail’s like Panasonic’s do). We reduced this by 2 clicks (to “48″ from the default “50″), just as in 2D. [Contrast] also comes pre-configured at its maximum setting, which results in severe discolouration of in bright areas (we left this as-is for the pre-calibration measurements, so it will be visible at the end of the chart).

Afterwards, we attached the 3D glasses to the front of our Klein K-10 meter to gather some data on the Sony KDL40HX723BU’s 3D capabilities.

3D Mode Greyscale

3D Pre-calibration RGB tracking and delta errors (dEs)

As we witnessed by eye, the high default [Contrast] setting results in blue “running out” towards the end of the Greyscale – or in plain English, colour tinting being visible in bright areas (reducing this to “80″ from the default Max – or in other words, “100″ cured the discolouration). We understand why Sony would configure the 3DTV in this way; with the darkening effect of the 3D eyewear, we can see why they would want to pump out as much light as they possibly could from the TV. However, reducing Contrast results in greater dynamic range with less colour tinting, with only a minimal trade-off in light output. Asides from this, Greyscale tracking was good for an uncalibrated 3D TV, something which is important given the scarcity of 3D calibration practices and equipment. The image had a red tint overall, although as we always point out, because the tint is consistent across all brightness levels, it’s much more easier to “tune out” mentally. However, neither this, nor the KDL-46HX923 we reviewed recently, have had out-of-the-box Greyscale tracking that’s as good as some of the previous Sony 3D televisions. This could be a total coincidence, though, since this is dependent not only on the screen itself, but also on the 3D glasses being used.

3D Post-calibration RGB tracking and dEs in [Cinema 1] mode

Calibration was easy and the results were impressive, resulting in much more accurate grey shades. The effects of 3D calibration never cease to put a smile on our faces: after watching the first-generation 3D displays which didn’t do well with Greyscale neutrality at all, it’s actually quite novel to watch a 3D image which is coloured almost the same as a 2D one. The only remaining trouble worth mentioning is with Sony’s 3D glasses themselves. Moreso than with other brands, tilting your head to one side will result in the picture gaining a new colour tint. There’s nothing we can do about this, but during calibration we made sure to align the calibration meter and glasses as evenly as possible.

3D Mode Colour

3D Post-calibration CIE chart with reference to HD Rec.709

3D Post-calibration colour luminance (coloured bars = targets; black bars = measured values)

Colour accuracy was good in 3D mode, although all of the colours were very mildly skewed towards green when compared to 2D (compare the two CIE charts and you’ll see that the triangle indicating the gamut moves upwards). We adjusted the [Tint] control two clicks to the right to further improve the hue accuracy of magenta, cyan and yellow. Frankly speaking, it was difficult to criticise the colour accuracy either before or after calibration. While it’s easy enough for our trained eyes to spot 3D-imposed colour tints in areas of the screen we know are supposed to be neutral white, pinpointing colour reproduction inaccuracies is difficult – especially given how much 3D content is animated. That’s not to say that colour accuracy isn’t important for animated material, but rather that we’re without much in the way of real-world reference. (The same could be argued for live-action films with stylised colour, of course).

Benchmark Test Results

Dead pixels	None
Screen uniformity	Some brightness differentiation; no tints
Overscanning on HDMI	0% with “Full Pixel” turned on
Blacker than black	Passed
Calibrated black level (black screen)	0 cd/m2 (LEDs turn off)
Calibrated black level (ANSI checkerboard)	0.054 cd/m2
Black level retention	Stable with [Advanced Contrast Enhancer] off – except for auto-dimming with full black screen
Primary chromaticity	Very Good
Scaling	Very Good
Video mode deinterlacing	Excellent jaggies reduction
Film mode deinterlacing	Passed 2-2 PAL and 3-2 NTSC tests in SD and HD
Viewing angle	Excellent for an LCD TV
Motion resolution	1080 with [Motionflow]: “Clear”
Digital noise reduction	Optional
Sharpness	Defeatable edge enhancement
Luma/Chroma bandwidth (2D Blu-ray)	Full Luma, horizontally blurred chroma except in “Game” and “Graphics” modes
1080p/24 capability	No judder in 2D or 3D
Input lag	31ms compared to lag-free CRT
Full 4:4:4 reproduction (PC)	Yes, in “Game” and “Graphics” modes

Power Consumption

Default [Auto] mode (2D)	64 watts
Default [Auto] mode (3D)	79 watts
Calibrated [Cinema 1] mode (2D)	53 watts
Calibrated [Cinema 1] mode (3D)	79 watts
Standby	1 watt

Measurements taken with full 50% grey screen.

Picture Performance

Black Level

Like most modern LCD-based HDTVs, the Sony KDL-40HX723 shuts its LED lighting off entirely when fed a fully black video signal, which means that trying to measure black level this way will return a measurement of 0 cd/m² (total black). This is of no use for assessing how black the blacks will look when watching actual video material, though – for that, we use a more gruelling test.

We measured the KDL40HX723 using the ANSI checkerboard test pattern, which divides the screen into black and white squares (and therefore bypasses any sort of auto-dimming). We weren’t surprised that in this case, the black patch in the middle of the pattern measured at just a hairline over 0.05 cd/m², which is the same result we got from the top-end Sony HX923. This is dark enough to give a good impression of black depth, although it’s not cutting edge.

The KDL-40HX723 also features an [LED Dynamic Control], which implements local dimming to the best of this edge-lit LCD TV’s ability. Unlike the HX923 model, the Sony KDL40HX723 can only shut off columns on the panel. For example, a screen that’s fully black except for a flickering candle in the middle of the screen will display with perfectly black edges, but with a greyer strip approximately surrounding the lit area. We didn’t find this limitation too annoying, but users who do can shut the [LED Dynamic Control] off entirely to have the KDL-40HX723 act more like a traditional CCFL backlit display and keep the screen illumination consistent.

Motion Resolution

Often, we use the “Clear Plus” [Motionflow] setting on Sony’s televisions, which appears to implement a higher level of backlight scanning (or perhaps some other trick to improve perceived motion resolution) in exchange for a slightly darker image. On the KDL-40HX723, we decided not to, since the highest level of brightness we could get out of the LED LCD TV in “Clear Plus” was around 110 cd/m². Instead, we opted for “Clear”, which still returns all 1080 lines from the FPD Benchmark Software disc’s scrolling resolution test chart.

As with the KDL-46HX923, the Sony KDL40HX723BU has some form of motion interpolation working at all times when the [Motionflow] modes are enabled. That might sound obvious, but what we mean is that there is no option like on Samsung’s HDTV displays which allow the De-blur and De-judder elements of the system to be independently controlled. In any case, we didn’t see any motion glitches or obvious “soap opera effect” during films provided we set [Film Mode] to “Auto1″ (using “Auto2″ or “Off” did reveal glitches). A good indication of this is the beginning of Chapter 5 on the Tron: Legacy BD, where Sam Flynn runs out into the virtual world of the grid for the first time. Using any mode other than “Auto1″ results in the white lights shredding as the camera does a 360° spin around him.

