Mini-Review: Samsung 40KU6400 as a monitor

Captain Chaos said:
Well, pulled the trigger on a 6400 and set up as per this thread.

Two days in and two days with a headache after a few hours use. Think this will have to become a bedroom TV.
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There was a comment a few pages back about this and possibly being due to PWM. The commenter suggested a different TV that doesn’t have this and it seems to be better suited as a monitor replacement.
 
Might go for the new alienware monitor
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Which one?

Have been following this thread with interest for quite a while (Stealthly!) but I'm worried about the headache thingy now, so have been looking at the Sony KD43XE7073 mentioned on the page before that has no PWM...
 
I've had the 40MU6400 for just over a week now and have paired it with my old AMD 7970 using a Club3D CAC-2170 Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Active Adaptor. It has worked perfectly and I've been playing Elex at 3860x1800 (a custom resolution I made) with some graphical settings reduced.

I'm using an Ergotron LX wall mount with vesa 200x200 to 100x100 adapter as it's within the 11kg limit. The TV took a fair bit of tweaking to disable all the settings that mess up the contrast but I'm really impressed with using this as a monitor and viewing dslr photos.

Do these (40KU6400 & 40MU6400) support PIP - Picture in Picture? It's not shown on my menus but it lists it in the manual but says not all regions have this setting. I'm yet to update my firmware which seems quite old.

Captain Chaos said:
Well, pulled the trigger on a 6400 and set up as per this thread.

Two days in and two days with a headache after a few hours use. Think this will have to become a bedroom TV.
Click to expand...

What back light, brightness contrast etc settings have you been using? I wonder if using a high back light setting alleviates any potential PWM issues? I think my back light is on 15 which is the setting it came with. I had ensure my monitor was low enough to not get eye strain as I find looking up (with just my eyes) gives me eye strain whereas if I look fairly level or down I'm fine and I've had no real issues. I actually have a kneeling setup - I sit on a meditation stool and have my keyboard and mouse on a coffee table which allows me to be further from the TV. Saves having a big chair in the room and I sit enough at work.

markoboyo11 said:
Is anyone managing to run custom resolutions with this tv at 60fps?

Anytime I set one up it runs at 30fps.

Would like to run lower resolutions sometimes with 1:1 pixel mapping and black borders.
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I have an AMD card so it's been a bit different for me. I had not much luck with CRU but the Catalyst custom resolution tool worked better for me. The problem I have is the resolution is not centered. It goes to the top left so I've had to put up with having a black border only at the bottom if I use the whole 3860 width. In Elex I only get a 30hz option for 2560x1440 for some reason but if I run fullscreen windowed (or something to that effect) it seems to ignore the 30hz setting and run at my desktop refresh rate with no problems.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I purchased a wall mount for my tv to keep it at eye level to avoid undue eye strain.

And set the colour / brightness originally as recommended within this thread.

I have just upped the backlight to 18, brightness is at 0, contrast 99, sharpness 50 colour tone warm 1 mt.1886 -1

Within Nvidia control panel the res is set to 3840 x 2160 native / refresh 60hz

Using Nvidia colour settings, 32bit, 8bpc, RGB and dynamic range set to ful.
 
The contrast might need to go down a little so the whites don't lose their detail. I went to about 87 after using some AMD calibration wizard - But after this I found there was yet another dynamic contrast setting somewhere and disabled that so I may need to revisit.
You'll want to put the sharpness to 0 for your PC so the image isn't fiddled with, at 50 I noticed that text had ghosting in certain colour combos which didn't help with reading. I'll check my settings later tonight and post them.
 
Mr Ripper said:
The contrast might need to go down a little so the whites don't lose their detail. I went to about 87 after using some AMD calibration wizard - But after this I found there was yet another dynamic contrast setting somewhere and disabled that so I may need to revisit.
You'll want to put the sharpness to 0 for your PC so the image isn't fiddled with, at 50 I noticed that text had ghosting in certain colour combos which didn't help with reading. I'll check my settings later tonight and post them.
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That would be appreciated matey.
 
I only had the chance to have a quick look before bed and noticed my sharpness was set to 50 again, so when changing it to 0 it went blurry. I then looked through the menus and game mode was greyed out but the response time was fine. I think this might be to do with setting HDMI 1 up as PC rather than just unknown within the menus - 50 sharpness in this setup looks perfect, whereas before when I had game mode available 0 sharpness looked best. I'll do some more tinkering in the next days and list my settings properly. The settings I remember are:-
Contrast was definitely best around 89-90 otherwise the light colours, especially whites weren't discernible (too many near whites turned to pure white). I have 15 back light, 0 brightness. Also using the warm 1 colour tone and any dynamic contrast settings etc and either off / set to normal.

I remember back when using CRTs I got headaches from 60hz, usually 75hz was OK but 85+ was fine. I remember using some college PCs and used to get really bad headaches and even my eyes got sore - I then found out that the refresh rates were below 60, I think it was 56hz. I'm fine with this TV though but everyone is different of course.

Has anyone done any of the firmware updates? Did they change anything of note? Also can anyone get Picture in Picture on these TVs?
 
Captain Chaos said:
I purchased a wall mount for my tv to keep it at eye level to avoid undue eye strain.

And set the colour / brightness originally as recommended within this thread.

I have just upped the backlight to 18, brightness is at 0, contrast 99, sharpness 50 colour tone warm 1 mt.1886 -1

Within Nvidia control panel the res is set to 3840 x 2160 native / refresh 60hz

Using Nvidia colour settings, 32bit, 8bpc, RGB and dynamic range set to ful.
Click to expand...

