Samsung LER86/87/88 Settings

One of the most popular posts on the HDTV site has been the Samsung LE40M86BD picture settings. I posted that with the idea that I would follow it up with settings for other TVs as and when I found them, but somehow I never got round to it. Until now. I intend to scour the web looking for the ideal settings for your favourite TVs, hopefully adding at least one a week, starting today with another samsung, namely the LE32R86BDX, also known as the LE32R87BDX & the LE32R88BDX. As with the Samsung LEM86/87 Tvs, the difference in these sets is purely cosmetic.

R86 - White with power button on the front
R87 - Black with power button on the front
R88 - Black with power button on the right side and a blue LED below the Samsung logo. (Exclusive to Currys, Dixons & PC World)

Ok theres already a lot of info available for the optimal settings of this TV for the full rundown you should checkout the avforums where blackbolt has done some sterling work in coming up with settings for just about every concievable setup from configuring your Xbox 360 though to watching tv via the freeview built in tuner. Here I’ll just quote the recommended settings for watching TV via Upscaling DVD player, Sky, Freeview or Virgin.

HDMI Settings for Upscaling DVD Player
Mode : Standard	Contrast: 85
Brightness : 53	Sharpness : 25
Colour : 35	Tint : 50/50
Colour Tone : Normal	Backlight : 10
Digital NR : Off (removed image retention)	DNIe : On
Movie Plus : Off	Black Adjust : High
Dynamic Contrast : Off	Gamma : +1
R Offset : 15	G Offset : 15
B Offset : 15	R Gain : 4
G Gain : 15	B Gain : 18
Pink : 12	Green : 11
Blue : 11	White : 14
Edge Enhancement : On	Colour Space : Auto

HDMI Settings for Virgin V+ HD Box
Mode : Movie	Contrast: 85
Brightness : 51	Sharpness : 22
Colour : 47	Tint : 50/50
Colour Tone : Warm 2	Backlight : 7
Digital NR : Off (removed image retention)
Movie Plus : On	Black Adjust : High
Dynamic Contrast : Off	Gamma : +1
R Offset : 15	G Offset : 15
B Offset : 15	R Gain : 4
G Gain : 15	B Gain : 15
Pink : 12	Green : 11
Blue : 11	White : 14
Edge Enhancement : On	Colour Space : Auto
Black Level : Low

RGB Scart Settings for Virgin Media Box
Picture Mode: Dynamic	Contrast: 90
Brightness: 53	Sharpness: 45
Colour: 46	Tint: 50/50 (Greyed Out)
Colour Tone: Normal	Backlight: 10
Digital NR (Noise Reduction): Off	Active Colour: On
DNIe: On	Movie Plus: On
Sound Mode: Standard	SRS TX XT: On
Game Mode: Off	Energy Saving: Off

RGB Scart Settings for Sky+ Box
Picture Mode: Standard	Contrast: 80
Brightness: 50	Sharpness: 30
Colour: 50	Tint: 50/50
Colour Tone: Normal	Backlight: 10
Digital NR (Noise Reduction): Off	Active Colour: Off
DNIe: Off	Movie Plus: Off
Sound Mode: Standard	SRS TX XT: On
Game Mode: Off	Energy Saving: Off

Settings for Built in Freeview tuner
Energy Saving: Medium
Picture Mode: Standard	Contrast: 60
Brightness: 60	Sharpness: 20
Colour: 52	Tint: 58/42
Pink : 10	Green : 15
Blue : 15	White : 15
R Offset : 3	G Offset : 15
B Offset : 21	R Gain : 9
G Gain : 15	B Gain : 15
Colour Tone: Cool1	Backlight: 7
Digital NR (Noise Reduction): Auto	Active Colour: Off
DNIe: On	Movie Plus: Off
Black Adjust : Low	Dynamic Contrast: Medium
Edge Enhancement : On	Colour Space : Wide
Sound Mode: Music	SRS TX XT: On
Game Mode: Off	Energy Saving: Off

As usual these settings are purely subjective and shoud be viewed as the ideal starting point for you to tweak your settings according to your environment.

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.

Samsung LE52F96

Samsungs latest offering features an innvoative LED backlight system to replace the standard cathode ray backlight used to date. The thinking behind this is that the TV can intellegently make black areas of the screen even blacker, resulting in an incredible claimed contrast ratio of up to 500,000:1. In addition the screen is Full HD as you’d expect these days and comes with 3 HDMI 1.3 sockets as well as built in speakers, and a freeview receiver. Typically the set will retail at £2,600 if bought from the high street but a bit of digging around online and it can be had for as little £2,300 at time of writing.

Cnet reviews the Samsung LE52F96 and writes:

For high definition material we found the 52F96 to be a solid performer. Motion was smooth and the picture quality was excellent. Upscaled DVDs looked great, too, which is encouraging for people with large movie collections. Freeview picture quality was distinctly lacking. We accept that standard definition doesn’t scale well to 52-inch screens, but we’ve seen decent performance from Samsung’s own 50-inch plasma.

If Freeview is important, you may need to look at the Samsung PS50 or one of Panasonic’s excellent plasma TVs as a strong alternative.

