Samsung LE40M86BD Picture settings

We’re getting a fair bit of traffic looking for the ideal picture settings for the LE40M86BD of late so I thought I’d do a little research and see what I could find. I don’t own this TV so these aren’t verified personally but they do come from reliable sources. Many thanks to HDTVTest and the AVforums for these.

Hi Def Settings through HDMI:
Mode:	Movie	Size:	Just Scan
Contrast:	90	Digital N/R:	Off
Brightness:	50	Active Colour:	Off
Sharpness:	30	DNIe:	Off
Colour:	51	Move Plus:	Off
Tint:	50
Colour Tone:	Warm2
Backlight:	1*
Detailed Settings		White Balance
Black Adjust:	Off	R-offset:	17
Dynamic Contrast:	Off	G-offset:	15
Gamma:	-1	B-offset:	11
Edge Enhancement:	Off	R-Gain:	4
Colour Space:	Wide	G-Gain:	14
xVYCC:	On	B-Gain:	30
Standard Definition Settings Through RGB Scart.
Mode:	Movie	Size:	16:9
Contrast:	70	Digital N/R:	Off
Brightness:	44	Active Colour:	Off
Sharpness:	26	DNIe:	Off
Colour:	52	Move Plus:	Off
Tint:	50
Colour Tone:	Normal
Backlight:	4
Detailed Settings		White Balance
Black Adjust:	Low	R-offset:	15
Dynamic Contrast:	Off	G-offset:	14
Gamma:	0	B-offset:	13
Edge Enhancement:	Off	R-Gain:	10
Colour Space:	Wide	G-Gain:	18
xVYCC:	Off	B-Gain:	12

Please note that these settings are subjective and dependent upon your ambient lighting arrangement as well as quality of source signal. As such they should be considered a good place to start tweaking to suit your viewing environment. If you have any settings that might improve on these then feel free to post them in the comments section.

How to Calibrate your Screen

The single most important thing you should do when you get your new TV home is change its factory settings. Most people don’t realise this and do nothing more than plug everything in and switch it all on. You aren’t going to make the most of your expensive purchase if you do this The factory settings for the majority of TV screens are designed to show the screen at its best on brightly lit shop floor, not the average dimly lit living room. So some things to bare in mind once you’ve switched on: first all pick up the manual - I know, I know, real men don’t need manuals, but trust me it’ll save you at least an hour - and figure out how to change the following:

Colour

Natural colours are what you are looking for on a good picture. Many people labour under the delusion that oversaturated, bright colours make a high definition picture. But take a look at Dale Winton or David Dickinson on screen thats oversaturated with colours and you’d be forgiven for thinking that they have been ‘Tangoed’ (obscure 90’s reference for those old enough to remember). Generally try to keep your colour levels to around 45% to 55% , although for some Philips and LG LCD screens it could drop as low as 40%

Contrast

With a lot of attention paid to a TVs Contrast Ratio, its not surprising that many people believe that the higher the contrast the better. Not so. This will in fact make colours look too vibrant, white especially will look too bright while blacks will look unnatural and lacking in depth. For LCD TVs, try to keep your Contrast set to around 65% of the maximum , and for plasma go as low as 55%. 5% either way should be fine. These settings should provide adequate colour vibrancy and rich blacks, while retaining a suitable level of background detail.

Brightness

An overbright screen will result in washed out, and misted looking dark areas. For both LCD and Plasma screens try to set your brightness at around 45% to 55%

Aspect Ratio

To stop TV images jumping from one aspect ratio to another, its best to switch off the Automatic Aspect Ratio system on your set. This is a process whereby the incoming signal is analysed and the TV tries to work the best shape in which to show the picture. Most TVs don’t do a great job of this and it can be quite irritating especially when watching commercial TV and the screen jumps to accommodate different aspect ratios as you switch from the movie to the ads. If your TV is hooked up to a digital box or you only watch DVDs then just select the 16:9 (or widescreen) ratio to suit the majority of signals. If the picture becomes too stretched then simply pick up your remote and switch to the 4:3 aspect ratio. (A little bit of exercise for you there)

Noise Reduction Systems

In built noise reduction systems aren’t always as good as they appear and can sometimes result in Smearing, softness and blockiness. Try turning them off once in a while to see if the picture quality improves. In fact you might be better using them only when you know the source signal is not up to scratch. You definitely shouldn’t need it switched on when viewing a HD source.