Going to try shorter HDMi tonight with DP adaptor, I can't get full range :( No HDR too.
 
willhub said:
DP adaptor, I can't get full range :( No HDR too.
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No DP adapter available can pass HDR & Full Range right now due to bandwidth limitations of the tiny little microchips inside the DP adapter. Plug a HDMI 2.0 or higher cable into the GPU will allow HDR & Full Range.
 
Even HDMi it doesn't work, the cable is rated for full range 444 etc.. But apparently 10m is too long despite that? My monitor seems to and that's via DP. RGB, 10Bit full range, ycbcr422 and 444 both limited though.
 
Hello, how are you?
I just registered after reading this whole thread from start to finish.
I am currently looking for a monitor.
The purpose is desk use for mainly gaming.
I play single player story driven games.
First person shooter games with mouse and keyboard.
Third person, sports games, and such with controller.
I don’t play multiplayer.
So I am thinking about a 4k tv for the added image quality and immersion.
Also, I would like to try ultrawide gaming, but since there are still games that have issues with huds, cutscenes. So with a 4k tv i could use a custom resolution to play ultrawide with the games that support it good and in 4k for other games.
So best of both worlds I am thinking.
I saw here in Portugal a Samsung UE40MU6120.
I know it is not a top model, but since I want desk usage I am looking at 40 inches in size.
Also, the price is sweet at 330 euros.
That seems like a steal for a 40 inch 4k display.

Anyone has feedback on this model?
Is it worth it and a good choice?
For my usage case, is it good?
Or would spend more for a 144hz with variable refresh rate give better gaming experience despite beeing only 27 in size?

Thanks for your help.
Best regards
 
Gdourado said:
Hello, how are you?
I just registered after reading this whole thread from start to finish.
I am currently looking for a monitor.
The purpose is desk use for mainly gaming.
I play single player story driven games.
First person shooter games with mouse and keyboard.
Third person, sports games, and such with controller.
I don’t play multiplayer.
So I am thinking about a 4k tv for the added image quality and immersion.
Also, I would like to try ultrawide gaming, but since there are still games that have issues with huds, cutscenes. So with a 4k tv i could use a custom resolution to play ultrawide with the games that support it good and in 4k for other games.
So best of both worlds I am thinking.
I saw here in Portugal a Samsung UE40MU6120.
I know it is not a top model, but since I want desk usage I am looking at 40 inches in size.
Also, the price is sweet at 330 euros.
That seems like a steal for a 40 inch 4k display.

Anyone has feedback on this model?
Is it worth it and a good choice?
For my usage case, is it good?
Or would spend more for a 144hz with variable refresh rate give better gaming experience despite beeing only 27 in size?

Thanks for your help.
Best regards
Click to expand...

Welcome Gdourado, from everything ive read i think its amazing value for a tv AND monitor, only problem i can see is some people mentioning that they get headaches/eye strain due to its PWM backlight control rather than DC controlled which causes flickering. Some people are sensitive to it which is making me hesitate in buying it. As for the 6120, there was a post earlier that said its identical to the 6400 except is has slightly worse colour and contrast but not something you would notice unless needing amazing accurate colour balance.

Personally i wouldnt spend a stupid amount of money on a pc monitor unless i NEEDED 120hz+, i would be happy with 60hz at twice the size and half the price with a tv :)
 
I'm still tweaking mine. Definitely getting better and causing me less issues with regards to headaches.

It seems I am sensitive to PWM so have had to increase the back light which has helped it seems.

They are definitely a nice TV and if you don't suffer the PWM sensitivity well worth it.

Settings at the moment

Back light 20
Brightness 0
Contrast 89
Sharpness 50
Colour Tone Warm 1
Gamma BT.1886 -1
HDMI black level Normal
HDMI UHD Color selected

Firmware 1201
 
Grandmaster Fap! said:
Welcome Gdourado, from everything ive read i think its amazing value for a tv AND monitor, only problem i can see is some people mentioning that they get headaches/eye strain due to its PWM backlight control rather than DC controlled which causes flickering. Some people are sensitive to it which is making me hesitate in buying it. As for the 6120, there was a post earlier that said its identical to the 6400 except is has slightly worse colour and contrast but not something you would notice unless needing amazing accurate colour balance.

Personally i wouldnt spend a stupid amount of money on a pc monitor unless i NEEDED 120hz+, i would be happy with 60hz at twice the size and half the price with a tv :)
Click to expand...

Thank you for the welcome.
I don't know if I am sensitive to the PWM issue, I guess I will have to try it out.
From what I can tell, the 6120 is an 8 Bit panel while the 6400 seems to be 8 bit + frc, so that's is probably why it has better colors.
But for the price, I am really tempted...

High refresh rates can be nice, but for single player games that it is what I like, such as Rise of the Tomb raider, Shadow of War, Assassins creed, Prey, witcher 3, I think a large 40 inch screen with high resolution image might be more immersive and enjoyable than a 144hz screen at only 27 inches.
Those games I mentioned rely on the beauty of the screneries and set pieces, so i think a large screen should be great.

Cheers!
 
Gdourado said:
Thank you for the welcome.
I don't know if I am sensitive to the PWM issue, I guess I will have to try it out.
From what I can tell, the 6120 is an 8 Bit panel while the 6400 seems to be 8 bit + frc, so that's is probably why it has better colors.
But for the price, I am really tempted...

High refresh rates can be nice, but for single player games that it is what I like, such as Rise of the Tomb raider, Shadow of War, Assassins creed, Prey, witcher 3, I think a large 40 inch screen with high resolution image might be more immersive and enjoyable than a 144hz screen at only 27 inches.
Those games I mentioned rely on the beauty of the screneries and set pieces, so i think a large screen should be great.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Thats pretty much how i see gaming for me, i like the immersion in games with full detail if i can get 60fps/hz+. What gfx card do you have?
 
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