Motion clarity during video content was good, and was basically what we expected from a higher-end LCD.

3D Material

We first of all decided to test the Sony KDL-40HX723 with motion in 3D. Many 3D TVs use 60hz-centric designs which fail to properly reproduce the full gamut of frame rates that European consumers will encounter. The good news is that the Sony KDL40HX723 is not one of them, and that it reproduced 50hz video, 50hz film, 60hz video, and 24fps film frame rates in 3D without any problems. The only condition is that the [Motionflow] system is turned Off; otherwise juddering will occur.

There are also no problems with resolution. The Sony KDL-40HX723 reproduces all 1080 lines from the 3D HD source without any blurring or other distortion. In fact, the Japanese firm is one of the only manufacturers who have been consistently and completely accurate when they promise “Full HD 3D” – although we haven’t seen many of their cheaper 3D TVs, so there is always the possibility that a nasty surprise is hiding further down the range. (Excuse us for being a little cynical, but it’s our job!)

With these pre-flight checks out of the way, we then had a subjective look at the Sony KDL-40HX723 displaying some actual 3D content. Sony’s own Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, a welcome break from the Dreamworks animated films that Samsung championed, was hugely involving both before and after calibration. Other 3D test content was also fairly impressive, although there is still some crosstalk present at times. All in all, we were impressed with the overall 3D experience on the Sony KDL40HX723 thanks to the neutral, tint-free image, sufficient brightness, lack of motion judder/stutter, and the full resolution on offer.

Standard Definition

The Sony KDL40HX723BU didn’t disappoint when it came to standard definition processing. Scaling was good, although it didn’t conceal aliasing in the same way that Samsung’s similar HDTVs do (they’re unique in that regard, though). Diagonal interpolation processing worked brilliantly, concealing jaggies with standard-def TV very effectively (Sony Bravias lagged behind in this area at one point in the past, but no longer).

We were also delighted to see that, just like its more expensive sibling, the HX923, the KDL-40HX723 had no problem at all adjusting its video processing when faced with Film content transferred to PAL (European) video. If a TV (or DVD player) fails to do this correctly, jaggies appear in areas of fine detail. Fortunately, that’s not a problem with the Sony KDL-40HX723, which produces an uncompromised image when faced with PAL film content – good news for anyone watching movies on SD TV, or from an older non-upscaling DVD player.

High Definition

The Bravia KDL-40HX723 performed brilliantly when we fed it our stack of favoured Blu-ray Disc movies. Sony has historically been very attentive to making sure that 24fps film content plays back properly on its televisions, so we weren’t surprised to see the KDL40HX723 portraying movies with essentially perfect motion: no “false motion” being generated by the TV, and no unwanted juddering, either. (Remember, our motion interpolation detection test did reveal that the HX723 isn’t COMPLETELY leaving the image alone, but we never spotted motion glitches appearing with real film content… however, the option to turn Motionflow off entirely is always available, just in case).

Watching 2.35:1 letterboxed movies in the dark did reveal some pools of light visible, especially near the corners, where the LEDs themselves are located. This is pretty much par for the course with edge LED LCDs, though, and is an example of the ultra-slim design imposing negative effects upon the picture quality. This was basically the only down-side, though: the highly accurate Greyscale, Gamma and Colour qualities of the Sony KDL-40HX723 allowed for the unhindered representation of films.

The LCD panel held up well when viewed from the sides. Although there’s no such thing as an LCD TV without viewing angle distortion, the Sony KDL40HX723 is definitely one of the better examples, and we think it compares very favourably to the IPS panels used in Panasonic and LG LCD TVs in this regard (it also has the advantage of not suffering from IPS’ poorer black levels). Although the best seat in the house will always be dead centre with LCD, viewing the Sony KDL-40HX723 from the sides only resulted in a slight loss of contrast performance, with little in the way of colour tinting or loss of saturation.

Console Gaming

Using the “Game” scene mode, we clocked game mode at 31ms, which is exactly what we measured from the HX923 model. This is enough to give a decent gaming experience, but for hardcore gamers who are used to playing games requiring fast reflexes, it’ll be teetering on the right side of acceptability. We can certainly feel the difference compared to a display with 16 or even 24ms of lag, for example, although this is highly dependent on the individual, and the Bravia KDL-40HX723 still provides a good gaming experience.

Conclusion

The Sony KDL-40HX723 is priced alongside rivals such as the Panasonic TX-P42VT30 Plasma and Samsung’s UE40D8000 LED TV, and ultimately it does a good job in fighting its own corner. Although it doesn’t have the overall contrast performance of the Panasonic Plasma, or the advanced picture setup controls of the Samsung, the KDL40HX723 is the only 3D TV out of these three which manages to both reproduce all 1080 lines of the HD 3D image (the Panasonic 42VT30 doesn’t), and deliver judder-free motion at all times (that rules the Samsung D8000 out).

The Sony KDL-40HX723 shares many of the same strengths as the considerably more expensive HX923 step-up model (advanced local dimming notwithstanding), but does so at a considerably reduced price point – although it’s still a 4-figure TV. As such, we definitely recommend it on the basis of its good image accuracy and ability to show any type of content without motion judder errors (something that some HDTV displays still struggle with). Only some good (rather than great) black levels and slight screen uniformity issues prevent us from Highly Recommending it.

Toshiba 47VL863B 3D LED LCD TV Review

Toshiba is not a brand we see too much of in the busy HDTV market, so we were delighted when the Japanese firm sent a sample of its 47VL863B 3D LED LCD TV to us for review. The 47VL863B sits very near the top of Toshiba’s lineup this year, but its most unique feature is probably the fact that it uses the passive 3D system (the benefits of which are ultra-cheap, lightweight and flicker-free 3D glasses) rather than the more common active-shutter system.

Aside from extra-dimensional fun, the 47VL863B features some extra calibration controls that we’ve not seen on a Toshiba display before. In fact, it can actually calibrate itself if a compatible calibration device (Toshiba recommends the i1 Display Pro) is plugged in to its USB socket, which is great news. There are also tuners for Digital Terrestrial HDTV (Freeview HD) and for satellite, although UK readers should note that the Toshiba 47VL863B doesn’t feature the Freesat branding, so you’ll need to do without the Freesat on-screen programme guide.

This all seems mighty tempting, especially for a 3D TV with a price tag under four figures, so let’s see what’s in store…

Note: The model we reviewed is the Toshiba 47VL863B, which is the 3-pin-plug British version. While we did not test the 42-inch Toshiba 42VL863B, there should not be any major difference in picture performance given similar specifications within the VL863 series.

