4K TV Reviews

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio: 3,600:1

Pre- and post-calibration measurements were made with the LC-75N8000U’s Theater preset active. Contrast measurements were made with the Theater preset selected and Local Dimming turned on. With this setup, the Sharp’s black level measured 0.011 foot-lambert and peak white 39.6 ft-L, for a contrast ratio of 3,600:1. Highest peak brightness was delivered by the default settings in the Vivid mode: 145 ft-L.

With an HDR test disc supplied by Samsung, light output in the calibrated Theater mode was 291 nits on a 10% window, 309.4 nits on a 25% window, and 310 nits on 50% and 100% windows. Light output in Vivid mode was 496 nits on a 100% window. With a 0-nit black pattern, light output was 0.039 nit.

Before calibration, the Sharp’s Warm color temperature preset in Theater mode with Rec. 709 SDR test patterns delivered a relatively accurate gray- scale, with the Delta E averaging out to 2.6. Calibration improved performance to 1.7, with a high of 2.0 at 20% brightness. (Delta E is a figure of merit that indicates how closely a display adheres to the Rec. 709 HD color standard. Experts generally agree that levels below 3 are visibly indistinguishable from perfect color tracking.)

The Delta E of the Sharp’s color points in the Theater mode’s default settings averaged out to 2.6. Calibration using the set’s color management system adjustments reduced that to 1.4. Measurements confirmed that the Sharp was capable of 88.1% coverage of the P3 (Digital Cinema) color space.

Gamma in the Theater mode averaged 2.1 and displayed mostly linear track- ing, with a boost in the region from 80 to 90 IRE. Post-calibration, gamma improved slightly to a 2.2 average, with a high of 1.9 at 90 IRE.

The Sharp performed well on our suite of video processing tests, only tripping up on an HD 2:2 pulldown pattern.—AG