Samsung LNT 4665F LCD HDTV - Calibration Settings
So I’ve had this TV for close to a month now and I couldn’t be happier. It has exceeded all of my expectations. My initial complaints - lack of shadow detail, overly saturated colors, too much contrast - has been solved through proper calibration. My calibration settings have evolved over the past weeks through a combination of methods (AVIA, DVD Essentials, Spyder, and consultation with AV Forum). I now believe I have the perfect calibration settings for this particular model and firmware. I would say this is as good as you can get this model looking without having and ISA profesional doing the job. Here are my settings:
mode: standard
contrast: 84
brightness: 52
Sharpness: 32
Tint: 49g 51r
Blacklight: 7
Color: 52
Color tone: cool1
Digital nr: auto
DNIE: on
DETAIL SETTINGS:
black adjust: low
Dynamic contrast: med
Gamma:0
Color space: wide
Edge Enhancement: on
WHITE BALANCE:
R off 16
G off 14
B off 14
R Gain 15
G gain 14
B gain 14
MY COLOR:
default
Energy Savings - Low
HDMI Black Level - Low
Let me know how these work out for you and post your own calibration settings. I’d like to get a dossier going.
Review of Samsung LNT 4665F LCD HDTV
With my Panasonic PT40LC12 nearting the end of it’s useful life I began eyeing a replacement last summer. After exhaustively pouring over blogs, videophile websites, trade journals, and countless visits to Best Buy and Circuit City, I narrowed the prospective field down to a handful of prospects, evenly split between LCD and Plasma.I had always preferred that “pop” garnered by plasma sets coupled with the overall coolness factor, but many of the newer LCDs seem to “pop” as much, if not more than their plasma counterparts and are as impressively adorned, making the debate about individual rather than categories.
The Sony KDS55A3000 received excellent reviews with pundits lauding the sets color accuracy, contrast, and build quality. The price was certainly attractive-$1600 for 55 inches of 1080p brilliance-but I couldn’t escape the fact that it was a rear projection set, a soon to be extinct technology. But with all its plaudits, the set just didn’t seem to impress when viewed alongside other well-regarded sets. Granted, a bright floodlight was shining down on it-a death knell for rear projection sets-but without actually seeing for myself that which tantalized everyone else, I had to pass
The newer plasmas from Panasonic and Samsung were nice, but ultimately it came down to the Samsung LNT 4665F LCD and the Sony 46XBR4. Both seemed to outclass the competition with a pleasing combination of intense blacks, saturated primary colors, and that all-important “pop”. Ultimately I opted for the Samsung as the colors, while slightly less intense, seemed more accurate. My main concern regarding the Samsung was the shadow detail. While the blacks were rich and velvety, I wondered how the set would handle night and low light scenes in my own darkened room, which as you’ll see turned out to be a viable concern.We hooked the set up to a DirecTV HR20 via HDMI. Watching true 1080i content was literally mind blowing as we shuffled between HDnet, Discovery Theater, HBO, and PPV. The standard def channels looked pretty good too, but who are we kidding? You buy a set like this and you’re not going to be watching much SD.
One note about the SD channels: The 4665 does not transmit 480P over its HDMI. This was puzzling to me at first as I couldn’t figure out why I kept getting a source not found error each time I switched to an SD channel. I eventually went into the settings and opted for native resolution instead of 480p and all was fine, but it took a few minutes and a good deal of worry before I stumbled on that.
As for calibration, I initially stuck with the factory defaults, the only change being a swap into movie mode, which seemed to temper the brightness a bit and warm the colors. We watched Mission Impossible III and Live Free Die Hard. The difference between this and our previous set was profound. My wife, who thought the purchase frivolous and decadent, was now on board, shaking her head in awe at depth of the image. The sound was ok, but lacking in bass and certainly not up to the standard that such an impressive set requires, thus I went to Best Buy the next day for a SONY HTIB (review forthcoming). I could have left the picture settings where they were and lived a perfectly happy life, feeling quite satisfied with this purchase. The factory defaults look great, albeit not terribly accurate-the picture is too punchy, the colors a bit heavy in the yellows, and the sharpness too high. An initial calibration with the DVD Essentials disc improved things-the color balance was improved and the noise from the high sharpness setting was diminished.
After watching a few more movies-Godfather II, Mission Impossible III again, and Millers Crossing-I realized my fears regarding shadow detail were fulfilled. One scene in GFII where Robert DeNiro and Bruno Kirby sat in a darkened room discussing business bothered me in particular. DeNiro’s face while in shadow was almost completely black. You couldn’t see his expression or read anything going on in his eyes. I ran into the other room to compare the scene on a non-HD tube set and believe it or not it was noticeably improved. So those great, deep blacks on the Sammy came at a steep price and one I wasn’t sure I was willing to pay.I did a second calibration with the AVIA A/V Calibration DVD, getting a different although not necessarily better result. Then I culled the AVSForum where several 4665 owners posted their own calibration settings. I tried several, getting closer each time to the holy grail-deep blacks, prodigious shadow and highlight detail, accurate, well saturated colors, and pop. After several tries I found a combination that delivered exactly what I was looking for. It meant turning down black enhancement, tweaking gamma, jacking up the backlighting, and utilizing the energy saving mode, but when I was done the set looked fantastic. It wasn’t nearly as punchy as the default settings and that took a bit of getting used to, but the picture was much more accurate.
Salesmen tend to describe the new LCDs and Plasmas as good to go and requiring little to no calibration, a silly notion in my opinion. Don’t fall into that trap, as the PQ difference following a good calibration is stunning. Yes, they look great out of the box, but it isn’t until you get the settings just so that you come to the realization of what great really is. Right now, and like I said this is a preliminary review, my only complaint with the set is the sound, but you figure most people who go this route have no intention of using the built in sound anyway. I chose the Sony Bravia DAV-HDX267W, which seemed to be a great complement for my purposes. As I get more acclimated with the set I will provide a more in-depth review along with one on the Sony Audio system, but for now I am exceedingly pleased with my Samsung LNT4665F HDTV. This is one hell of a television and an incredible bargain for $1600.
