Samsung SP-A800B DLP Projector Real-World Performance

Real-World Performance
I did most of my viewing and testing in the Movie1 mode with the lamp in its Theater mode (lowest) and DynamicBlack in its fixed Middle setting, which Joe Kane recommended because he prefers not to use the Auto setting. The Deep DynamicBlack setting improved the black level slightly, and the measured peak-white level in Deep was still more than generous on my relatively small screen (78" wide), but it looked dimmer than the measurements suggested, possibly because of the gamma.

As I was finishing the review, I tried DynamicBlack's Auto setting, which dropped the black level still further—though not as much as some dynamic irises do—and it didn't add artifacts, produce visible brightness pumping, or affect the projector's color performance in an obvious way. I ended up liking the Auto setting best, even though I didn't use it for much of the review.

The SP-A800B can do full justice to some of today's most spectacular HD transfers. The colors were consistently outstanding and always looked right. The optics—made by Samsung, unlike most projector manufacturers, who buy their optics from outside suppliers, thus adding considerably to the end cost for this sort of quality—are superb. Properly set up, the projector's resolution is crisp from corner to corner. Long shots are sharp, and close-ups reveal every facial pore and strand of hair.

I've lost count of the movies I've enjoyed on the Samsung during several weeks and nearly 100 hours I've spent with it. None, however, were more visually impressive than The Fall. What this movie lacks in dramatic coherence it more than makes up for in dazzling visuals (and impressive sound, as well). Using a relatively uninteresting hospital scenario as a framing device, its real attraction is a fantasy story told by one of the patients. The eye-catching composition and color palette in these fantasy sequences must be seen to be believed. The images are incredibly vivid but never garish, and the Samsung displayed it all in a way that the director and cinematographer would surely admire.

The Blu-ray transfer of Patton has garnered a lot of criticism for using noise reduction to eliminate film grain, a process that can also shave away detail. Skin textures on this BD have been reported as pasty-looking on other displays, but they did not look that way on this one. You can certainly tell that something is missing if you watch the film on the Samsung immediately after seeing a first-rate, full-resolution HD transfer. But Patton was never unwatchable on the SP-A800B, and the otherwise-rewarding aspects of this release—great color, no artifacts—were clearly evident.

Movies shot on HD video have a slightly different look than movies shot on film. A good example of this is Stargate: Continuum, a very well-done, made-for-video feature film perhaps best appreciated by fans of the long-running Stargate SG-1 TV series. It was obvious on the Samsung that this was shot on HD video, but it never had a canned look, and the exceptional quality of the cinematography was obvious.

The SP-A800B also did a superb job on well-transferred black-and-white films. Casablanca on HD DVD looked amazing—like it was shot yesterday. The Movie2 option, as noted earlier, produced a warm, subtle sepia tone, a look that fans of classic films will certainly appreciate.

In every way but one, the Samsung can compete with some of the best home-theater projectors on the market. The odd man out is black level. It's acceptable with the projector's fixed-iris settings, but well short of the current state of the art.

A projector's black-level and shadow-detail limitations tend to be more or less obvious depending on the specific image being displayed. Sometimes, a higher black level can reduce dimensionality even in bright scenes. The Samsung did not do this. Scenes that are generally dark with bright highlights can also mask the issue because our eyes use the bright parts of the scene as a reference. Most of the dark scenes in Transformers, for example, looked convincing on the Samsung for this reason.

Nearly always, however, elevated blacks will make dark scenes—scenes with little inherent contrast between different elements within the frame—take on a gray, slightly foggy appearance. The quarry scene in Gone Baby Gone is just such a scene, and on the Samsung it looked more gray than black, with little shadow detail.

As already noted, I did most of my viewing in the Middle fixed-iris position, but after viewing a number of dark films and dark scenes, I found that the Auto setting noticeably improved not only the measured black level (see "Measurements") but also the subjective black and shadow detail. I mentioned before that Joe Kane does not recommend the Auto setting; its inclusion was apparently Samsung's decision. I'm glad they did so. You can turn it off if desired, but for me, it did improve the projector's black level and shadow detail from merely satisfactory to good.

What about the DLP color-fringing (rainbow) issue, an artifact of the rotating color wheel? I did see it on occasion; I'm quite sensitive to this artifact, whereas many viewers are not. But in many hours of viewing, it was only an occasional distraction. The rainbows bothered me more in my first week or so with the projector—in fact, I'm beginning to suspect that some sensitive viewers can unconsciously tune them out (or at least down) over time.

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