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Samsung PN51F8500 Review: A 51-Inch Plasma HDTV With SmartHub
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1. Samsung PN51F8500 51-Inch Plasma HDTV Review

I remember seeing my first flat-screen TV in a Circuit City many years ago. It was a 32-inch plasma panel, and it was selling for $5000. Back then, LCDs were just starting to appear on desktops, but the technology wasn't yet available in large enough screen sizes for the living room. If you wanted a television you could mount on the wall, plasma was it.

As you already know, the tables turned completely. LCDs can be found in sizes up to 80 inches, while prices have dropped tremendously. Where every manufacturer once offered multiple plasma models, now only LG and Samsung continue to market them.

Our latest HDTV review subject is the PN51F8500. Samsung sent us the 51-inch model to look at, but you can also get it in 60- and 64-inch formats. They all have the same features and differ only in price: $1800, $2400, and $3100, respectively.

MSRP
$1800
Panel Type
Plasma
Screen Size
50.7-inch
Max Resolution
1920x1080
Max Refresh Rate
96 Hz
Aspect Ratio
16:9
Speakers
2 x 10 W
HDMI 1.4a
4
Component Video
1
RF/Antenna
1
Audio Out
1 optical
Control
IR in, RS-232
USB
3
Ethernet (RJ-45)
1
Panel Dimensions
WxHxD w/base
46.9 x 29.4 x 10.6 in
1182 x 741 x 267 mm
Panel Thickness
2 in / 50 mm
Bezel Width
1-1.5 in / 25-38 mm
Weight
51.6 lbs / 23.4 kg
Warranty
One year

If you visit any A/V forum, you will undoubtedly find threads devoted to debating LCD versus plasma technology. Obviously, LCD won decisively in the marketplace. If plasma penetrated the living room first, how did this turn of fate occur?

For those who have not previously considered a plasma HDTV, let me offer a little primer about how it differs from LCD. Firstly, the only thing the two technologies share in common is that they’re flat panels. After that, the similarity ends.

LCD is a light valve display, which means that light is filtered and polarized by the pixel structure to produce the red, green, and blue primary colors. Plasma, on the other hand, uses pixels that are self-illuminating. The red, green, and blue sub-pixels are like tiny light bulbs. They’re filled with a gas, which, when stimulated by current, cause a phosphor deposit on the inside of the cell to glow. The cell’s brightness is then controlled by varying the voltage.

The principal advantage of this approach is greater contrast. You can’t turn a plasma pixel off completely like a CRT phosphor. But at the minimum voltage, it’s much darker than an LCD pixel. Superior black levels translate to a greater dynamic range. If you agree with us that contrast is the most important component in image quality, then you might consider plasma for your next HDTV purchase.

The main disadvantage is power consumption. A large LCD panel with an LED backlight might draw 100 watts at peak load. Plasmas can draw as much as 500 watts displaying bright content. And an LCD will give you more light output at a given current level. If you have a room with incoming sunlight, a plasma might not muster enough brightness for your application.

Before we move on, I should explain a spec you may have seen in Samsung’s (and other manufacturers') marketing: 600 Hz sub-field drive. Since plasma, like CRT, is not a sample-and-hold technology, there is a dark period between each frame as it is flashed on the screen. This is the reason for plasma’s superior motion processing and lack of blur. The actual amount of time each frame appears is only one or two milliseconds. So, to maintain brightness and prevent flicker, the image is refreshed multiple times per frame. If the sub-field rate is 600 Hz, it means that each frame is refreshed 10 times. Ten refreshes x 60 Hz = 600 Hz.

2. Packaging, Physical Layout and Accessories

The F8500’s accessory pack includes pretty much everything you need. You get four pairs of 3D glasses, Samsung’s latest touchpad remote, and a power cord with right-angle plugs at both ends. There is no printed documentation, but you can download a user manual online. Other bits include stick-on hooks for cable management, ferrite cores for the power cable, and a component video-to-mini-plug adapter. We would like to see a Bluetooth keyboard included, though if you have one lying around, it will work just fine.

When you first power up the TV, it runs through a setup sequence. I was able to connect to my Wi-Fi network on the first try. Once you have Internet access, the user manual can be pulled up on the screen. You can also contact Samsung support through the menu system if you’re having trouble.

Product 360

The F8500’s bezel is metal in the front with a finely brushed finish. It's not quite black; however, it still blends in nicely and makes the panel look high-end, even when it's turned off. Measuring one inch around the top and sides, and 1½ inches across the bottom, the bezel is fairly narrow, too.

Samsung's screen has a glossy finish. You'd think that make it susceptible to reflections. In reality, though, it's not bad. Still, if you can, place your room’s light sources carefully so as not to diminish the stunning high-contrast image. Clarity is top-notch thanks to a top layer of high optical quality and extremely small pixel gaps.

Attaching to the TV with several screws, the cast-aluminum base is stylish indeed. It appears to simply grow out of the panel’s bottom edge, providing excellent stability and a small footprint.

When you access Skype or use the Motion Control feature, a little camera pops up from the top-center of the F8500. You wouldn't choose it for filming a movie, but the little sensor's picture quality is adequate for video calls.

