Katarzyna Petru
New users of Samsung TVs might have noticed an interesting option available in the menu. This is the smart calibration that can be done independently using a smartphone from Samsung or Apple. Does this mean that now anyone can calibrate their receiver? We have already checked this out, and shortly you will learn about the results of our tests.
What is calibration?
Surely some of our readers have knowledge about calibration, however, in this article we will remind you what it actually is and what effects it brings.
Calibrating a television is the process of adjusting the matrix parameters using specialist equipment to achieve the highest quality picture and to replicate what the director saw in the studio during the film or television production. And which director exactly? Every one of them. This is due to international standards that studio displays are set to. This allows work to be consistent regardless of the film set, country, or continent. It is obvious that each director may have a different vision and their own style of showcasing imagery, but thanks to calibration in our home we can achieve what the film crew intended to convey. Why can’t we achieve this right after pulling our new acquisition out of the box?
Immediately after purchasing a television and turning it on, we are presented with many picture mode options, which can significantly distort colours. Why does this happen? It is caused by regulations from the European Union that mandate lower power consumption, as well as deliberate actions by the manufacturer. But how is it deliberate? Yes, the television in the shop window is designed to attract customers, so it often dazzles us with its brightness and colour saturation, in order to stand out among other models.
The second issue is that regardless of the amount spent on the television, the factory settings are superficial, because the larger portion of the market does not actually expect a natural, cinematic image.
Now that we know what calibration is, let’s get to testing!
Equipment used for testing
We performed intelligent calibration on the QN85B, S90C, and QN92C televisions in collaboration with the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S24 Ultra, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro.
The results of this calibration were measured with the best available measurement equipment worth over 100,000 PLN, which you can see below.
Quick overview of the results
Moving on to a brief overview of our results, unfortunately, auto calibration significantly worsened the image quality compared to the factory Filmmaker mode, which aims to replicate the director's colour rendition.
Of course, the results after smart calibration are better than those settings in the default factory mode, which is standard. However, here we can wonder what the point of this calibration is, since a few clicks on the remote are enough to switch to another image mode and achieve a better picture.
The calibration result is also linked to the chosen TV model, as well as the phone we're using. We tested 6 different combinations and none of them yielded a sensible result. As a result, we recommend not using this feature. However, if someone among you has done so before, we suggest restoring the default picture settings and returning to the Filmmaker mode.
Minor slip-up by the producer
At the very beginning, an unpleasant surprise was the lack of ability to perform calibration using the iPhone 15 Pro and Galaxy S24 Ultra. We were unable to trigger this function in the SmartThings app. When contacting technical support, the response in brief was that the issue with the app is known and they are working on a solution. In our opinion, support for these phones has not yet been added because the app worked immediately on their predecessor flagships. It's unfortunate that on certain phones we won't be able to use calibration at all, even though we have devices of the same brand. Oh well, we need to be patient.
Basic and Professional Mode
However, if our smartphone works correctly, during calibration we have the option to choose between basic and professional mode.
This first one lasts several seconds, the second a few minutes. Most televisions have access to basic functions, and this also applies to QD-OLED models. Why has this been so stripped down in flagship models? As the classic saying goes, I don't know, though I can guess.
In our opinion, the camera in the phone might struggle with very deep blacks on OLED screen televisions. The basic calibration option is limited to adjusting only three sliders in the menu, which are responsible for the base white balance. This aims to restore natural shades of the image without any color dominance. These settings are loaded in Film mode, which proudly bears the tagline "after calibration".
As people specialising in this field, we do not believe that such a basic adjustment should be labelled with such a name.
We will now discuss the results on individual televisions.
S90C - Before Calibration
In this model, we primarily see a huge spike in gamma in the lower dynamic range on the graph, which causes us to lose a lot of detail in the blacks.
In the next image, the gamut is oversaturated in the red area, causing the colours to be reproduced incorrectly.
On the white balance chart, there is a slight yellowing with an error of δ=3, but this is the least of this screen's problems.
S90C - After calibration
Did basic calibration with a smartphone help with these issues? No.
