Samsung LE40M86DB Optimum Settings

Vixen

Vixen

Vixen

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Can anyone recommend settings for watching Sky on this tv? I have tried a couple that I found on the AVforums, but the colours look very washed out with them. We've also got a 360 connected via VGA and once the cable arrives, we'll have a PS3 over HDMI, so any recommended settings for those would be very helpful too.

Thanks :).
 
Change Standard picture mode
Contrast 75-90
Sharpness is WAY too high at 50, display some text, also pay attention to fine detail, and switch to a low bitrate channel. You'll notice that at a high sharpness will cause macro blocking, making it look horrible. At 0 it looks the best. I setup my M86 this week (freeview software update) For DVD around 20-30
Colour 45
Colour temp normal
DNIE off
Black adjust off
Dynamic contrast off
Movie plus off
HDMI black level normal
Colour space auto
XYCC off

You'll need to do ^ for each input, freeview and aerial tuners (individual settings per input)
 
Vixen said:
Can anyone recommend settings for watching Sky on this tv? I have tried a couple that I found on the AVforums, but the colours look very washed out with them. We've also got a 360 connected via VGA and once the cable arrives, we'll have a PS3 over HDMI, so any recommended settings for those would be very helpful too.

Thanks :).
Click to expand...

Slightly off topic but would you recommend this TV?? I'm thinking of getting this one following a bit of research - my main use will be SD Sky, DVD's and connecting my PC to it to watch HD movies from my hard drive!

Thanks...

StevieP
 
This TV has the following problems

Pink blotching
Freeview judder
Backlight hum
Optical audio drop-outs when using freeview
Backlight clouding
 
badbob said:
This TV has the following problems

Pink blotching
Freeview judder
Backlight hum
Optical audio drop-outs when using freeview
Backlight clouding
Click to expand...

Check the forums at "avforums".
The majority of those issues have been fixed with the latest firmware upgrade.
 
ha ha ha..wrong. Firmare cannot fix backlight him, or clouding. Pink blotching is (most likely) colour decoder. Optical drop-out was fixed, but brought back freeview judder.
 
StevieP said:
Slightly off topic but would you recommend this TV?? I'm thinking of getting this one following a bit of research - my main use will be SD Sky, DVD's and connecting my PC to it to watch HD movies from my hard drive!

Thanks...

StevieP
Click to expand...

We literally only got it on Sunday morning, so I've not used it a lot yet and my boyfriend did all the research before buying it. I haven't noticed any of the problems badbob has mentioned though, although we obviously don't use freeview since we've got Sky. We decided to go for this one over the Sony W series because it was down to £750 delivered.

I've tried the settings suggested in the second post, but they made the picture appear very blurry. I guess it's going to take a bit of trial and error, and figuring out exactly what the more advanced settings do.
 
but they made the picture appear very blurry
Click to expand...

Are you sure it's not natural detail? Look at hair detail, if it stocks blocking and see jaggies then sharpness is too high. Most people presume sharpness high=more detail, but that's not so. It just makes it look blocky and pixelly, when there's no detail there.
 
I got mine delivered today for £756 inc. And haven't noticed any problems at all. I have Sky+ on Scart RGB, PS3 on HDMI 1, HTPC on HDMI 2 and 360 Elite on HDMI 3. The picture quality on everything accept for Sky+ is out of this world, I honestly can't believe the quality of this TV, It's also one of the best looking TV's available. For £750 you can't go wrong :)

I too have spent the day trying various settings (AVForums) and i have everything accept for sky set up perfectly. Sky looks good but i know it can look better so i'll keep searching for settings until i can afford Sky HD.

One peice of advice, make sure you get a V1.3 HDMI lead for the PS3 and do not use the 360 elite HDMI cable with the PS3 or you will get a sparkling effect. I thought the TV was faulty as the first thing i tried on it was the PS3 with the 360 HDMI cable!
 
use these settings tbh

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/2007/04/22/samsung-le40m86bd-settings/

these were obtained from using a professional colour calibration tool that probably costs as much as the TV. these are the settings for the best colour reproduction, producing the most accurate colours

not necessarily your favourite though. so have a play, but use the above as a starting point. most people on AVforums have variations on the above :)
 
MrLOL said:
use these settings tbh

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/2007/04/22/samsung-le40m86bd-settings/

these were obtained from using a professional colour calibration tool that probably costs as much as the TV. these are the settings for the best colour reproduction, producing the most accurate colours

not necessarily your favourite though. so have a play, but use the above as a starting point. most people on AVforums have variations on the above :)
Click to expand...


Just to point out, those are HDMI Settings not Scart RGB. I tried those settings earlier today on my 360 and tbh the colours looked pretty dull so i changed to dynamic and it was much better. I found some of the FM's at AVForums settings better.
 
its not just HDMI

the colours do look dull because of them being the most "accurate" colour reproduction

not the best looking. Ive got the F86 (shares the same panel) and i also find that turning on dynamic colours helps a lot.

like i said, use the above as a base and tinker :)
 
Tried those settings, whites seem a mucky yellow though, prefer on warm 1. On Fargo the snow isn't white, it's a light beige. Here's a couple of snapshots with colour temp normal and warm 2. First one are my own settings, in standard.

IMGP0055.jpg

IMGP0054.jpg


Also at backlight at 1 you'll probably need to have a blacked out room.
 
Last edited:
MrLOL said:
use these settings tbh

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/2007/04/22/samsung-le40m86bd-settings/

these were obtained from using a professional colour calibration tool that probably costs as much as the TV. these are the settings for the best colour reproduction, producing the most accurate colours

not necessarily your favourite though. so have a play, but use the above as a starting point. most people on AVforums have variations on the above :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'd forgotten about those and was just going to get hdmi settings from the normal av forums.

badbob - It doesn't look like there's extra detail, it just looks like it's fuzzy and not properly defined if the sharpness is down low. We're going to try and adapt the hdmi settings for the Sky box and other consoles though I think.
 
the F86 is definately one of the best LCDs around at the moment. At their price point, theres nothing better.

I think the sonys are better quality sets, but cost much much more

the Panasonic 1080p plasmas are comming down in price. But i suggest you make your own mind up on the LCD vs Plasma debate

www.hdtvtest.co.uk is a very good independant review site. have a look on there :)
 
If the F86 is the 100hz, seems people aren't using it. Oh yeah about HDTV settings, Samsung are now using different panels so if they calibrated a 10bit panel it would be different to the (now) cheaper 8 bit panels fitted in M86/87 range.
 
thats a bit cheap, they're still avertising the M86 as having 10 bit colour range on the website.

mind you, this is the company that mix's and matches chei mei / au optronics / samsung panels in its cheaper models and sells them all on as the same set, despite them being different panel types with differing contrast ratios etc.. so its not supprising.
 
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