Plasma TVs are usually bulkier than their LCD counterparts. However, Samsung manages to get the F8500 down to a mere two inches-thick. You do need a little extra air gap if you hang this TV on the wall in order to clear the vents on the upper-rear.

You can see the main ventilation grilles on the top edge and back of the F8500. During regular operation, the set draws 155 W, with a peak load of 467 W. That means a fair amount of heat is generated. As we all know, cool electronics equal happy electronics. Make sure to follow Samsung’s recommendations for proper installation and airflow. Its mounting lugs comply with the 400 mm VESA spec.

All of the inputs face sideways or downwards for easy access when the TV is wall-mounted. There are four HDMI connections, one of which is MHL-compatible, and three USB ports. Also, the RF, component, and analog audio inputs point towards the floor. You get a digital optical output as well, feeding your sound system from the antenna feed. If you have an A/V receiver with HDMI/ARC (Audio Return Channel), you can feed the sound that way too.

Samsung includes four pairs of active 3D glasses. They're so light in use that I was barely aware of them. If you enjoy 3D movies, there's a good chance you'll be able to wear them for hours without fatigue. And they fit over my eyeglasses just fine. Power comes from an included button battery that is not rechargeable. Synchronization happens through RF rather than IR, so pairing is quick and you stay locked on as long as you're within about 20 feet of the F8500.

Samsung departs from the typical wand covered with buttons in favor of a more minimalist handset. Its face is brushed metal, and the whole thing feels very expensive. The center is dominated by a touchpad that responds to swiping gestures as you navigate the menus or SmartHub interface. It’s very responsive and I mastered it quickly. There’s even a backlight activated by a button in the lower-left.

3. Setup And Calibration Of The Samsung PN51F8500

OSD Tour

Pressing the Menu key on the remote brings up the main OSD.

All of the image parameters are in the Picture menu and its two submenus, Advanced Settings and Picture Options. Cell Light is something unique to Samsung plasmas. It works like the backlight control on an LCD, giving you another option to control light output. Like most HDTVs, Brightness controls the black level. Sharpness introduces edge enhancement above level five.

The second screen of options, not shown in the photo, takes you to the additional submenus, and includes the ability to apply your settings to other inputs. It also hosts the aspect ratio options, referred to as Picture Size. For a pixel-perfect image with maximum resolution, choose Screen Fit.

When you select an adjustment, the large menu disappears and becomes a small bar across the bottom of the screen.

The F8500 makes it easy to use your test patterns by keeping menus out of the way. And you can scroll through different settings without returning to the main screen.

Advanced Settings contains the Color Space, White Balance, and Gamma controls. Along the right side, a short explanation of each function is shown, which is very helpful.

Dynamic Contrast has Low, Medium, and High options. Even Low crushes detail, and in our opinion, does not improve picture quality. The F8500 already has a far greater dynamic range than any LCD panel. It doesn’t need additional help.

Flesh Tone adjusts the red component in skin color. It’s best left at zero.

RGB-only mode lets you turn off individual primaries to help set Color and Tint with the appropriate pattern. If you use the Movie mode, you won’t need to adjust them.

Color Space choices are Auto, Native, and Custom. We found Custom to be the most accurate of the three. If you want to make adjustments, Samsung provides a CMS.

Rather than exposing hue, saturation, and lightness sliders, Samsung’s CMS has adjustments for the amount of each primary color. It’s definitely different, and I personally felt it was more difficult to use. Fortunately, the gamut is pretty good without additional calibration, so we didn’t have to make any changes.

The F8500 offers two- and ten-point white balance controls. The grayscale accuracy was so good on our sample that we didn’t need the ten-point option. You can see the single adjustment we made to Blue-Gain.

The 10-point white balance lets you alter the RGB levels for each brightness step from 10 to 100 percent. It’s extremely precise. But, like the CMS, we didn’t need it to achieve excellent results.

Picture Options hosts the color temp presets, noise filters, and frame interpolation options. HDMI Black Level should be set to Low for video sources. Black Optimizer seemed to make subtle alterations to low-end gamma in our tests. We got the best results in Auto.

The Motion Judder Canceller is Samsung’s term for frame interpolation. It definitely improves motion resolution with almost no screen tearing. I think it looks unnatural when I watch movies, but it works well for sports and gaming.

Samsung equips the F8500 with some pretty decent speakers. To help tweak them, there are six modes that emphasize different frequencies according to user preference. If those don’t suit you, you can create custom sound profiles. The TV will play test tones and measure the response of your room. Then, you can compare the before and after results. It’s a little like the Audyssey room correction found on many A/V receivers and surround processors.

The Broadcasting menu manages over-the-air signals coming through the F8500’s RF antenna input. To begin, run Auto Program to find the available channels. Once complete, you can set up a favorites list and block specific channels if you wish. The TV sports both analog and digital tuners, plus the ability to tune-in unscrambled cable channels.

Networking with the F8500 couldn’t be easier. I was able to connect to my Wi-Fi router by just entering its password. You can also use the Ethernet port on the input panel.