Jump To: Operation • Calibration • Picture Performance • Conclusion

Design

The Toshiba 47VL863B is well styled, with a fairly non-reflective LCD panel, and also a matte grey bezel. This is a fantastic move on Toshiba’s part, because glossy black plastic (which we’ve honestly never liked anyway, if only due to its scratch-prone nature) can reflect ambient light, creating an obvious border around the 3D image and preventing true immersion. There is still a glossy black strip at the bottom of the VL863, though, which has some touch sensitive zones on it. Since these were located on the glossy area, we could never actually bring ourselves to touch them and spoil the 47VL863′s aesthetics with our greasy fingerprints.

The remote control is equally interesting, being a change from Toshiba’s past units. It’s curved and made of matte black plastic, and curiously has a silver metal cover in the middle, which slides up and down. This can either slide into the middle of the remote to cover some less used buttons, or down to the bottom to reveal everything. Although we appreciate the design sentiment, we would actually have appreciated a way to take this off, since it feels like it’s getting in the way. Not only that, but since it’s made of light metal, it can actually get quite cold!

Toshiba supplies the 47VL863B with no less than five pairs of passive RealD 3D glasses, but if you have an especially large family, you can even bring back passive 3D glasses from the cinema and use these.

Connections

The Toshiba 47VL863B features the now-standard 4 HDMI inputs, and provision for SCART and Component analogue interfaces, via included break-out adapter cables. There’s also an RGB (“VGA”) PC input, 2 USB sockets, feeds for the terrestrial/cable and satellite tuners, and audio outputs. There’s also an ethernet/LAN socket for connecting the TV to a home network.

Rear: 4 x HDMI, VGA, Component, SCART, aerial, satellite, ethernet & audio outs

Operation

The 47VL863 features a new front end for Toshiba’s fairly likeable, legible, easy-to-use on screen menus. Pressing the MENU button on the remote brings up a selection of icons which are arranged in a semi-circle arrangement; selecting one of these categories brings up more icons, which in turn lead to the more familiar and traditionally arranged menus.

Of most interest to us are the picture setup controls, which we’ll use to squeeze every last drop of quality out of the Toshiba 47VL863B (we’ll of course share any quality improving tips for owners along the way). The top adjustment is [Picture Mode], which comes set to “AutoView”. This out-of-the-box preset mode presents a dull, blue-tinted picture, which has clearly been designed with power saving in mind. There are also “Standard” and “Dynamic” modes, as well as “Hollywood Day”, “Hollywood Night”, and “Hollywood Pro”. We used the “Pro” mode, since it unlocks all of the 47VL863B’s picture setup controls.

[Picture] menu

Control is given over all of the standard picture setup parameters, as you’d expect, but it’s in the two Advanced menus where things begin to get interesting. First of all, there’s [ColourMaster], which has appeared on Toshiba TVs for some time now (although not always under this name), and has never worked entirely correctly from our calibrators’ perspective. Here, the Hue, Saturation and Brightness of all six colours can be adjusted; however, the “Brightness” adjustment is unusable, because it brings out severe amounts of noise in the image. Interestingly, the Toshiba 47VL863 has another colour calibration menu, this time called… “Colour Calibration”. We’ll get to the bottom of all this later when we calibrate the 47VL863B for the best possible image quality.

Moving down the list, there’s a potentially contrast-enhancing “LED Backlight Control”, which adjusts the intensity of the LED lighting to correspond with the brightness of the picture content, in an attempt to increase contrast performance and gain deeper blacks. There are also “Noise Reduction” controls, Toshiba’s “Resolution+” edge sharpening system, and some control over the “Active Vision M400″ motion clarity enhancing system.

[Colour Calibration] menu

Stepping back out of this menu and into “Expert Picture Settings”, we have access to a built-in test pattern, the ability to turn either the Red, Green or Blue RGB components off (useful for fine-tuning colour settings by eye – but we don’t need to do this since we’re using a dedicated calibration instrument), a selection for either SD or HD “Colour Decoding” levels (just in case you have an upscaling DVD player which is outputting the wrong ones), a 10-point White Balance control, the aforementioned “Colour Calibration” screen, and lastly, “Gamma Calibration”.

Still with us? Don’t worry – we’ll be explaining which of these settings are useful and which ones to avoid during the “Calibration” section of the review.

2D Calibration

Note: Our Toshiba 47VL863B review sample was calibrated using Calman Professional, the industry-leading video calibration software.

The 47VL863B defaults to the “AutoView” setting for each picture input, so we made sure to change this to “Hollywood Pro” before we began altering the picture settings. We then measured the following data from the Toshiba 47VL863B:

2D Mode Greyscale

Pre-calibration RGB tracking and delta errors (dEs)

We had already detected an over-warm, “summery haze” tinge to the Toshiba 47VL863B’s pictures, which was explained by the green-red tint and lack of blue making up Grey shades in the image. Normally, we’re used to seeing TVs with an excess of blue, and being spoiled for choice when it comes to watching perfectly accurate, calibrated screens, we’re not in a position to really say which error is worse. It probably won’t be too noticeable for the majority of users.

Post-calibration RGB tracking and dEs in [Hollywood Pro] mode

Unfortunately, we don’t have the exact calibration meter which Toshiba requires to make use of the automatic calibration features, so we adjusted the [White Balance] controls the old fashioned way (we did try connecting both our Klein K-10 and DTP94 meters to the TV, but it didn’t know how to communicate with either of these, unsurprisingly). Greyscale perfection was possible with the 10-point control in the menu, which acts much the same as it does on any other manufacturer’s TV. Using this menu, we reduced the amount of red and green in the picture where necessary, and also made more specific corrections for the darker areas of the picture (which actually had too much blue before calibration). We double-checked Gradient test patterns after the calibration, and were glad to see that no additional spurious colour tints were appearing at any shades inbetween the 10% intervals we made adjustments at.

Gamma curve in [Hollywood Pro] mode	Corresponding gamma tracking

Our first calibration attempt resulted in perfect Greyscale, but with skewed Gamma tracking: or in plain English, the amount of brightness in what should have been the brighter areas of the image was not correct. This is because we had reduced the Red and Green controls, rather than leaving them locked in place and increasing the Blue control. Once we followed the latter calibration strategy, we were left with perfect Greyscale tracking (tint-free Greys) and highly accurate Gamma (correct brightness distribution).

2D Mode Colour

Unlike the advanced Gamma calibration, the TV’s “Colour Calibration” mode can be used manually, although even this is done in a new and interesting way. When we calibrate colour on HDTVs, we’re used to having access to Saturation, Hue and Luminance controls for each colour, and we display the appropriate colour on screen and adjust the TV controls until our calibration software, CalMan, shows us that we have the specific colour at its most accurate point.

The “Colour Calibration” screen instead asks the calibrator to measure the colour from the TV’s screen as usual, but then to key in the X and Y coordinates reported by the measuring software, so that the television can perform the necessary correction itself. It’s a novel approach, but it didn’t always work as intended. For example, when the TV displays the colour to be measured, it disregards the Backlight brightness setting, and since it’s an in-TV pattern, it doesn’t take into account any other potential shifts being caused by other devices in the chain.

