Bottom Line

The PN59D8000 is definitely one of the best TVs going, with a big screen, attractive design, and all the latest features. If you choose not to calibrate it, the picture is fairly accurate out of the box. But this Samsung is absolutely worth calibrating, given its potential to be one of the most accurate televisions on the market. When calibrated, it has a picture that’s almost . . . well, you know.

Test Bench

Color temperature (Movie mode/Warm2 color temperature preset before/after)

20-IRE: 6,245K/6,527 K

30-IRE: 6,197 K/6,458 K

40-IRE: 6,213 K/6,569 K

50-IRE: 6,295 K/6,506 K

60-IRE: 6,319 K/6,525 K

70-IRE: 6,338 K/6,518 K

80-IRE: 6,457 K/6,499 K

90-IRE: 6,391 K/6,486 K

100-IRE: 6,453K/6,502 K

Primary Color Point Accuracy vs. SMPTE HD Standard

The Samsung PN59D8000’s Movie picture mode and Warm2 color temperature settings were the most accurate, though its picture looked slightly warm on darker images with those selected. A 10-step color temperature adjustment allows for precise tuning of the grayscale. After calibration, the D8000 averaged only 10 kelvins off the D6500 standard.

Primary color points were slightly oversaturated out of the box but measured exactly to the SMPTE HD standard after calibration. You can also dial in secondary colors (cyan, yellow, and magenta) to their exact points.

With its Cell Light control set to 20, the PN59D8000 produces 13.19 footlamberts on a full-screen 100-IRE white pattern. With a full-screen 0-IRE black pattern, the level was 0.007 ftL, for a contrast ratio of 1,884:1. With Cell Light set to 0, full-screen light output was reduced to 6.948 ftL, but the black level remained the same, for a contrast ratio of 993:1.

All plasmas limit their full-screen light output, so a more real-world contrast ratio is measured with a 100-IRE window that fills 25% of the screen. On this, the PN59D8000 produced 34.14 ftL with Cell Light set to 20. The black level stays the same, resulting in a contrast ratio of 4,877:1. For more on this, check out the blog bit.ly/tech2blog.

There was no overscan and no edge enhancement with the TV’s sharpness control set to 0.