Wi-Fi Direct refers to the built-in WiDi function. This is one way to stream content from a compatible device (like an Ultrabook) without connecting the TV to a network.

AllShare is a Samsung app that allows the TV to receive content from DLNA-compatible devices, which are fairly common these days. Many Blu-ray players and A/V receivers have the feature, making it easy to set up a home-based media server or to bring in content from the Internet.

Smart Features include not only the SmartHub interface, but also voice recognition and remote gesture control.

Voice Recognition is quite extensive. It covers basic remote commands plus more advanced functions like program search. You’ll need a fairly quiet room if you want the capability to work reliably, though. I had decent success with my own home theater. Still, I preferred the traditional remote.

Motion Control uses the top-mounted camera to recognize hand movements for menu navigation, zooming in and out, and scrolling. You have to sit within 13 feet for it to work. You also need some ambient light. If you watch TV in the dark like I do, response suffers. Again, my preference is a traditional hand-held remote.

The System menu is fairly typical of most HDTVs, but I want to point out three important options. First, in the Eco Solution submenu, there is a sensor option that should be turned off. It uses a front-mounted photocell to adjust panel brightness according to the room’s available light. In Movie mode, it’s off by default. It’s switched on in the other picture modes, though.

Second, under Change PIN, there is a menu called General. That is where you’ll find the Game mode. To improve input lag, turn it on. It locks the F8500 into Standard mode, while reducing lag by 36 percent (a good thing).

Third, in Device Manager, you have the ability to connect a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The peripherals aren’t included, but any compatible product will work. They make navigating the SmartHub much easier.

The final menu, Support, facilitates easy access to help with your F8500 right from the couch. You can display the complete user manual, send diagnostic information to Samsung, or update the firmware.

Samsung F8500 Plasma Calibration

Even though Samsung enables 10-point white balance and color management, the image in Movie mode is already close to perfect. Standard, Dynamic, and Relax are less ideal, as we’ll show you later.

In our completely dark room, a Brightness setting of 45 produced the best black levels with no clipping. Contrast can be set as high as 95 out of 100 before any color shift is observed. To dial in white balance, we only had to make a single change to the Blue gain control. Gamma is designed to match BT.1886 rather than 2.2 Power Function. We’ll explain what that means on page eight. Finally, for the best color gamut accuracy, choose the Custom Color Space option and don’t adjust the CMS. Check out our settings below.

Samsung PN51F8500 Calibration Settings
Picture Mode
Movie
Cell Light
16 day, 11 night
Contrast
92
Brightness
45
Color/Tint
0
Sharpness
0
Color Temp
Warm 2
Black Tone
Off
Flesh Tone
0
ColorSpace
Custom
White Balance
Blue gain 24, All others 25
Gamma
-1
HDMI Black Level
Low
Black Optimizer
Auto

4. Real-World Testing: Movies and 3D

As a top-line model, Samsung endows the F8500 with its full SmartHub suite of apps and connectivity, as well as the ability to watch 3D formats (native or converted from 2D). Built-in Wi-Fi lets you stream content from the Internet, a NAS array, or other resources attached to your home network. There’s WiDi functionality as well, facilitating streaming from another WiDi-enabled device with or without a local wireless network.

I spent a few afternoons watching movies and surfing through online material. For testing with Blu-ray media, I connected an Oppo BDP-93 3D player via HDMI. Audio was played through the built-in speakers, which I set to the Amplify option.

First I wanted to try out a few dark-scene torture tests, so I chose Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The opening of the film takes place at night on a dimly-lit street. Most LCD panels look gray and washed-out trying to reproduce this. But the F8500 rewarded me with truly rich blacks that were loaded with detail. Roof shingles and dirt on the sidewalk were plainly visible. Close-up shots of Harry and Dumbledore revealed every pore and hair on their faces.

I took some time to try the Motion Judder Cancellation (frame interpolation) feature, too. On the Standard setting, it increases motion resolution to the point of perfection. It also imparts a soap-opera effect, however, which I personally don't like. Aside from an occasional tearing artifact, the algorithm works well. I prefer to use this feature for sports and games. Then I turn it off while watching movies or TV shows.

Next up was Alfonso Cuaron’s superb film, Gravity. Only a plasma or OLED TV can pull off a black starfield with bright objects in the foreground. In 2009, when I added a Pioneer Kuro to my living room, I wondered if anything could match its black levels. As it turns out, Samsung comes really close. But the F8500 is just a hair less black than my PRO-111FD. That didn't diminish my enjoyment of the movie, however. And I didn’t miss the motion blur I’m accustomed to seeing when I watch the same disc on an LCD television.

I finished my 2D viewing with Baraka, which represents the pinnacle of image purity. There are no computer-generated scenes whatsoever. It’s just some of the cleanest and most beautifully shot 70 mm film ever. Created from an 8K transfer, this one makes a great test for a display’s color and detail rendering. The F8500 passed the test with flying colors, to draw on the old cliché. I loved how natural and perfectly saturated the palette was in both indoor and outdoor scenes. And detail was tack-sharp. With no anti-glare layer to speak of, you’re able to see the TV’s absolute maximum resolution.