If this “Colour Calibration” control is enabled, access to the old “ColourMaster” system is denied. We tried both methods, and found that we had better results using “ColourMaster” – although this might have been different if we’d had one of Toshiba’s officially recommended calibration meters, and could have made use of the auto calibration feature. We should point out that both methods we tried brought suitably accurate results which wouldn’t really displease many users. This is our final result from the Toshiba 47VL863B:

Post-calibration CIE chart with reference to HD Rec.709

Post-calibration colour luminance (coloured bars = targets; black bars = measured values)

3D Calibration

This is the first Passive 3DTV to go through the full HDTVTest 3D calibration process, and one of the first things that we remarked upon was how effortless it was to tape the 3D glasses to the front of our Klein K-10 calibration meter, due to their light weight. Although this is a small benefit for calibration, it’s also a nice reminder of how comfortable the glasses are to wear on your own head!

We discovered that, like many 3D TVs on the market, the Toshiba 47VL863B hasn’t really been designed with 3D calibration in mind. When we switched into 3D mode, we saw that the same White Balance settings that we’d calibrated for use with 2D were present (in other words, there were not discrete 2D/3D memories). As a result, we switched out of the “Hollywood Pro” mode and into the neighbouring “Hollywood Day” mode, so we could optimise the 3D mode separately. Unfortunately, this meant that we had to manually switch between the two modes upon beginning and ending 3D viewing.

3D Mode Greyscale

3D Pre-calibration RGB tracking and delta errors (dEs)

Prior to calibration, there was a consistent excess of red in the 3D image, much the same as in 2D, although exaggerated slightly due to the fact that the glasses we used also brought a slight red tint of their own. The good news is that the same 10-point White Balance control is available when the Toshiba 47VL863B is in 3D mode, so we had absolutely no trouble achieving perfect Greyscale tracking for extra-dimensional content, as well. We should point out, however, that if the viewer leans their head to one side, the colour temperature of the image will begin to shift slightly (although not by much).

3D Post-calibration RGB tracking and dEs in [Hollywood Pro] mode

3D Mode Colour

3D Post-calibration CIE chart with reference to HD Rec.709

3D Post-calibration colour luminance (coloured bars = targets; black bars = measured values)

Colour presentation in 3D mode was much the same as in 2D: never perfect, but very good for an out-of-the-box preset, and better still after calibration. Not having access to a proper Luminance control for each colour didn’t really hurt the 47VL863B’s performance, since we found that the “Saturation” adjustment in the [ColourMaster] menu controlled this fairly effectively.

Benchmark Test Results

Dead pixels	None
Screen uniformity	Middle slightly brighter than edges
Overscanning on HDMI	0% with [Picture Size]: “Native”
Blacker than black	Passed
Calibrated black level (black screen)	0.14 cd/m2
Calibrated black level (ANSI checkerboard)	0.14 cd/m2
Black level retention	Stable
Primary chromaticity	Excellent
Scaling	Very Good
Video mode deinterlacing	Very Good, only minor jaggies
Film mode deinterlacing	Failed 2-2 PAL film mode test
Viewing angle	Good for an LCD; slight darkening
Motion resolution	600
Digital noise reduction	Optional
Sharpness	Defeatable edge enhancement
Luma/Chroma bandwidth (2D Blu-ray)	Full Luma, vertically blurred chroma except in “Game” and “PC” modes
1080p/24 capability	No judder in 2D, small judder in 3D
Input lag	16ms compared to lag-free CRT
Full 4:4:4 reproduction (PC)	Yes, in “PC” mode

Power Consumption

Default [AutoView] mode (2D)	63 watts
Default [AutoView] mode (3D)	64 watts
Calibrated [Hollywood Pro] mode (2D)	79 watts
Calibrated [Hollywood Day] mode (3D)	93 watts
Standby	1 watt

Measurements taken with full 50% grey screen.

Picture Performance

Black Level

Black level is certainly not one of the Toshiba 47VL863B’s strong points. Before we actually measured it, we did feel that the contrast performance of this LCD panel left images slightly lacking in punch and depth, causing colours to appear perceptibly less vibrant. There is an [LED Backlight Control] option with various different settings, which raises or lowers the intensity of the LED sidelighting to correspond with the brightness of the scene being viewed. This does partly address our complaint about the blacks lacking punch, but just remember that because this reduces the overall brightness of the entire image, it’ll make shadow details harder to see – kiss goodbye to the perfectly accurate Gamma tracking we showed in the charts earlier. It also won’t do much to help scenes with a mix of dark and bright elements.

As for the hard data: when we had the [Backlight] brightness configured so that a full white patch measured at around 120 cd/m2 (that’s bright enough for most living rooms), the darkest black the Toshiba 47VL863B could muster measured at 0.14 cd/m2, which is some way away from the best we’ve seen on an LCD display (Samsung’s similarly priced displays manage around 0.04 cd/m2, which looks considerably closer to pure black). The Toshiba VL863 has its own strengths, but contrast performance isn’t one of them.

Motion Resolution

With the [Active Vision M400] setting enabled, the Toshiba 47VL863B managed to resolve around 600 lines in the FPD Benchmark Software disc’s scrolling resolution test chart. To achieve this performance, we had to set the [Motion Detection Range] setting to “Wide”. Fortunately, this did not introduce the “soap opera effect” into films as many LCD motion processing systems do, although we did occasionally notice some flickering and other motion processing glitches in this mode. In the end, we decided to leave the setting on “Wide” for TV and video material, but use the “Standard” setting for the HDMI input which our Blu-ray player was connected to, since almost everything on the BD format is 24fps film material.

3D Material

Neither the passive or active 3D systems in use in the home are without their problems. As we mentioned previously, the Toshiba 47VL863B uses the passive system. LG, who are quite vocal in discussing the benefits of passive 3D, have cleverly named it “Cinema 3D”, to stress the fact that like the 3D systems installed in multiplex cinemas, home passive 3D TVs also exploit polarised light in order to present a 3D effect to the viewer’s brain. It’s not too bad a comparison: just like these cinema systems, the home passive system uses 3D glasses which are lightweight, cheap, and are not battery powered, so never need to be recharged. The biggest benefit that we found, though, was that watching 3D images on the Toshiba 47VL863B was very, very comfortable over a long period of time, thanks to the passive system’s lack of flicker.

Of course, one thing doesn’t compare to the 3D cinema experience – like with so many things in the AV world, something has to give, and that something happens to be resolution. Passive 3D TVs do not present a true High Definition picture when they are operating in 3D mode, because half of the lines on the screen are directed to the left eye, and half to the right. Half of 1080 is 540, which actually leaves 3D images viewed on a passive display with slightly less vertical resolution than our European PAL standard def TV images – although for a number of reasons which are outwith the scope of this review, users shouldn’t expect their 3D Blu-ray Discs to look as bad as standard def PAL (if you’d like to know why, ask us in the Comments).