Compare Prices of the Samsung LE52F96

SAMSUNG LE40M87BDX

Yesterdays post about Samsungs LE40M86BDX (Note the 6) available for a bargaintastic price of £800 has prompted this post today. The LE40M87BDX is essentially the same TV as the LE40M86BDX. The M86 model is exclusive to Currys and Dixons and the difference between the two is purely a cosmetic one - the M87 TVs have a silver strip running along the base of the screen, the M86 does not. So now that we’ve cleared that up, whats the LE40M87BDX actually like? Well as with other Samsung ranges, the first bite is taken with the eye and the nicely curved shiny black bezel is nothing but appealing. But picture performance is where it truly excels; the already impressive FULL HD 1080p screen is enhanced by an adjustable backlight and Samsungs proprietary ‘Super Clear Panel’ which boosts the contrast ratio and significantly improves colour rendering. Samsung have also incorporated something they call ‘Movie Plus’ which uses some technical wizardry to reduce ‘Motion Judder’ and produce a much sharper picture. A lot of the time we find that titles such as these are designed to gloss over a products inadequacies, however this is definitely not the case here. Perhaps what is most notable about the M87 is the impressive black levels produced by the screen, the depth of blacks have been favourably compared to a similarly sized plasma, indicating therefore that the ‘Super Clear Panel’ is much more than a marketing tag line.

Standard Definition performance is more than adequate for an LCD TV of this nature (remember a lot of HD LCD TVs suffer here) and fast moving sources such as sports are inevitably prone to minor motion smearing. High definition sources are as about as good as it gets on an LCD screen. All this and 3 HDMI ports too. Safe to say that Samsung have a cracking TV here and at price that is becoming increasingly more affordable.

Buy the SAMSUNG LE40M87BDX (actually M86) from Currys or Compare prices of the Samsung LE40M87BDX here

SAMSUNG LE40M86BD 40″ 1080p TV £800.17 delivered

THIS POST IS A FEW WEEKS OLD NOW AND CURRYS HAVE PUT THEIR PRICE UP BUT YOU CAN COMPARE THE LATEST PRICES OF THE SAMSUNG LE40M86BDX HERE

The LE40M86BD is one of the more popular TVs with HDTVSite visitors. I was pleased to discover that, at least until the end of september, you can get it from Currys for as little as £800.17 thanks to their £60 off voucher code AW60TVSEPT. At the moment this TV costs £1099 in store so a £300 reduction represents a remarkable bargain if you ask me.

“Looking for a TV that can deliver full high definition? This 40” Samsung television can reproduce 1080p HD images the highest definition you can get when connected to a 1080p HD source. Additional image enhancing technologies help ensure brilliant colours, smooth motion during fast-moving scenes and an optimal gaming mode with even faster response times. An integrated digital tuner gives you access to Freeview channels without the need for additional equipment. There are 3 HDMI inputs for connecting your HD DVD, set-top box and multimedia devices without losing any picture quality”

I’ll post a write up of this TV shortly but in the meantime it does come highly recommended. Buy the SAMSUNG LE40M86BD from Currys now.

Samsung LE32R87BDX

There can be no denying when it comes to making an attractive looking TV Set, Samsung need not look up to anyone else. With the LE32R87BDX they have created a TV that looks almost good enough to take home to meet your mum. Curved in all the right places with a glossy black surround, a slim bezel and an appealing price tag it will almost certainly court approving looks from the old dear, and she’ll be positively frothing at the mouth when you tell her about the 3 (count em 1,2,3..) HDMI v1.3 ports it comes with, meaning it is fully future proofed (well for the next 6 months at least…), and you can enjoy all sorts of HD input such as SKY HD, a PS3 and a HD-DVD player without having to constantly unplug one device to plug in another.

The picture quality isn’t too shabby either, although it doesnt support the full 1080p resolution, on a screen of this size that probably doesnt make much difference. Black levels are deep, and colours are vibrant. However, fast moving scenes are prone to a bit of motion blur, which even the integrated Movie Plus system can’t quite deal with. You’ll probably want to invest in a seperate audio system too, since the speakers arent quite meaty enough for a home cinema experience, but all in all the LE32R87BDX can count itself as a solid performer for ordinary TV viewing.

Buy it from Amazon or Compare Prices for Samsung LE32R87BDX here

SAMSUNG Introduces 70” Full-HD LCD TV with Local Dimming Technology

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has introduced the largest (70 inch) commercially available full high-definition LCD TV in Korea. The new TV boasts Samsung’s very best image enhancement technologies and employs a light-emitting diode (LED) backlight instead of the conventional cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) version. Moreover, Samsung’s unique local dimming technology enables the LED backlight to be turned off in dark image areas, delivering a dynamic contrast ratio of 500,000:1. At the same time, power consumption is lowered by as much as fifty percent.
Meanwhile, Samsung’s LED scanning eliminates the flicker and ghosting problems associated with large-screen LCD TVs.
“I am pleased to introduce the 70” Full-HD LCD TV with innovative Local Dimming Technology,” said JongWoo Park, President of the Digital Media Business, Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will continue to strengthen its LCD TV leadership, enhancing Full-HD and large screen LCD TV line-up.”
A high-gloss, “piano black” bezel and titanium chrome trim accentuate the elegance and sophistication of Samsung’s new 70” full-HD LCD TV. The dual hidden speakers and rear woofer deliver the rich sound quality to match the larger-than-life on-screen images.
Samsung plans to put the product on sale worldwide in the second half of this year. Samsung is the largest LCD TV supplier in January-March this year with 17.4 percent share by revenue, according to Display Search.