3D displays have come a long way in just a few years. The technology still hasn’t caught on, but manufacturers continue making each new model year just a little better. I dropped A Christmas Carol into the player mainly to check out its darker scenes. The F8500 puts out plenty of light for an excellent 3D effect. Even the dimmest content was loaded with detail. Contrast was the best I’d seen on any 3D display to date. And detail was off-the-charts sharp. I managed to see hairs on Scrooge’s nose I hadn’t noticed previously.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is an older title that can expose crosstalk and ghosting on some displays. There was none of that on the F8500. Every scene was perfectly rendered with a nice deep stereo effect.

I finished up with a vintage 3D title, Dial M For Murder. Even though it’s a 60-year-old film, it was originally shot in 3D. The transfer is poor with a general softness throughout. Its color is solid though. I initially saw a lot of crosstalk, but then I adjusted the Perspective slider in the 3D menu. Moving it to the left a few clicks helped clear up the artifacts. Samsung's F8500 is the only HDTV I’ve seen with this feature, and it certainly came in useful.

5. Real-World Testing: SmartHub

Samsung has been in the smart TV game for a while, and the refinement that comes with experience really shows in its second-gen implementation. The interface runs through a 1.35 GHz quad-core processor and is very responsive, both to the remote and when pulling in content from the cloud.

Pressing the SmartHub button on the controller brings up a program guide that’s based on your local cable or satellite service. When I set it up, I had to enter my zip code and the name of my provider, Bright House.

In the upper-left, you can see the image from the active input (in this case, it’s an Oppo Blu-ray player). The thumbnails represent featured programming and upcoming shows. If you use a cable or satellite receiver, they're largely redundant and you don't have access to DVR functions or on-demand content from your carrier.

Swiping to the right takes you to a screen where you can buy or rent movies from Samsung or services like Vudu.

If you have a Vudu account, you can purchase 1080p content with up to 7.1-channel surround sound. This is an easy way to browse without starting up a separate app like you would with Netflix or Amazon, for example.

The next screen is the social media center. The photo shows a YouTube feed, but you can also interact with Facebook and Twitter. It’s easy to make Skype video calls using the F8500’s built-in camera and microphone. The only requirement is that you link your various accounts to Samsung first. Then you can access them right from the SmartHub.

SmartHub ships with a large suite of apps. Of course, you can download even more from Samsung if you want. Many of them offer direct access to sports and news feeds, as well as popular services like Instagram amd Amazon shopping.

Naturally, there's a fully-functional Web browser built-in. I used it with the remote, though a Bluetooth-attached keyboard and mouse would likely be even easier. In the lower-left corner is a small Tools menu that pops up with a remote key. It gives you direct access to resources like Netflix and Amazon, as well as menu functions like screen size and picture mode.

Here’s the familiar Netflix interface. I was able to log in quickly, browse content in my queue, and use the search function. Thanks to the quad-core processor, it’s extremely responsive to remote commands. Content loads expediently, and the picture quality was excellent with few compression artifacts.

Samsung includes a gateway to locally-stored content in the SmartHub. You can browse the files on devices connected via USB, HDMI/MHL, WiDi, or the cloud (that can be a local NAS device or something from an Internet resource). File format support is quite extensive, including nearly every video, photo, and music codec in use today. If you have a home-based media server, you won’t need a separate bridge device to bring your content to the screen. SmartHub 2.0 seems to cover all of the bases.

6. Measurement And Calibration Methodology: How We Test

To measure and calibrate monitors, we use an i1Pro spectrophotometer, a Spectracal C6 colorimeter, and version 5.2.0.1374 of SpectraCal’s CalMAN software.

The i1Pro is very accurate and consistent measuring color on all types of displays, regardless of the backlight technology used. When we just need a luminance value, the C6 works better, especially in low light.

For patterns, we employ AccuPel DVG-5000 and DVDO AVLab TPG video signal generators. This approach removes video cards and drivers from the signal chain, allowing the display to receive true reference patterns. Connections are made via HDMI.

The AccuPel DVG-5000 is capable of generating all types of video signals at any resolution and refresh rate up to 1920x1080 at 60 Hz. It can also display motion patterns to evaluate a monitor's video processing capabilities, with 3D patterns available in every format. This allows us to measure color and grayscale performance, crosstalk, and ghosting in 3D content via the 3D glasses.

The DVDO generator is a new addition to our lab. It supports resolutions up to 4096x2160. We’re using it to verify the proper signal handling of QHD and UHD displays.

The i1Pro or C6 is placed at the center of the screen (unless we’re measuring uniformity) and sealed against it to block out any ambient light. The AccuPel pattern generator (bottom-left) is controlled via USB by CalMAN, which is running on the Dell XPS laptop on the right.

Our version of CalMAN Ultimate allows me to design all of the screens and workflows to best suit the purpose at hand. To that end, I’ve created a display review workflow from scratch. This way, we can be sure and collect all the necessary data with a concise and efficient set of measurements.

The charts show us the RGB levels, gamma response, and Delta E error for every brightness point from zero to 100 percent. In the table, we get raw data for each measurement. And the area in the upper-left tells us luminance, average gamma, Delta E, and contrast ratio. The individual charts can be copied to the Windows clipboard to easily create graphics for our reviews.

