Samsung TV benchmark brouhaha: Scandalous cheating, or tempest in a teapot?

Two Tv set evaluate web-sites, flatpanelshd and HDTVTest, have accused Samsung of manipulating the functionality of its TVs in get to supply better benchmark effects than they would in any other case be entitled. No a single likes cheating, but the dilemma remains: Just how a great deal does it issue in this circumstance?

Particularly, Samsung stands accused of boosting brightness and shade to make HDR (large dynamic vary) content material pop the vast majority of the time the Television set is in Filmmaker method, and then lessening those values again to typical for specific exams that reviewers commonly use to measure coloration and brightness. The total purpose of Filmmaker method, of class, is to present visible materials as properly and as close to the artist’s intent as the Tv is capable, so this kind of tweaking in truth is not kosher.

All that said, reviewers do not depend exclusively on benchmark quantities or exam machines to evaluate a TV’s impression high quality. We largely believe in our eyeballs and use on benchmark numbers and products readings to corroborate what we see. We want our ordeals, the details we acquire, and the conclusions we make to jive with the encounters that our viewers get when they count on our thoughts to make getting choices.

In this case, we famous the big difference in shade saturation and highlights between two of the latest OLED TVs in our Samsung S95B critique and our LG G2 Evo Gallery Version review. We favored the S95B over-all, even however the LG finished up staying the more accurate of the two. So, Samsung is generally getting accused of delivering excellent impression by way of improvement, but under situations that don’t connect with for it. Perhaps they must have simply just labeled these settings Vivid Filmmaker method and referred to as it a working day.

LG Electronics

A phrase from the defendant

At any fee, we achieved out to Samsung for comment on this problem, and this was their reply:

“Samsung Electronics does not use any algorithm for the objective of yielding precise take a look at results. When examined underneath market specifications, conclusions from our personal assessments, as nicely as by an impartial third-celebration group, exhibit that HDR articles is accurately exhibited on many window measurements, and not just at 10%.

“With Samsung’s sector-leading Quantum HDR engineering, the peak brightness also stays at equivalent ranges throughout window measurements of 10% or smaller sized, with no harming the panels. Samsung remains fully commited to supplying the most effective image high-quality to our customers, and stands by our Television set products and solutions including Neo QLED Tv to offer best-in-course viewing encounters.”

Samsung

Getting a skilled cynic, I will have to notice that Samsung employs the present–not past–tense in that statement, and that it came just after the maker rolled out a firmware update that promised to “fix the concern.” Remaining generous, I know Samsung is obsessed with brightness and depth, so I can consider situations wherever anything like this could possibly come about by accident or out of pure enthusiasm, versus an intent to deceive reviewers.

That stated, I’m not questioning the motives of either HDTVTest or flatpanelshd, both. They noticed what they saw, and I have a tricky time not arriving at similar–if not the same–conclusions.

Base line: Ought to you care?

If you are the style of purchaser who likes to dig deep into Tv technologies: calibration, extreme accuracy, creative intent and filmmaker manner, and the like, possibly you should care. In that case, seem to see if flatpanelshd and HDTVTest revise their critiques once they’ve examined the Tv soon after applying Samsung’s firmware update.

If you are a additional usual purchaser who’s just on the lookout for a excellent Television viewing knowledge, it is probably that none of this will ultimately make a difference. Until, that is, you think shopping for the S95B would reward Samsung’s perhaps undesirable behavior. And obtaining stated that, we continue to think the Samsung S95B is a great Tv.