Standard Bearer

Best known for his Digital Video Essentials series of test discs, video guru Joe Kane is often called upon to consult with display manufacturers looking to improve the overall video performance of their products. He also works with the Hollywood film and television industry, and is a singular driving force for better-looking HDTV pictures.

His latest collaboration with Samsung is their new SP-A800B 1080p DLP front projector (he had previously contributed to their earlier 720p DLP model a few years ago).

Previewed at the CEDIA show in Denver in September of last year, the SP-A800B was also on display at the January CES show in Las Vegas, with Joe himself doing the presentations, and the projector putting up some mighty fine images on the demo screen.

Finished in shiny black plastic, the projector’s ovoid curves give it a visual character quite different from other projectors, and the remote control features similar swoopy curves, and is backlit. The large, center-mounted lens features manual focus, zoom and vertical lens shift, and the adjustments aren’t overly sensitive, allowing me to dial in a sharp and properly aligned picture in short order, aided by the built-in test pattern.

The first order of business is calibrating the projector. As we were the first publication to receive a review sample, Joe Kane offered to come to my home to do the calibration with me and show me around the projector’s various features. Unlike other displays, the SP-A800B has a new and innovative calibration function that dispenses with the time-consuming measure, adjust and re-measure procedure that a conventional calibration entails.

Instead, the projector features seven full field test patterns, including D65 reference white, as well as the three primary and three secondary colors. Joe calls up each screen, and I measure each one with my color analyzer, writing down the results (luminance value and x-y CIE chart coordinates). Then, we go to the calibration menu and enter those seven sets of data points. At the push of a button, the set accepts the entered values, and self-adjusts to achieve the ideal color temperature target—D65, or 6,504 degrees Kelvin. The whole process takes only a few minutes, and the after-calibration result is extremely good, with a variance over the entire gray scale of only an insignificant 100 degrees Kelvin or less, tightly hugging the D65 line all the way. The SP-A800B has RGB drive and bias controls that provide additional tweaking capability, but as the accuracy of the set’s self-calibration function is so good, there’s really no need for further adjustment.

I also noted that the projector put out a brighter picture than I was expecting, given that it is rated at 1,000 lumens, while most other projectors that use 300W bulbs claim a higher brightness, usually 1,200 lumens or more. Joe pointed out that the optics in the SP-A800B are a cut above the usual for projectors in this class, and that the precision light collimation ensures maximum light output, with minimal internal loss. The premium optics also provide for much better picture uniformity, with only 15% fall-off towards the extreme edges (measureable perhaps, but not noticeable), and with test patterns and program material the picture brightness is indeed supremely uniform over the entire screen.

Joe trotted out his portable HD video server, and played a clip from the recently re-mastered black-and-white movie Casablanca in HD, and switched the color temperature of the SP-A800B to a slightly warmer 5,500 degrees Kelvin. This imparts the same gentle warmth to the movie that the older, carbon arc-type lamps used in theaters of the day provided, and the crispness of the superb transfer looked fantastic.

When I hooked up my Samsung Blu-ray player (via HDMI), Joe called up the projector’s information menu, which provides a wealth of useful data, including the type of signal (computer RGB or video YUV). Here we saw that the Blu-ray player had configured its HDMI output to the incorrect RGB color space, and via the player’s setup menu, we were able to properly reconfigure it to output the correct video color space. This ensures that the dynamic range of the signal is correctly mapped, as video color space has extra bits reserved for below-black and above-white, while RGB computer color space does not. I wish every display had the same type of information screen that this projector has.

We then ran some more HD clips, this time in color and after switching back to the D65 color temperature, and the picture was breathtaking in clarity and color accuracy. All too often, with DLP projectors that feature more than six color wheel segments, there is some editorializing that is going on that overly accentuates some colors. With the Samsung, there are only six segments in the color wheel, two sets each of red, green and blue, with no additional segments for over-modulation of certain colors. The color wheel spins at an amazing speed, refreshing the screen 22,000 times per second, banishing rainbow effects, with no visible flicker.

The SP-A800B features a 1:1 pixel mode (i.e. no overscan) and a check with single pixel black/white test patterns showed no color fringing or ringing, with each pixel clearly delineated (of course, to see this I have to be much closer to the screen). An overscan mode is offered, which provides a slight picture enlargement—this to eliminate the top-of-screen flicker that results with SD segments inserted into an HD program (like the evening news, for example). This visible artifact is annoying to some, but I prefer (as does Joe) to keep the projector in 1:1 mode, since that eliminates the loss of fine detail that inevitably accompanies overscanning.

I checked the projector’s deinterlacing capability with test DVDs, and found it was a mediocre performer, perhaps the only failing of the SP-A800B. I also tested it using Blu-ray 1080i test patterns, and here too it only provided an average score. Still, with numerous regular program (not test patterns) DVDs and Blu-ray discs I tried, I couldn’t discern any noticeable deinterlacing-related artifacts.

My only other disappointment with the SP-A800B is that there is no provision for vertical picture stretch (also called Mode 1 scaling). This feature, present on many other projectors, including models that cost far less than the Samsung, allows the use of 2.40:1 very wide screens with an external anamorphic lens, such as the Panamorph. I expressed my concerns to Joe, pointing out that this is becoming a must-have feature and he said he’d look into it. Whether or not the feature can be added as a future firmware upgrade remains to be seen.

With that one reservation aside, the SP-A800B moves to the top ranks of single chip DLP 1080p projectors, with a bright, vivid and colorful picture that never fails to impress. The projector runs very quietly even in the bright lamp mode, and on the lower lamp setting is still plenty bright on my 78” Stewart GrayHawk RS screen – using the lower lamp mode significantly extends the life of the projector’s bulb.

The information screen provides details about the signal type and configuration of the source components that allows optimum matching, and the projector features three different color space options—one for high definition video, another for SMPTE-C future sources, and a third for the European EBU standard (helpful I suppose for overseas customers). Even before it was offered for consumer sales, the SP-A800B was snapped up in droves by the Hollywood film and video television studios, who use it as their reference big screen display in telecine suites and screening rooms. Highly recommended (except for those who wish to go the 2.40:1 very wide screen route, unless Samsung provides a future upgrade that includes the vertical stretch feature).

DESCRIPTION
Single chip 1080p DLP front projector; requires separate screen.

DISPLAY CAPABILITIES
Widescreen 1080p DLP imaging panel operates in 4:3 and 16:9 modes. Accepts 720-line and 1080-line progressive HDTV, 1080-line interlaced HDTV, 480-line progressive and 480-line interlaced signals, plus RGB computer video up to 1920 by 1200.

RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080 pixels

CONNECTIONS
Two component video inputs, one S-video input, one composite video input, two HDMI digital video inputs, one RGB computer video input; RS-232 serial port

DIMENSIONS
7.8 x 17 x 18.4 inches (hwd)

PRICE/CONTACT
PRICE: $9,995
CONTACT:800.726.7864 Samsung.com