Every primary and secondary color is measured at 20-, 40-, 60-, 80-, and 100-percent saturation. The color saturation level is simply the distance from the white point on the CIE chart. You can see the targets moving out from white in a straight line. The further a point is from center, the greater the saturation until you hit 100 percent at the edge of the gamut triangle. This shows us the display’s response at a cross-section of color points. Many monitors score well when only the 100-percent saturations are measured. Hitting the targets at the lower saturations is more difficult, and factors into our average Delta E value (which explains why our Delta E values are sometimes higher than those reported by other publications).

7. Results: Brightness and Contrast

For more information on our test methodology, or simply what our benchmarks measure, check out our display testing reference page: How We Test Monitors and TVs.

Our comparison group represents all of the HDTVs we’ve tested to date, plus LG’s 34UM95, a general-purpose sRGB computer monitor.

Uncalibrated

The light output requirements of an HDTV are somewhat different than those for computer monitors. However, we still want to see how bright the display goes, which may mean using a less-than-accurate picture mode that affects color and visible detail.

Most plasma panels modulate their light output with the contrast control. Samsung, however, adds a unique adjustment called Cell Light, which has 20 brightness levels. It acts like the backlight slider from an LCD display.

When people ask me, “LCD or plasma?” my first response is, “How much brightness do you need?” LCD technology is much brighter (sometimes twice as much) than the average plasma panel. Samsung bucks that trend with its F8500. In Dynamic mode, I get a maximum number that beats many of the LCD panels I’ve measured. You could easily use the F8500 in a sun-lit room and still enjoy excellent picture quality.

Plasma is best-known for its low black levels. After Pioneer set the bar in 2008 with its Kuro Elite models, other manufacturers have been working to beat that mark. The F8500 comes really close. While a difference of .0057 cd/m2 seems tiny, you can see it in a side-by-side comparison. There’s no question that plasma is well ahead of LCD in the black level contest.

Thanks to its prodigious output, the F8500 nearly matches our reference Pioneer Kuro in overall maximum contrast, too. Remember that we’re measuring Dynamic mode, so you have to accept some compromises in color accuracy to realize such lofty figures.

Calibrated Day & Night Modes

For the Day mode, we target a value of 170 cd/m2, which is enough light for just about any media room or dedicated home theater. If you prefer the American luminance unit, that's a bit less than 50 foot-Lamberts. Some might consider this too bright for critical viewing, but remember, we're looking at a peak number. Most content doesn't display the brightest output except in highlights or the occasional sun-lit scene. Ultimately, it’s up to you. However, we want a consistent value for comparing future displays.

We chose a maximum output of 120 cd/m2 (or 35 fL) for Night mode. This is the value used in pro graphics systems, which assumes a darkened, light-controlled space. It’s also good for watching TV in total darkness or with just a little ambient light.

Our comparison charts show the Day mode.

The Cell Light control is fairly coarse in its adjustment, so we couldn’t hit 170 cd/m2 on the nose. Each click represents about 12 cd/m2. We also lowered the Contrast a little to dial in the excellent grayscale results you’ll see on page eight.

The calibrated black level is almost exactly the same as our uncalibrated measurement, meaning that on/off contrast numbers change solely based on the position of the Contrast and Cell Light controls. Bottom line: you’ll see the F8500’s best black levels regardless of your maximum output preference.

While Samsung's F8500 doesn’t match our reference Pioneer Kuro, it still lays waste to every LCD panel we’ve measured. Contrast like this makes for a truly 3D-like image with tremendous depth and clarity.

In Night mode, we measured a white level of 116.226 cd/m2, a black level of .0128 cd/m2, and a contrast ratio of 9081.5 to 1. Again, as you lower the Cell Light control, black levels stay about the same; only the white level changes. As a result, contrast goes down as you reduce output. LCD panels have more consistent contrast ratios, but even at its dimmest, the F8500 measures better than any LCD we’ve tested.

ANSI Contrast Ratio

Another important measure of contrast is ANSI. To perform this test, a checkerboard pattern of sixteen zero and 100-percent squares is measured. We get a somewhat more real-world metric than on/off measurements because we're testing the display’s ability to simultaneously maintain both low black and full white levels, plus factoring in screen uniformity. The average of the eight full-white measurements is divided by the average of the eight full-black measurements to arrive at the ANSI result.

The ANSI result drops to about one-third of the on/off number for both plasmas in our comparison. Where an LCD’s numbers are a function of the grid polarizer quality, plasma panels rely on a robust power supply to maintain high white levels in the checkerboard pattern. Samsung doesn't appear to cut corners on that all-important component.

The F8500 includes a three-level Dynamic Contrast control, which is locked to the highest setting in Dynamic mode and fully adjustable in the other modes. Its effect is best illustrated in our gamma charts on the next page. Contrast is altered mainly by increasing light output. Black levels are unchanged, but we did observe crushed shadow and highlight detail, even at the Low setting. Frankly, the panel’s native contrast is so good we just don’t see a reason to use it.