It’s not the lessened resolution which is the most notable side-effect of the passive 3D image, though. When viewing a passive 3D TV such as the Toshiba 47VL863B with the 3D glasses on, you’ll notice that the image has a “scan-line” like pattern over it: every second line in the picture is black, due to the fact that alternate lines are being sent to alternate eyes. This is certainly not cinema-like. Interestingly, having these sharp lines overlaid on the picture actually causes it to appear perceptibly sharper, which does superficially compensate for the resolution loss to some extent. Some users claim that they simply don’t notice the lines from their normal viewing distance, and this will likely be user dependent. We could certainly still pick the lines out from the other side of the room, although even whilst doing so, we appreciated the passive 3D system’s many other strengths.

The choice of active versus passive is down to individual preference. Users will have to decide what’s more important, taking their own eyesight and viewing conditions into mind, and which set of strengths they’d rather adopt: the ultra-cheap, lightweight, flicker-free glasses afforded by the passive system, or the full (or nearly full, in most cases) 1080 lines of picture resolution and lack of any dark lines given by the active method.

With that out of the way, how does the 47VL863B perform with motion in 3D? We noticed that the [Active Vision M400] setting is disabled when this TV is in 3D mode, and when we played a Blu-ray 3D disc (24fps), we did notice some subtle judder that wasn’t present when the TV output the same material in 2D. However, we felt that it was fairly subtle and won’t be troubling to too many users. On the flip-side, we were delighted to see that the 47VL863B reproduced 50hz 3D content without any judder or stutter, great news for prospective buyers who want a display to watch Sky’s 3D services (which are 50hz).

We were happy with the pre-calibrated 3D picture quality, and were glad to see that it didn’t display any of the huge Greyscale tracking errors that early active 3D Plasma displays exhibited. The pre-calibrated 3D picture on this HDTV did feature a slight red haze, but this was hardly any worse than most out-of-the-box 2D images we see. In terms of colour, we could hardly be happier with the tint-free images produced after calibration using the Toshiba 47VL863B’s extensive setup menus. During subjective viewing of 3D content, we were impressed at how little crosstalk was visible, using discs such as Despicable Me, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, and some manufacturer-specific demo discs. We did turn the [Sharpness] control up a little to artificially compensate for the passive 3D system’s lessened resolution.

Overall, we were very impressed with the many benefits that the passive 3D system brings to the Toshiba 47VL863B. The lightweight glasses and lack of flicker result in a very relaxing 3D viewing experience, compared to active 3D displays. With this said, neither 3D system is for everyone, and users should demo both before making a decision. Although its resolution handicap is obvious to us, passive 3D deserves to be on the market as an alternative for users who can’t tolerate the downsides of active. However, it is simply false to claim that it offers the same Full HD resolution as the active system.

Standard Definition

We put the Toshiba 47VL863B through our usual cavalcade of SD processing tests, and it came out with decent results. The HQV Benchmark DVD’s diagonal interpolation test revealed that the 47VL863B was doing a decent job of suppressing jaggedness during the deinterlacing process, although we noticed some mild stair-stepping jaggies at all times if we were sitting close to the screen. Although it could pass the American-centric 3-2 film mode test, it failed to return entirely jaggy-free pictures during the European 2-2 equivalent test. Finally, it did a good job at scaling SD video to HD resolution, with all the fine lines in our resolution test chart appearing crisp. There was a little bit of horizontal ringing around edges, but this wasn’t a problem for actual content.

High Definition

When we had a look at some of our favourite Blu-ray Discs on the Toshiba 47VL863B, we were happy to see that the usual benefits afforded by accurate (or before calibration, semi-accurate) Greyscale and Colour were making themselves known. We had a look at Arrow Films’ excellent Blu-ray Disc of Rififi, the classic 1955 heist film, and were glad to see that the black and white imagery was not picking up any spurious colour tints (which can happen with less than ideal Greyscale tracking, or with phosphor afterglow on Plasma displays). Looking at more modern material, the small colour inaccuracies left over after calibration weren’t hugely visible in the image. There was no tampering with film grain, as is the case with Samsung’s HDTVs, and we were also happy to see that the 47VL863B reproduced 24p movies on Blu-ray without unwanted juddering, or any unwanted interpolation (“soap opera effect”). To achieve this performance, we set the [Active Vision M400] and [Motion Detection Range] settings both to “Standard”.

The biggest dent in the Toshiba 47VL863B’s performance is, as we expected, its greyish black level. During the night scenes of Taxi Driver, for example, we had to strain to remind ourselves of the blackness intended by the filmmakers, and to ignore the brighter patches of light which appeared around the corners of the screen (an almost standard issue with LED edge-lit LCD displays). In fact, even although it resulted in a less accurate picture with lessened shadow detailing, we did find ourselves reaching to enable the [LED Backlight Control] to do battle against the LCD panel’s low contrast performance, since contrast is a critical determining factor when it comes to picture quality – ahead of any sort of Gamma accuracy or shadow detail visibility. In any case, with the Toshiba 47VL863B, the choice is with the user.

Console Gaming

When we fired up our usual test game, Halo: Reach, we were happy to find that the Toshiba 47VL863B gave us a responsive, enjoyable experience in the “Game” mode, which measured just 16ms! This is a remarkably low figure for such a large LCD display. There’s a minor annoyance, though: Toshiba have enforced edge enhancement in the “Game” picture mode, and lowering the [Sharpness] control only blurs the overall enhanced image, rather than removing the sharpening. Because current generation games consoles don’t always do a very good job of producing anti-aliased graphics (in other words, their graphics often feature jagged edges), video games are the last place we’d want to see undefeatable edge enhancement! Fortunately, we weren’t too bothered by this, although it’s another case where more control would be welcome.

Conclusion

The Toshiba 47VL863B is a competitively priced 3D HDTV, the most unique selling point of which is its implementation of the passive 3D system, which has many advantages (and unfortunately, the one large disadvantage of lessened resolution) when compared to the more common active 3D method. What stops us from more heartily recommending it is its weak contrast performance. Blacks on the Toshiba 47VL863B never appear truly deep, instead having a greyness which we’re not used to seeing on modern displays. For this reason, we especially don’t recommend that users who are into watching films at night (or in similarly darkened rooms) consider the Toshiba 47VL863B.

However, at around £900 for the 47″ version, we think it will be a tempting proposition for prospective buyers looking for a 3D-capable HDTV in a brighter environment, where its grey-ish black level won’t be as much of a hindrance, and where the lack of flicker afforded by the passive 3D system will be a tremendous benefit. If you’re happy to accept contrast performance which isn’t class-leading, and the idea of black lines visible over the passive 3D images doesn’t bother you, then we encourage you to check out the Toshiba 47VL863B.

