Katarzyna Petru
New users of Samsung TVs may have already noticed an interesting option available in the menu. This is intelligent calibration, which can be done independently with the help of a smartphone from Samsung or Apple. Does this mean that now anyone can calibrate their receiver? We have already checked this, and you will soon find out the results of our tests.
What is calibration?
Surely some of our readers have knowledge about calibration; however, on the occasion of this article, we will remind you what it actually is and what effects it brings.
Calibration of a television is the process of adjusting the matrix parameters using specialist equipment to achieve the highest quality of image and to reproduce what the director saw in the studio during film or television production. And which director exactly? Every director. This is due to international standards to which studio displays are set. As a result, regardless of the film set, country, or continent, one can work in the same way. It is obvious that each director may have a different vision and their own style of presenting the image, but thanks to calibration in our home, we can achieve what the film crew wanted to convey. Why are we unable to achieve this right after taking our new acquisition out of the box?
Immediately after purchasing the television and turning it on, we have many image mode options to choose from, which can heavily distort colours. Why does this happen? This is due to regulations from the European Union that enforce lower energy consumption, as well as the deliberate action of the manufacturer. But how is this deliberate? Yes, the television in the shop window is designed to attract customers, so it often dazzles us with its brightness and colour saturation, making it 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 majority of the market does not expect a natural, cinematic image.
Now that we know what calibration is, let's get to the 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 using the best available measurement equipment, with a total value of over 100,000 PLN, which you can see below.
Quick overview of the results
Moving on to a brief discussion of our results, unfortunately, the 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 intelligent calibration are better than those settings in the default factory mode, that is, the standard one. However, this raises the question of what is the point of this calibration when a few clicks of the remote control are enough to switch to another picture mode and achieve a better image.
The result of the calibration is also linked to the selected television model, as well as the phone we are using. We tested as many as 6 different combinations and none of them produced a sensible result. Therefore, we recommend not using this function. However, if any of you have done this before, we suggest restoring the default picture settings and returning to Filmmaker mode.
Small producer blunder
Right from the start, an unpleasant surprise was the lack of the ability to perform calibration using the iPhone 15 Pro and Galaxy S24 Ultra. We were unable to activate this function in the SmartThings app. Upon contacting customer support, the brief response 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, as the app worked immediately on their predecessor flagships. It's a pity that on some phones we will not be able to utilise calibration at all, even though we possess devices of the same brand. Well, we must arm ourselves with patience.
Basic and Professional Mode
However, if our smartphone is functioning correctly, during calibration we have the option of selecting the basic mode and the professional mode.
This first one lasts several dozen 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 pared down in flagship models? As the classic saying goes, I don't know, though I have my suspicions.
In our opinion, the camera in the phone might struggle with very deep blacks in televisions with an OLED panel. The basic calibration option is limited to adjusting just three sliders in the menu, which are responsible for the basic white balance. The aim is to restore natural shades of the image without any colour dominance. These settings are uploaded in Film mode, which proudly bears the label "after calibration".
As specialists in this field, we do not believe that such basic adjustment should be branded with such a name.
We will now discuss the results on individual televisions.
S90C - Before calibration
In this model, we primarily see a huge peak 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.
In the white balance chart, a slight yellowness can be seen with an error of δ=3, but this is the least of this screen's problems.
S90C - After calibration
Did the 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 rose to nearly 12! This second value causes a significant green tint to the image, which is vastly different from true white.
QN85B
In this case, the factory film mode and filmmaker generates even greater colour errors.
Calibration with the iPhone intensified this effect; the Galaxy S23 handled it slightly better.
The white is not as yellowed as in Filmmaker mode, but its characteristic is more pink due to the lesser green component.
QN92C
This model, like others in the Neo QLED MiniLed family, allows for extended calibration. Before starting, we can select which parameters we want to calibrate the television to. This is not an intuitive process for the home user, as the application uses technical names such as BT 1886 regarding gamma, or allows for manual selection of the size of the test pattern. The default parameters for calibrating SDR content seem quite sensible, so we proceeded further.
In terms of basic calibration, in this case the process took noticeably longer, and upon its completion the application presented us with the results.
Bar charts 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 chart, 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 is significantly worse in the black areas. In this respect, the program introduced extreme values for the parameters, which also increases posterisation, meaning the separation of tonal transitions from one another.
Unfortunately, the phones did not cope with the colour palette, but they did it very similarly!
They deepened the imperfections to a DeltaE error value of 13, whereas in the SmartThings report it was a value of 1-2. That is 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 straight out of the factory, the white balance was nearly perfect, there was a slight deviation in gamma, and the colours needed correction due to slight oversaturation.
However, let us not get too carried away by this information. Each television set is different, which stems from the difference in production dates, and therefore copying the calibration settings from another unit simply does not make sense.
In this case, we see how intelligent calibration not only failed to improve picture quality but rather drastically lowered it. A user opting for such calibration could justifiably conclude that calibration only ruins the picture if it is meant to look like that in the end.
Why are the results disappointing?
After our tests, you may ask yourselves: Where do so many discrepancies come from between phones and individual televisions?
Regardless of the capabilities granted to us in the SmartThings app, calibration requires considerable knowledge regarding graph analysis and selecting the optimal method for carrying out this process. Unfortunately, algorithms are not everything. As you have probably noticed, the app had to make many compromises or did not function correctly, which is characteristic of automated calibrations.
S90C after professional calibration
See below how the charts look after we have carried out professional calibration on the S90C.
As can be clearly seen, the issues with black detail have been addressed, and 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 televisions, we set the white balance to 6500K, which is confirmed by measurements from a spectrometer. See below how this white balance was represented by the camera in the phone.
On one model, we notice excessive greenness, while on the other, a transition to pink.
This occurs because creating appropriate colour filters for cameras that perfectly replicate our human eye is very difficult.
Even when we carry out professional calibration, we additionally use a spectrometer, despite using the Klein K-10A colourimeter worth over 30,000 PLN, which functions similarly to a camera.
Summary
Based on our tests, we can state that the intelligent calibration feature has nothing to do with calibration. In every variant of our test, after performing such a process, the image looked worse, which correlated with the graphs after measuring the displays.
Better results were achieved by activating the factory Filmmaker mode, without the need for additional modifications. In home conditions, we can further modify the brightness and motion smoothing to our liking.
Of course, the effects of such calibration will vary depending on the specific TV or phone model, so by testing this feature, we may manage to achieve a better image than that in the default mode.
However, let's remember that regardless of whether the final result turns out well or poorly, the value on the graph may still not reflect reality.
If, however, we care about the true effect of calibration, that is, an image as the director intended, professional equipment and knowledge of the process are required.