8. Results: Grayscale Tracking and Gamma Response

It’s important that the color of white be consistently neutral at all light levels from darkest to brightest. Grayscale performance impacts color accuracy with regard to the secondary colors: cyan, magenta, and yellow. While you can manipulate them with tint control, dialing in grayscale often eliminates the need for further adjustment. Fortunately, a majority of monitors and HDTVs (especially newer models) display excellent grayscale tracking, even at stock settings.

First up is the result from the F8500’s Standard mode. This is the TV’s default setting.

We don’t need instruments to tell us how blue the image appears; we can see it plainly. By 100 percent, the error balloons to 12.69 Delta E. You can mitigate this by choosing a warmer color temperature preset or by simply choosing Movie mode, which we’ll show you next.

Samsung serves up a superb fire-and-forget image preset in the Movie mode. You don’t really need to calibrate to enjoy a very accurate picture. The brighter levels start to go a little blue, but the errors are only visible to our instruments. This represents an excellent performance.

After a single adjustment to the Blue Gain control, we record a superb final result. It’s as good as any high-end pro monitor we’ve measured lately. The F8500 is capable of near-perfect grayscale performance.

Here is the comparison group:

The lone computer monitor in our group achieves better grayscale performance out of the box. All of our HDTVs come set to a mode that offers plenty of brightness, but little in the way of accuracy. The image quality reflected in our chart is well-suited to a showroom, where dozens of screens compete for attention. But it's not a picture you’d want in your living room.

If you only engage the F8500’s Movie mode, the grayscale average error becomes 1.09 Delta E. Calibration reduces that to .55, which places it in an elite group of professional monitors selling for far more per screen inch. We’re glad to see Samsung’s commitment to accuracy, even in an entertainment-oriented product.

Gamma Response

Gamma is the measurement of luminance levels at every step in the brightness range from 0 to 100 percent. It's important because poor gamma can either crush detail at various points or wash it out, making the entire picture appear flat and dull. Correct gamma produces a more three-dimensional image, with a greater sense of depth and realism. Meanwhile, incorrect gamma can negatively affect image quality, even in monitors with high contrast ratios.

We’re doing our gamma tests a little differently for HDTVs than computer monitors because, as of 2011, the standards are no longer the same. Computers use a power function with an average value of 2.2 for PCs and 2.0 for Macs. The new guideline for broadcast video is known as BT.1886, and it has an average value of 2.4 with a slightly different shape to the curve. Check out the sample graph below:

The goal is to improve shadow detail while maintaining similar output progression in the brighter levels. If you compare two images side by side, the difference is subtle. Your impression of depth shouldn't change. But darker material shows just a little more detail and clarity.

Our measurements for the F8500 reflect BT.1886, not the 2.2 power function.

You might be tempted to blame Dynamic Contrast for our result, but it's not the culprit. Rather, this is the Standard mode’s default gamma measurement. You can move the trace up and down the scale. That won't change its shape, though. The resulting image increases brightness at the expense of clarity and detail in highlights. The error at 90 percent is 29.5 cd/m2 too bright, representing a gamma value of .83.

Switching to Movie mode produces a near-perfect BT.1886 gamma trace. It was obviously Samsung’s intent to match the newer standard rather than the 2.2 power function seen on computer monitors and most other HDTVs. Hopefully competing television manufacturers follow suit.

The above graph shows the effect of Dynamic Contrast on its Low setting. Detail is crushed in both the darkest and lightest portions of the image. And since the F8500 already has tremendous dynamic range, it does nothing to improve quality. This test should convince you to leave Dynamic Contrast turned off.

Here is our comparison group again:

The other screens are measured against the 2.2 power function standard. But because we're expressing the amount of deviation, it’s a valid comparison. Samsung's F8500 achieves excellent gamma accuracy with its tight tracking of only .09. The numbers range from a low of 2.38 to a high of 2.48.

We calculate gamma deviation by expressing the difference from the standard as a percentage.

A 1.25-percent deviation is well below the point of visibility. As we saw in our grayscale results, the F8500 is as good as most of the highly-engineered professional panels we’ve tested.

9. Results: Color Gamut and Performance

Color gamut is measured using a saturation sweep that samples the six main colors (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow) at five saturation levels (20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%), providing a realistic view of color accuracy.

We begin by showing you the Standard mode.

Since this is a pre-calibration result, there is room for improvement. The blue grayscale means that cyan, magenta, and red exhibit significant hue errors. Adjusting the color temp preset and/or the RGB controls helps there. Of equal concern are the saturation errors below 100 percent. You can see especially in the blue and red primaries that 20, 40, 60, and 80 percent fall well below their targets. The luminance chart shows that color brightness has been increased to compensate.

These are the results gathered from Movie mode prior to calibration. We already established that the white point is nearly perfect without adjustment. The hue errors from Standard mode are now corrected, and the saturation levels get closer to their targets. Overall color errors are only visible for red and blue.

Since we only changed the Blue Gain control during the grayscale calibration, we had to address the F8500’s CMS to see if we could make any other improvements. As it turned out, all we had to do was change the Color Space option from Auto to Custom. No other changes were necessary.