Room Light Sensors

If you’ve spent ages calibrating the image to your specific tastes, then the last thing you need is an artificially intelligent Ambient light sensor trying to detect how bright it is and adjusting the picture to suit. Switch off any of these types of processes, they’ll only mess things up.

Of course all of these are just rules of thumb, individual TVs can have very different settings, its largely all about experimentation. Remember too that most TV have a ‘Return to factory settings’ option to don’t be afraid to play around until you get it just right

How does upscaling work

Now I know a lot of you reading this will already know all there is to know about upscaling and which type of hardware will upscale the best, but a lot of our readers don’t, or have heard of it but only in the vaguest sense and know only that it can improve the picture quality of their DVD collection. Many DVD players on the market today claim they can render a high definition picture via their HDMI outputs. In the UK the standard Definition of a DVD is 576i, which is very far removed from the 720p, 1080i or 1080p resolutions that represent high definition images, and if it is indeed true that DVD players can convert all DVDs to high def why on earth should you go out and blow your pay-cheque on a next gen HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player. Well the truth is that upscaling falls somewhere in between standard definition and true high definition and an upscaled DVD will never look as good as a native Hi Def image on HD-DVD or Blu Ray disc. The process of upscaling attempts to increase the number of pixels received from the DVD to match the number of pixels on the display, and its a little known fact that most LCD or Plasma screens are able to convert the signal they receive from the DVD players into the native resolution of the screen itself, thus performing their own albeit limited upscaling (limited to keep the price of the TV down). Upscaling built into modern DVD players will improve the picture still further simply because this is what they are designed to do - upconvert the resolution of the DVD to match the native resolution of the screen by adding pixels, softening the picture and performing sharpening all of which can give varying results. For the best outcome you should judge for yourself the picture quality by referring to your DVD players setup instructions, choosing the most appropriate output resolution for your screen. If you get it right the benefits can be significant, get it wrong and you have artefacts and jaggys all over the screen

Plasma ‘Screen Burn’ - is it still a problem?

I’ve mentioned previously that plasma screens, while undoubtedly the purists choice for HDTV are struggling at the tills and are being significantly outsold by LCD screens. One of the reasons for this could be the notorious Screen Burn. This occurs because some TV channels display a logo at a fixed position on the screen, owners of the early plasma found that this logo was being burned into the screen, so that it was still visible even when watching other channels. This is an old problem, but people are still concerned about it: manufacturers however have had plenty of time to put this right and newer plasma screens are rarely affected. LCD screens never have suffered from this problem.

HDTV Glossary: Interlaced or Progressive Scan - What is it?

One of the more popular questions asked by people looking to dip their toes into the HDTV market place is just What is the difference between a Progressive Scan and Interlaced picture. Well simply put, Progressive scan screens draw all the lines on the screen at once, however on an interlaced screen the picture is rendered in two (albeit incredibly fast) stages. The first stage draws every other line on the screen, (think of them as the odd numbered lines). A split second later the even numbered lines are filled in. This happens so quickly that the naked eye is fooled into thinking it is seeing one image. So 720p or 1080p screens draw 720 or 1080 lines of the image in one go, whereas a 1080i screen contains 1080 lines of detail rendered in two stages. The 1080i image will contain more detail than the 720p but there will be some flickering and jagged edges when watching fast moving scenes. The popular consensus is the interlaced image is fine if you want to watch movies, but if you are interested in sport then its better on a progressive scan screen.