As seen in the pictures, the white balance error increased to 5 when using the iPhone, and when using the Galaxy S23 it reached almost 12! This second value causes a significant greenness in the image, which greatly deviates from true white.
QN85B
In this case, the factory film mode and filmmaker generates even greater colour errors.
Calibration with an iPhone intensified this effect, while the Galaxy S23 handled it somewhat better.
The white isn't as yellowed as in Filmmaker mode, but its characteristics are more pink due to a lower green component.
QN92C
This model, like others from the Neo QLED MiniLed family, allows for extended calibration. Before starting, we can choose which parameters we want to calibrate the television to. It’s not an intuitive process for the average user, as the application uses technical terms, such as BT 1886 relating to gamma, or allows for manual selection of the size of the test pattern. The default parameters for calibrating SDR content seem quite reasonable, so we moved on.
In terms of basic calibration, in this case the process clearly took longer, and upon its completion, the application presented us with the results.
Bar graphs of white balance and gamut are difficult to interpret due to a lack of knowledge about their scaling. However, based on the data from the DeltaE and Gamma graphs, it suggests that the program achieved excellent results. For the user, this is great news; I managed to calibrate the television myself! But what does the actual measurement look like with our professional equipment after this process?
As can be seen in the graphics, the white balance is completely off, regardless of the smartphone used, but in the case of the device from Apple, it's significantly worse in the blacks. In this respect, the program has introduced extreme parameter values, which also increases posterization, meaning the tonal transitions are cut off from each other.
Unfortunately, the phones didn't handle the colour palette very well, but they did get quite similar results!
They magnified the imperfections to a DeltaE error of 13, where in the SmartThings report, it was a value of 1-2. That's really a huge difference.
The measurements of the tested unit before calibration turned out to be quite remarkable. The QN92C already performed very well in Filmmaker mode right out of the box, the white balance was almost perfect, there was a slight deviation in gamma, and the colours needed adjustment due to slight oversaturation.
However, let’s not get carried away with this information. Each TV set is different; this results, among other things, from differences in the production date, which is why duplicating calibration settings from another unit simply doesn’t make sense.
In this case, we see how smart calibration not only didn’t improve the picture quality, but actually drastically lowered it. A user opting to carry out such calibration could rightly conclude that calibration only ruins the picture, given that this is how it is supposed to look in the end.
Why are the results disappointing?
After our tests, you might be asking yourself: Where do all the discrepancies between phones and individual televisions come from?
Regardless of the capabilities provided to us in the SmartThings app, calibration requires considerable knowledge of graph analysis and selecting the optimal way to carry out this process. Algorithms are unfortunately not everything. As you may have noticed, the app had to make many compromises or it did not work correctly, which is a feature of automated calibrations.
S90C after professional calibration
See below how the charts look after we conducted professional calibration on the S90C.
As can be seen, the issues with black detail have been resolved, and the colour reproduction has been balanced.
Characteristics of Cameras
The second reason for the failure of this solution is the imperfections of the cameras.
We conducted a small experiment to show you something.
On both TVs, we set the white balance to 6500K, which is confirmed by the measurement from the spectrometer. See below how this white balance was represented by the camera in the phone.
On one model, we see too much greenness, and on the other, a transition to pink.
This happens because creating the right colour filters for cameras that perfectly replicate our human eye is very difficult.
Even when we carry out professional calibration, we also use a spectrometer, despite using the Klein K-10A colourimeter worth more than 30,000 PLN, which works similarly to a camera.
Summary
Based on our tests, we can state that the smart calibration feature has nothing to do with calibration. In every variant of our test, after performing such a process, the picture looked worse, which matched the graphs after measuring the displays.
Better results were achieved by enabling the factory Filmmaker mode, without the need for additional modifications. In a home environment, we can still adjust the brightness and motion smoothing to our preferences.
Of course, the effects of such calibration will differ depending on the specific model of TV or phone, so by testing this feature, we may manage to achieve a better image than the one in the default mode.
However, let’s remember that regardless of whether the final result turns out good or bad, the value on the graph may still not reflect reality.
However, if we truly care about the authentic effect of calibration, that is, the image as seen by the director, professional equipment and knowledge of this process are required.