Blue and red still show a little under-saturation, but they are much better than before. The slightly-elevated luminance helps compensate. at least all of the errors fall below three, which takes the F8500’s color from good to excellent.

An average error of 1.37 Delta E puts the F8500 among our top group of displays, including monitors and HDTVs. The fact that this is achieved with only a few minor adjustments speaks highly of Samsung’s engineering and build quality.

10. Results: Viewing Angles and Uniformity

Besides greater contrast, plasma technology's other big advantage over LCD is superior off-axis image quality. If you plan to put more than three people in front of your HDTV, a plasma panel ensures that even those seated furthest from the sweet spot still see a great picture.

There is no visible difference between the head-on photo and the 45-degree one. Light output, detail levels, and color are unaffected when you sit off-center.

The top-down view is another matter entirely. Looking at the screen from a 45-degree angle above-center, the image is almost completely invisible. This behavior is not typical of other plasma displays. When we asked Samsung about it, representatives told us the F8500 has an additional polarizing layer added to help reject light reflected from the ceiling. Fortunately, side-to-side quality isn't affected, and at normal viewing distances the extra layer doesn't pose a problem. Just use common sense when you're installing the TV so the screen’s centerline is either at eye level or directed that way.

Screen Uniformity: Luminance

To measure screen uniformity, zero and 100-percent full-field patterns are used, and nine points are sampled. First, we establish a baseline measurement at the center of each screen. Then the surrounding eight points are measured. Their values get expressed as a percentage of the baseline, either above or below. This number is averaged.

It is important to remember that we only test the review sample each vendor sends us. Other examples of the same TV can measure differently.

First up is black field uniformity.

As size increases, manufacturing perfectly uniform screens becomes more difficult. LCD technology is at a disadvantage because its backlight is on the edges, requiring equalization with carefully placed diffusors. Plasma should fare better since its pixels emit their own light.

With that said, Toshiba should be proud that its 65-inch screen bests a 51-inch plasma in our test. Still, the F8500’s score of 13.96 percent isn’t too bad. Our measurements show slight hotspots in the upper-left and middle-right zones.

Here’s the white field measurement:

Plasma clearly wins in the white field test. Our reference Pioneer is still king. Samsung isn’t far behind. And we’re not surprised to see LG's computer monitor sneak into third place. NEC’s V801 finishes in a distant sixth place, mainly due to its 80-inch screen size. That’s a lot of area for an edge-backlight to cover.

Screen Uniformity: Color

To measure color uniformity, we display an 80-percent white field and measure the Delta E error of the same nine points on the screen. Then we simply subtract the lowest value from the highest to arrive at the result. A smaller number means a display is more uniform. Any value below three means a variation that is invisible to the naked eye.

Color uniformity is equally affected by screen size, so we wouldn't necessarily expect Samsung to run away with first place. Most 24- and 27-inch computer monitors measure under two Delta E. For the F8500 to demonstrate the same strong performance is a pleasant surprise.

11. Results: Pixel Response and Input Lag

To perform these tests, we use a high-speed camera that shoots at 1000 frames per second. Analyzing the video frame-by-frame allows us to observe the exact time it takes to go from a zero-percent signal to a 100% white field.

The pattern generator is placed at the base of the monitor so our camera can capture the precise moment its front-panel LED lights up, indicating that a video signal is being received by the monitor. With this camera placement, we can easily see how long it takes to fully display a pattern after pressing the button on the generator’s remote. This testing methodology allows for accurate and repeatable results when comparing panels.

Here’s a shot of our test setup. Click on the photo to enlarge.

The brighter section of the camera’s screen is what actually appears in the video. You can see the lights of the pattern generator in the bottom of the viewfinder. We flash the pattern on and off five times and average the results.

The F8500 has a game mode that reduces processing to lower input lag. It does not affect the screen draw time, which is already lightning-fast. A plasma panel goes black between frames, rendering motion blur almost non-existent. Even though you’re limited to 60 Hz, that fact contributes to very smooth motion on-screen.

Here are the lag results:

Game mode certainly does improve our input lag measurement. But Samsung's F8500 is still well behind the performance of even a typical computer monitor. If you plan to hook up a gaming PC to a plasma panel, Pioneer's Kuro is a better choice. It’s too bad they’re not made any more! Console gaming shouldn't pose as much of an issue; you can only move and turn so fast with a joystick or directional pad.

One spec that may catch your attention is the F8500’s 96 Hz refresh rate. Unfortunately, the TV cannot accept a 96 Hz signal. For that, you’re still limited to 60 Hz over HDMI. The 96 Hz figure refers to the output rate, which is designed for the proper handling of 24p content, where each frame is repeated four times. If you turn on frame interpolation, you can enjoy smoother motion in games, though you might see the occasional tear.

12. Video Processing and 3D Crosstalk

This part of our benchmark suite is unique to our HDTV reviews, so I’ll explain the results as I go. We use a series of pass/fail tests to determine a display's ability to process different kinds of video signals. Most of the time, you want your source components handling this because they're more capable. If you own an Oppo Blu-ray player, for instance, it exceeds the capabilities of pretty much any display. Set your player to output 1080p video, and the display does no video processing whatsoever. An example of the reverse would be a cable or satellite receiver, which is usually poor for scaling and deinterlacing.