Samsung PS51D550 Plasma 3D TV Review

Samsung’s Plasma TVs just seem to be going from strength to strength. In view of this, we were eager to check out the Korean manufacturer’s entry-level 1080p Plasma TV for 2011, the PS51D550. A gander at the spec sheets reveals that when compared to the company’s more expensive Plasma Display Panels (PDPs), the D550 is missing the “Smart TV” internet-connected features, the ultra-slim design, and the satellite connectivity. You still get 4 HDMI inputs, the aforementioned 1080p panel, and surprisingly at this price point, 3D capability. Let’s see if we have a big-screen bargain on our hands here…

Design

The PS51D550 is more simply styled than more expensive models, although like everything Samsung has put out in recent years, the aesthetics of this HDTV are nothing to sniff at. The 51-inch panel is framed by a glossy black bezel which has a rounded border, made of glass-like acrylic. It’s tastefully done and really shouldn’t offend anyone’s design sensibilities.

It’s not as slim as some of Samsung’s higher-up Plasma models, which is what we expected as this price point, so people looking for an HDTV to mount close to their wall might want to go slightly higher-up to the D6900 series (which we’ll be reviewing shortly).

Connections

The Samsung PS51D550 features 4 HDMI inputs, an aerial input to feed the Freeview HD tuner, a shared Composite/Component input (how’s that for two polar opposites of video quality?), a single SCART terminal, and an analogue RGB input for use with computers. There’s also a LAN socket for connecting the TV to a router, although as a cheaper model, the 51D550 doesn’t really have much in the way of internet features. There is no built-in wireless capability on this display, although a Samsung wireless dongle can still be attached to a USB input at additional cost.

Rear: 4 x HDMI, VGA, Component, SCART, aerial, ethernet & audio outs

One thing we noticed was that the PS51D550′s supplied power cable is unusually short. This is going to pose a problem for users wall-mounting the plasma. In fact, even when we reviewed the TV with its table-top stand, we had difficulty in finding a socket to plug it into for this reason.

Operation

The D550 PDP doesn’t feature the newly styled 2011 Samsung menus, but rather the 2010 variant with a font change. That’s fine by us, since they are easy to navigate, and fairly quick to use (although we’d appreciate being able to turn off the transition animations to make things even quicker).

[Picture] menu

The Samsung PS51D550 features all of the basic video controls you’d expect, but lacks the advanced three-axis Colour Management menus present on some more expensive HDTVs from the TV maker, and also features a traditional 2-point Greyscale calibration control rather than the more precise 10-point variant. Neither of these are necessarily problems, unless the PS51D550′s out-of-the-box picture accuracy is lacking (previous Samsung Plasmas have had this problem and have needed adjustment, so, fingers crossed that isn’t the case here). We’ll find out if this is a big oversight in the next section, when we measure and then adjust the D550 plasma for the best possible picture.

2D Calibration

Note: Our Samsung PS51D550 review sample was calibrated using Calman Professional, the industry-leading video calibration software.

2D Mode Greyscale

After we let the 51D550 “break in” for a few hours (with Plasma TVs, the overall tint to the image can change most when new), we changed the picture mode to “Movie” and the [Colour Temperature] to “Warm2″, since these settings usually give the most accurate starting point. We displayed some Greyscale test patterns and used our calibration meter to see how pure they were:

Pre-calibration RGB tracking and delta errors (dEs)

This is a good pre-calibrated result, with the overall Greyscale shades being produced by the Samsung PS51D550 review unit being slightly green-deficient overall. We noticed also that the HDTV ships with its [Contrast] control set too high, which results in pure white tones appearing blue-tinted. We reduced this as part of the calibration process to achieve better neutrality.

Post-calibration RGB tracking and dEs in [Movie] mode

After calibration, we were left with high quality Greyscale tracking. It was difficult to keep the brighter parts of the image free of tints, but fortunately, errors in brighter areas are generally easier to ignore, anyway. A slight excess of red in the dark 10% region was the only (fairly minor) complaint we had left. Higher-end models will be able to avoid this slight inaccuracy with their 10-point White Balance calibration tool.

Gamma curve in [Movie] mode	Corresponding gamma tracking

We were surprised by how accurate the Samsung PS51D550′s Gamma tracking measured, since this is an area where (affordable) Plasmas typically lag behind LCDs. Panasonic’s comparable ST30 entry-level 3D Plasma television presented less accurate brightness distribution compared to this Samsung, during the same measurements. Linear gamma tracking means that the TV will be able to show a smooth, steady gradation from the darkest to the brightest tones in the image, resulting in a subtly more realistic picture. It’s also worth pointing out that the TV’s [Gamma] control can be adjusted in several steps to give a richer or brighter picture; we left it at its default “0″ setting to achieve the above result (2.2).

2D Mode Colour

The Samsung PS51D550 features just two [Colour Space] options: “Auto” and “Native”. “Auto” is the best of the two, with the latter option over-saturating Green (and by extension, Cyan) a little more. The “Auto” mode isn’t perfect, but given the value for money on offer here, we don’t think these small hue and saturation errors will trouble too many people.

We did make minor adjustments to the [Colour] and [Hue] controls to achieve the following results:

Post-calibration CIE chart with reference to HD Rec.709

Post-calibration colour luminance (coloured bars = targets; black bars = measured values)

3D Calibration

As an entry level model, the PS51D550 doesn’t come supplied with any 3D active-shutter eyewear, but we used a pair of the Samsung SSG-3100 glasses we had to hand to assess this 3DTV’s extra-dimensional capabilities (and also to calibrate it using our Klein K-10 meter).

Like all 2011 Samsung TVs, we were glad to see that the D550 plasma features discrete picture settings for both the 2D and 3D modes. This means that when you start watching 3D content, the TV switches to a different picture mode (which we can optimise for 3D) automatically, and then switches back when you return to 2D. This is good user interface design.

We pulled out our disc of 3D test patterns, and with the 3D glasses turned on and attached to our meter, we measured Greyscale neutrality:

3D Mode Greyscale

3D Pre-calibration RGB tracking and delta errors (dEs)

Greyscale tracking looked promising in the early stages of measurement, but as we progressed through the different brightness levels, we soon saw the PS51D550 adding far too much blue to brighter shades. Perhaps this is a deliberate ploy on Samsung’s part to make the image seem superficially brighter? The glasses themselves add a cold blue tint to the image, so we knew that we would have to increase the amount of red to compensate during calibration.

3D Post-calibration RGB tracking and dEs in [Movie] mode

We managed to make a tremendous improvement to the 3-dimensional image neutrality by compensating for the 3D glasses’ own colour tint. We were stuck with a mysterious excess of red in the 30% and 40% stimulus levels, but we were happy to tolerate this remaining limitation given how overly blue the image was before we calibrated the 3D TV.

3D Mode Colour

Colour was acceptable in the third dimension, although the green primary was oversaturated compared to the Rec.709 HDTV standard. This isn’t an area that greatly concerns us at present, since there is so little 3D content – and so much of it is animated. That’s not to say that animated films don’t deserve accurate representation (we’re sure the artists who work hard on them wouldn’t be happy if we took that attitude!), but simply to say that we don’t expect the same level of realism from them.

