PN50A760 Measurements

For calibration I'm using both the Sencore ColorPro System 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 - 9100k (1700:1 contrast ratio)
Standard - 8100k (1150:1 contrast ratio)
Movie - 6300k (1150:1 contrast ratio)

Calibration options were nearly unlimited on the PN50A760 - 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

CIE

Luminance

RGB

The above measurements were taken without any calibration. The only problem area really is the Luminance which seems to be crushing blacks a bit at the bottom end. During the viewing evaluation, I didn't notice any artifacts or problems with this phenomenon. It looks as if some sort of processing is engaged but I triple checked all the settings and didn't find a problem. With a bit of tweaking I brought the RGB and Color Temp in line but I wanted to show you out of the box performance since it is very, very good. Not as good as the LCD counterpart, but close.

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

Perfect Score is 130
Samsung PN50A760 Benchmark total score: 105/130. All tests were run through the HDMI 3 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." I also tried "Smooth" but it only managed to pass one other Cadence test and I didn't feel the trade off with possible visual artifacts was worth it. Overall, the PN50A760 did very well. The Noise reduction set to "High" did a fairly good (but not stellar) job of reducing noise without introducing any visual artifacting associated with motion. The Jaggie tests were spot on and the Film Detail test was rock solid. Feel free to set each of your components to interlaced output (except for your Xbox 360) 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.