Touch of Red, Touch of Black

I have always questioned the dichromatic pallet of nearly all consumer electronics. When I voice this question, I am always told that consumers only want black or silver products. Personally, I don't get it. But I'm also certainly not one to ask about style. So when Samsung previewed their "Touch of Color" idea, seemed like a perfect compromise.

Touch of Color is exactly what the design of this LCD has; a just barely noticeable tint of red along the edge of the bezel. I think it looks classy and stylish, though keep in mind I still have t-shirts I wore in high school. If there is a little light behind the TV, it really pops. On Samsung's website the color is really accentuated. In real life it is a lot more subtle, and that's why it works.

Ok, so it looks good off, but that's hardly the reason to buy a TV. Upon power up (and power down), the LN-46A750 makes a little noise like other Samsung TVs. Unlike older Samsung models, though, this audible confirmation doesn't sound like a 1983 Casio. While I fail to see the need for the TV to make extraneous noises, at least now it sounds like a classy TV instead of a toy.

The remote has also gotten an upgrade. It has a swoopy, slick design that is fully backlit. The most useful addition is an iPod-esque scroll wheel that speeds up navigation, and in dialing in settings. It works so well, that other TV manufacturers should copy it.

The upgrades continue into the menus, which move much faster than previous generations. There are many, many settings to play around with. Out of the box the color points are pretty close to where they should be. Within the user menu, however, is an easy-to-use menu that lets you dial them in even closer. Easy, that is, as long as you have the right tools to measure the points. Color temperature is along the same lines, very close out of the box. If you're so inclined, you/your ISF calibrator can really dial this TV in.

A shiny screen?
What is readily apparent, and worth discussing, is the screen itself. Unlike most LCD screens, this one is glossy—not unlike most plasma screens. So somewhat ironically, one of LCDs main legs up over plasmas (the lack of reflections), is not here. If there are windows behind where you're sitting, and you're at the right angle, you're going to see the windows (somewhat) in the screen. While this may seem, at first, to be a major flaw, for some people this is actually a good thing.

It's true that most LCDs don't have reflections. In many brightly lit rooms, this is great. What most LCDs also don't have is a decent black level. The light hitting the screen has to go somewhere (sorry, no magic). So it is diffused across the entire screen, raising the apparent black level. While you're watching in a brightly lit room, this probably isn't that noticeable.

What the LN-46A750's screen does instead is reflect some of that light back out. So if there is a lamp on behind the other end of the sofa, you may see it. But if there is just more ambient light in the room, the black level will actually appear lower.

And it works. With room lights on, the black level seems extremely dark, darker than you'd expect from an LCD. So as long as your setup doesn't put light sources behind you (or ones you can't shut off), then this set will give you a better daytime black level than most other LCDs.

At night, though, is a different story. Even with the backlight set at the lowest setting (which creates a pretty dim image), the black level isn't anything exciting. About on par with most LCDs, which is to say worse than the better plasmas. With the HD DVD of Batman Begins (yeah, I'll get the BD when it comes out), the black level wasn't objectionable, and I found I could dial in a backlight setting that was bright enough to be pleasing, without having gray blacks. Turn the backlight up further, though, and you can tan yourself on the cheap.

The contrast ratio is good, similar, and perhaps a little better than most LCDs, though certainly not as good as Samsung's own local dimming LED LCD or the better plasmas. Again, in a brightly lit room, though, it seems much higher.

120 for you, 120 for me
The other major feature of this set is the newest buzzword in the LCD world: 120Hz. The screen is refreshed twice as often as "normal" LCDs. This is done to combat motion blur. In order to refresh the screen twice as often, you need to have more frames to show. There are multiple ways to do this. You can simply duplicate the frames in the original source (doubling 60Hz material, quintupling 24 fps material), or you can "interpolate" new frames to go in-between the originals.

Auto Motion Plus 120Hz lets you choose which one, and to what extent you want this happening. According to Samsung, when this is in the "Off" mode, no interpolation is being done. If you give it 24fps content (say off a Blu-ray), then it will do a 5:5 pulldown, removing the jutter inherent in the 3:2 pulldown most TVs have to do. Stepping up to "Low" starts the processors humming, creating new frames where none existed before. Some people like the smooth look that this creates. Personally, it makes me queasy (not an exaggeration). So the best I can say is that if you like the look of interpolated frame 120Hz, then this one does it really well. I don’t, but I do love 5:5, and this TV does that as well.

While 120 Hz won't completely get rid of motion blur, it does go a long way towards minimizing it. I'm particularly annoyed by motion blur, and I didn't find it distracting on the LN-46A750.

For nitty gritty, the color decoder is very accurate. The TV scales well with both synthetic content (HQV Benchmark's rotating bar) and actual movie content from DVD. Video processing is also good with the flag test off HQV, and 3:2 pickup is quick. The LN-46A750 de-interlaces 1080i correctly over HDMI and component, and picks up the 3:2 sequence with 1080i over HDMI but not component. There was a slight artifact with this test even over HDMI, but nothing was noticeable with actual content. It is able to reproduce a 1-pixel on/1-pixel off pattern.

While watching both HD and SD content, my notes are filled with comments like "great detail" and "excellent, accurate color." The latter has been one of my favorite trends from Samsung products over the past few years. I'm a big fan of accurate color, and with many companies trying to out-do each other with oversaturated colors, I'm glad to see Samsung bucking this trend. The detail with 1080p content is to be expected, but to do a great job with DVD content as well is commendable. SD content also had very little noise, which is rare when you have a scaler that pulls that much detail.

Off-axis performance is pretty typical of LCD. The black level comes up, the color saturation goes down. In this regard it is no better or worse than other LCDs. If you have a really wide viewing area, LCDs aren't for you.

Built into this and other 6 and 7-series LCDs and plasmas is the ability to receive RSS feeds from The USA Today. Called InfoLink, you can get weather, stocks, sports, and news on your TV. Also included is Gallery Player, that will let you buy professional images and artwork to display on your TV.

Conclusion
While this wouldn't be my first choice for nighttime movie watching, it is very high on my list for a TV to watch in a bright room or for primarily daytime viewing. As long as you take some precautions so you're not looking at reflections, this TV will give you a better looking image even in brightly lit rooms than most other TVs on the market. Even with the caveat from a few lines ago, the adjustable backlight allows for decent performance at night as well. Add to that the excellent detail, color accuracy, processing acumen, and high levels of tweak-ability, and you have an all around excellent TV.

Samsung LN-46A750 LCD HDTV

PRICE: $3299
CONTACT: Samsung.com