3D Post-calibration CIE chart with reference to HD Rec.709

3D Post-calibration colour luminance (coloured bars = targets; black bars = measured values)

Benchmark Test Results

Dead pixels	One purple in top-right; one sometimes black in top-centre
Screen uniformity	Perfect
Overscanning on HDMI	0% with aspect ratio set to “Screen Fit”
Blacker than black	Passed
Calibrated black level in cd/m2 (black screen)	0.06 (24p Cinema Smooth); 0.04 (60hz); 0.066 (50hz)
Calibrated black level in cd/m2 (ANSI)	0.07 (24p Cinema Smooth); 0.057 (60hz); 0.074 (50hz)
Black level retention	No instability noted
Primary chromaticity	Very Good
Scaling	Poor (576i), Average (576p)
Video mode deinterlacing	Very effective jaggies reduction
Film mode deinterlacing	Passed 2-2 PAL and 3-2 NTSC tests
Viewing angle	Perfect (Plasma)
Motion resolution	900
Digital noise reduction	Present, optional, see note at beginning of review
Sharpness	Defeatable edge enhancement
Luma/Chroma bandwidth (2D Blu-ray)	Full Luma, Chroma horizontally blurred
Image retention	Yes, but fades quickly
Posterization	Very small “hardened” edges during fast motion
Phosphor trails	Very mild
1080p/24 capability	No judder in 2D or 3D
Input lag	16ms on HDMI1 input set to “PC”, 31ms otherwise
Full 4:4:4 reproduction (PC)	Yes, on HDMI1 input set to “PC” or “DVI PC” only

Power Consumption

Default [Standard] mode (2D)	212 watts
Default [Standard] mode (3D)	284 watts
Calibrated [Movie] mode (2D)	212 watts
Calibrated [Movie] mode (3D)	288 watts
Standby	1 watt

Measurements taken with full 50% grey screen.

Picture Performance

Black Level

When we viewed the Samsung PS51D550 in a darkened room, we could tell that the darkness of its blacks wasn’t up to the market-leading standards of the Panasonic Plasma TVs, although we weren’t really troubled by the image on offer. In other words, the black level quality was adequate, although not class-leading. Imagine our delight when we used our Klein K-10 meter to get the hard data on the PS51D550′s black level quality, and found that it performed almost identically to Samsung’s top-end Plasma TV for 2011, the D8000. The PS51D8000 did manage to retain black levels during the mixed white/black ANSI checkerboard test, however, although the differences are negligible in real world usage.

As usual for Samsung Plasmas, the depth of the blacks depends on the type of content you are watching, with the darkest blacks coming from US (and Korea)-centric 60hz signals, and the worst coming from European-standard 50hz (24p Blu-ray content sits right in the middle). The reason for this is to avoid flicker. 60hz is high enough to be output by the screen at 60hz, whereas 50hz output would produce too much flicker, so is output at 100hz, with each frame from the source being flashed up on the screen twice before the panel begins drawing the next frame. Likewise, 24hz film content would be intolerable if it were output at 24hz, so the PS51D550 outputs these signals at a higher rate. With Samsung’s Plasma design, the higher the refresh rate, the lighter the blacks.

As a film lover, I’m personally most concerned about the black level in the 24p mode, since this is the frame rate delivered by a Blu-ray player. The 0.06 cd/m² blacks with 24p film content didn’t really disappoint. 0.06 cd/m² is similar to the black levels put out by some current-generation LCD displays (although Samsung’s LCD TVs are managing 0.03-0.04 cd/m²). However, we feel that any lingering greyness in the blacks put out by a Plasma television draw less attention to themselves than on LCDs, due to the fact that the darkness is more consistent across the entire screen. With LCD, the blacks almost always appear brighter at some screen locations, especially near the edges, and they change depending on the viewer’s sitting location.

With 60hz material (such as modern console games, and any non-24p film content coming from the US), blacks were a respectable 0.04 cd/m², just slightly (but not noticeably) higher than those put out by Panasonic’s comparably priced and specced ST30 plasma range. For European 50hz content, blacks measured at 0.066 cd/m². To the human eye, this won’t really look any different to the 0.060 cd/m² put out by the 24p mode.

All in all, we were happy with this level of performance (it’s also a big step up on last year’s Samsung Plasmas). Who knows – maybe next year they’ll be at Panasonic levels?

Motion Resolution

We clocked the PS51D550′s motion resolution somewhere in the region of 900 lines, making it high enough to not be an issue. We did occasionally spot some slight red phosphor trailing in test sequences and on the edges of the details in the chart.

Unlike competing Plasma televisions from Panasonic, we almost never noticed posterisation (contouring) during movement, as is typical for Samsung’s Plasmas. High-motion video content did reveal some “hardened” edges if we looked closely, but these artefacts were minor and did not display with unwanted colour tints.

3D Material

The Samsung PS51D550 passed all our 3D tests with flying colours. Unlike the company’s comparable LCD TV models, the D550 displays all three frame rates (24, 50 and 60) without any judder or stutter in 3D. It also reproduces all 1080 lines of the 3D image, which is something that Panasonic Plasmas don’t do this year – not even the top-end VT30 model. The 3D experience presented by Samsung’s Plasma panels appears to be remarkably consistent from the entry-level models up to the high-end.

During subjective viewing, we were happy to see almost no crosstalk present. If we ramped up the 3D depth settings to exaggerate the 3D effect, it became visible, but this is to be expected. Our only real criticisms of the PS51D550 operating in 3D mode were the darkening of the picture, and the rougher gradation (with a higher amount of dither noise in the picture) when compared to 2D. The same goes for other manufacturer’s Plasma-based 3D TVs, too. Although things are much improved on the first generation 3D Plasmas, the fact still remains that 2D images have the edge for overall quality, and ultimately, looks.

Standard Definition

Standard-def handling was a mixed bag on the Samsung PS51D550. The quality of the scaling (that’s the actual resizing step) with our European-standard PAL (576i) test chart was the worst we’ve seen from an HDTV in years, with horizontal details appearing hugely blurred, with ringing around edges. Vertical detail fared a little better. The test chart represents an idealised scenario, however, and a lot of SD content in the real world is so soft that the TV’s limitation might not really be noticeable.

When we output the same test chart in Progressive mode (576p), it was more tolerable, but still below our expectations. This will be of consequence to owners of standard-def games consoles such as the Nintendo Wii (or anything from the previous generation). We imagine it’s less of an issue for DVD, since most of us have an upscaling DVD (or Blu-ray) player now (remember that the TV’s standard def handling capabilities only matter when standard-def is input to it – when played through a Blu-ray player, DVDs are “seen” by the TV as High Definition). Interestingly, this poor scaling did not really show itself with standard def channels accessed via the PS51D550′s own digital TV tuner… perhaps the fact that most SD TV channels are blurry to begin with simply disguised the limitation.