The first tests consist of a group of video clips from the Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark Blu-ray Edition, available to anyone for about thirty bucks online. Here’s a quick rundown of what's covered:

2:2 pulldown: This is the cadence most commonly found in content shot on video cameras (at concerts and sporting events, for example). The original image is interlaced, two fields per frame, and the display must integrate them into a single progressive frame.

3:2 pulldown: The cadence most often used to convert 24p film to 60i video, its order is two fields of the first frame and then three fields of the next, in alternating sequence. If the display doesn’t integrate the extra field properly, there is a very obvious artifact that shows in our test clip and results in a failure.

Accepts 24p: Film content on Blu-ray is encoded at 24 frames per second, and all current players can output the signal at that rate. Most displays can accept this signal and process it to a refresh rate that’s a multiple of 24 by using repeated frames.

  • 2:2 pulldown: Pass
  • 3:2 pulldown: Pass
  • Accepts 24p: Pass

Very few displays of any type or price pass the 2:2 test. Samsung's F8500 is a very capable de-interlacer, though. Where would you find interlaced content? It’s most common in high-def broadcasts, which are usually 1080i. A notable exception is Fox, which sends its signal out at 720p. For film-based content on Blu-ray, the set processes 24p correctly without user intervention. Each frame is shown four times to match the native 96 Hz refresh rate.

The second group of tests covers an HDTV’s ability to show signals below black and above white. Unlike PC signals, which range from 0 to 255, a video signal truncates that to 16-235. The areas above and below those values are considered head and toe room, and are not used in correctly-encoded content. It is desirable, however, for a display to at least be able to show the levels between 0-34 and 236-255. It makes calibration easier, and occasionally content does stray outside the limits.

The Chroma Burst pattern shows a series of single-pixel lines, in color, to determine if a display actually achieves its maximum native resolution. Most HDTVs return different results for RGB signals than for component (YPbPr) video. 4:2:2 is the minimum bit depth output from a source; 4:4:4 is more common. Some players can output RGB, which usually eliminates a conversion step in the display. Our test shows which signal mode provides the best resolution performance.


Above White
Below Black
Chroma Burst
4:2:2
Pass
PassPass
4:4:4
PassPassPass
RGB
PassPassPass

Many HDTVs only show their full resolution when fed an RGB signal. The F8500, however, performs equally well with both RGB and YPbPr signals. Since most Blu-ray players only output YPbPr, this display has a distinct advantage. The passing results on the above-white and below-black patterns mean that it maintains the proper black level threshold for both types of signals.

13. Samsung PN51F8500: We Still Love Plasma

Although I’ve only reviewed a handful of HDTVs for Tom’s Hardware, I’ve spent many years testing, calibrating, and comparing hundreds of displays of every conceivable type. For pure image quality, nothing surpasses plasma in my opinion. I am aware of what OLED screens promise as they begin permeating the marketplace, and I'm anxiously awaiting the opportunity to test one. But for now, plasma rules my living room.

Samsung is one of only two manufacturers still making them, and the company didn't cut a single corner with its PN51F8500. An $1800 price tag represents a terrific value not only for its impeccable performance, but for the best smart TV interface we’ve seen. With so many ways to bring in content, SmartHub 2.0 represents a compelling reason to cut the cord.

Now that so many shows and movies are available online and through our own home servers, there are fewer and fewer reasons to keep paying those astronomical cable or satellite broadcast bills. Samsung’s latest effort is a truly polished and full-featured product that makes finding content in the cloud as easy as pulling up your local provider’s channel guide. And a complete connectivity package makes it a breeze to link up with any source, either in your A/V rack or on the other side of the globe. Thanks to built-in Wi-Fi and WiDi support, you don’t even need wires to access a vast array of digital media.

Performance-wise, the F8500 will be hard to beat. We put it up against the iconic Pioneer Kuro Elite TV and it came close enough in every metric to make the comparison pretty much even. Color, grayscale, and gamma accuracy are reference-quality. It even boasts almost double the light output of other plasmas. Add to that an excellent 3D implementation, and the sub-$2000 price appears quite reasonable.

The choice between LCD and plasma technology is a fairly simple one. If you subscribe to our opinions on what constitutes great image quality, plasma is the clear choice. All that remains is to assess your room conditions. If you like to watch television in either total darkness or in low light, plasma remains your best bet. If you have a bright sunny window or a lot of light coming in from another room, you should probably go with LCD.

The final consideration has to be resolution. It seems unlikely that anyone will develop an Ultra HD plasma TV. While there is no rush to buy into 4K, it will become the standard eventually, just as FHD did. Moving forward, then, our best hope is OLED technology. It offers the contrast performance of plasma and the low power consumption of LCD/LED.It currently commands a mighty premium, though. As a result, if my Pioneer were to die today, I would happily stick Samsung's F8500 in its place.

For its polished feature set, high-end performance, and excellent value, we’re giving the Samsung PN51F8500 plasma HDTV the Tom’s Hardware Smart Buy award.