LN52A750 Measurements and Viewing Evaluation

For calibration I'm using both the Sencore ColorPro5000 and Colormetre HCFR software. Basically, Sencore is great for calibrating your set but doesn't give you the pretty graphs that we like to show in our reviews. That's where Colormetre comes in. From the default settings, I measured:

Dynamic - 11000k (4850:1 contrast ratio)
Standard - 8500k (2300:1 contrast ratio)
Movie - 6500k (1450:1 contrast ratio)

Calibration options were nearly unlimited on the LN53A750 not that you needed them. All the standard stuff was there (Brightness, Contrast, Tint, etc) along with your gain and cut adjustments under the White Balance menu under Detailed Settings. I fiddled with these controls but in the end, I don't think you need to do much else other than turn the set on. I was able to achieve these measurements from the default Movie setting (Note: throw out any color readings below 30IRE due to limitations of the colorimeter I am using):

Color Temp (left); CIE (right)

Luminance (left); RGB (right)

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

Perfect Score is 130
Samsung LN52A750 Benchmark total score: 120/130. All tests were run through the HDMI 1 input.

Comments on Audioholics DVD Torture Tests
The only change I made from the default settings was to set Film Mode under Picture Options to "Auto." Without this enabled, the unit failed the Film Detail and all the Cadence tests including 2:3 pulldown when fed an interlaced signal. The Samsung LN52A750 passed the HQV test with flying colors. Feel free to set each of your components to interlaced output and let the display do the work - unless you spent a lot of money on your source (or you have a Blu-ray player), you aren't going to do much better than this display.

Viewing Evaluation

It is clear that the Samsung LN52A750 is providing a great deinterlacing as per the HQV tests. It is also clear that you the consumer needs to do little other than shell out the asking price to get that fantastic performance. But the real question is, "How does it look in real world applications?"

DVD: 300
300 is easily one of my favorite movies to use in reviews. The picture quality is a little grainy (by design) but there are tons of dark scenes, brown tones, and deep reds not to mention a lot of action. I used this disk for a number of subjective evaluations including dark definition. The Samsung LN52A750 showed all the proper definition in the prodigious amount of darkness in this movie. Even during the night scenes, you could pick out the detail in hair and backgrounds. While Lionidas is climbing the hill to see the oracle, even through the smoke and darkness, there is never any sense of loss of detail. Is it as good as a high definition disc? No, of course not. But it is still very good and sure to impress your friends.

Xbox 360: Army of Two
With the recent update of this game, Army of Two has recently hit my play rotation again. For the purposes of this review, however, I was looking at vibrancy of color, ability to handle fast motion, and over all picture quality. Army of Two has some of the most stunning graphics (in game or cut scene) that I've ever seen. The LN52A750 absolutely shined through this portion of the review. The 4ms response time in conjunction with the default setting of "Low" on the Auto Motion Plus 120Hz setting made for a very clean and fluid image. While I played around with the Auto Motion Plus setting a bit, I never really experienced that "too real" phenomenon that people associate with it. Often, this is because real film doesn't refresh that quickly. To me, it just looked gorgeous. All the characters were rendered beautifully and the colors really popped. If it wasn't for all the people shooting at you, you could get lost in the graphics of this game. And don't even get me started on the lush cut scenes. Rarely is there a game where I will voluntarily watch the cut scenes more than once. With Army of Two, it is rare for me to skip them.