Interestingly, the D550 plasma had no trouble at all locking onto the PAL 2-2 film cadence, which is something that higher-end Samsung HDTVs have been tripped up by lately. This meant that films transferred to the European standard-def TV system played back without any annoying flickering/loss of resolution in detailed areas. Its handling of diagonal interpolation – in other words, concealing jaggedness in interlaced standard-def images – was also good, meaning that jagged lines on diagonal edges (the markings on a football pitch, for example) will be kept to a minimum.

In other words, the PS51D550′s SD performance was overall acceptable, if a little bit blurred.

High Definition

When we first received the PS51D550, we were upset at the quality presented during Blu-ray viewing. Although some edges in the image still appeared sharp, fine details were being smudged out, and the overall clarity of the picture was reduced. We soon found out that this was due to the [Digital Noise Filter], which was chomping through film grain and other high frequency textures in the picture and giving the whole film a slight “watercolour painting” look.

We found out that the culprit was a bug which we reported to Samsung with their LCD televisions some months ago; where the [Digital Noise Filter] setting would actually be stuck at its highest level, despite the TV’s menus reporting it as being Off. We could actually get all the picture detail back by turning the filter on to “Low” and then to “Off” again – but we had to do this every single time we selected the input that our player was connected to.

Fortunately, the bug has been solved with the latest firmware update. We upgraded to this by downloading the file from Samsung’s web site and feeding it to the TV on a USB drive, and were delighted to see that after a few minutes, our freshly updated PS51D550 was playing back high-quality film material from Blu-ray without skipping a beat (or a pixel, for that matter). Unlike higher-up Samsung displays, “Off” with the D550 plasma actually does mean “Off”, probably because the TV we reviewed used the MStar processor and doesn’t have access to the more advanced noise reduction which Samsung are so eager to enable on TVs which use their own chip. With the 51D550 as we reviewed it, there is no unwanted noise reduction, allowing all of the clarity, texture and detail from high quality film scans to come through on the Samsung PS51D550. Excellent!

With that out of the way, we were only left with the many other positives of the Samsung PS51D550′s images. The black levels aren’t class-leading (that award currently goes to Panasonic), but the HDTV produces a brighter image with enough positives of its own. Greyscale tracking and colour reproduction were both of a high standard, presenting films without too much in the way of unwanted tints. Motion was handled perfectly when we set the [Film Mode] setting to “Cinema Smooth” (it can be left “Off” to reproduce films at 60hz, which results in judder, but slightly deeper blacks). Unlike older Samsung Plasmas, 50hz material was also trouble-free.

The Samsung PS51D550′s panel driving method appears a little noisier than that of Panasonic’s Plasmas, but it’s cleaner than Pioneer’s were, and perhaps because of the additional slight noise in the picture, false contouring (an artefact related to Plasma TVs which causes high motion areas to appear as separated stripes rather than a smooth, continuous tone) is kept to a bare minimum.

Automatic brightness limiting, a drawback of Plasma display technology, was visible with some content (we should point out that this isn’t specific to HD). A fully white screen will appear dimmer than on an LCD display. Supposedly, this is to decrease load on the power supply. The effects of it are not really visible with most content, but adverts (for example) with fully white screens will sometimes reveal some brightness fluctuation.

The last plasma-specific thing to note is image retention. Samsung’s PDPs have improved in this regard in recent years, but they are still behind Panasonic’s. After watching a 4:3 film, or after watching the BBC News channel, for example, we were usually left with some faint residual images (either of side-borders, or the BBC News channel logo) hanging around. These cleared up very quickly, though, and we don’t think it’s too big an issue. First time PDP owners might be terrified that these residual images are permanent damage, but rest assured, every case of image persistence we came across cleared up quickly.

One last thing to mention for completeness: during one point of a film we used to test the PS51D550, we saw a subtle flicker in the image (which lasted for only a few frames) which occurred each time we played the scene – but only in the “Cinema Smooth” output mode. It was very minor and we only noticed it once.

Bottom line: we were very, very happy with the 2D HD image quality with this plasma television.

Console Gaming

We weren’t expecting the PS51D550 to do wonderfully or woefully when it came to gaming, because most of Samsung’s plasmas have managed respectable, but not leading amounts of responsiveness lately. The 51D550 exceeded our expectations with an exceptionally speedy 16ms, but we had to use the “PC” input label (accessed by pressing Source > HDMI1/DVI > Tools > Edit Name > PC) to achieve this speed. We’re also not sure if it will enable with all sources, although it did with our Xbox 360 Elite feeding the panel. (This also results in full uncompressed colour being displayed in the 4:4:4 format, for those of you who are both hardcore gamers and hardcore videophiles). Remember that this trick only works on the HDMI1 input, so gamers should give their favourite system priority when connecting.

Without this trick, the Samsung PS51D550 still managed a respectable, but slightly game-altering 31ms of input lag.

Conclusion

It’s a winner. After upgrading the firmware to eradicate the rogue noise reduction system, we were absolutely delighted with the detail, clarity, texture, and overall image put out by this affordable big-screen Plasma TV. It can also deliver a remarkably speedy gaming experience. While it’s not without flaws, we think that given these strengths and a bargain price tag, the Samsung PS51D550 deserves a “Highly Recommended” rating.

The PS51D550′s most direct competitor is the Panasonic TX-P50ST30, which now costs around £160 more and does have some advantages over this cheaper Samsung, including a superior (and consistent) black level: Panasonic’s 3D plasma goes as dark as 0.03 cd/m² in all modes, compared to the D550′s 0.04, 0.06, or 0.07 (depending on the video format). The ST30 also has a superior light rejecting screen coating, allowing it to produce a richer picture even when ambient light is present in the room, and slightly better colour accuracy, resulting in picture reproduction which is that bit closer to what was intended by the filmmakers and colourists. However, not one of these categories is actually bad on the PS51D550 – it’s just that they’re slightly better on the Panasonic. (Keep in mind that when we reviewed the rival ST30, we gave it a “Recommended” – rather than “Highly Recommended” – rating due to its high price at launch, which has now fallen.)

However, the Samsung PS51D550 has several advantages of its own, on top of its less expensive price. For a start, it portrays slightly cleaner motion (with less false contouring during high-speed content like televised sports), has more accurate gamma tracking for a subtly more realistic image, can produce a brighter picture, and displays all 1080 lines of the full HD 3D signal with not a drop of detail appearing blurred or jagged. For the minority of users who will be calibrating the 3DTV in 3D mode, it also has separate control over 3D Greyscale (White Balance), which Panasonic’s ST30 does not (in fact, that plasma can only be calibrated in 2D in a hidden service menu). There’s also the extra inch of screen size, if you’re counting.

These strengths, coupled with the lower price, mean that the Samsung PS51D550 is a tempting alternative and a worthy competitor in a marketplace which is dominated by Panasonic. Comparisons aside, it’s also a very nice HDTV in its own right, especially at the price we reviewed it at. Samsung, please keep improving your Plasma products like this – we can’t wait to see what you do with this display technology next year!