Projector Reviews Images

Samsung SP-A600 Projector - Image Quality3

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Art Feierman
SP-A600
PLV-Z3000
HD8200
PT-AE3000U

SP-A600 - Overall Color & Picture Quality

Bottom Line for Overall Picture Quality and Color Handling: Very good, and particularly good considering the low price of this Samsung projector. That said, it's black level performance could use some definite improvement. I still feel that superior black levels are key to a superior picture. You might not appreciate the difference on typical daytime or indoor scenes, on those dark scenes, be they night time, or outer space, or an unlit room, better black levels make a crucial improvement! The lack of those more impressive black levels leave the SP-A600's performance strictly in the 1080p entry level category. Of course that's where its priced.

The other issue is gamma. Default for Movie 1 gamma is Film which should measure 2.2, but comes in at a very high 2.56, which makes the mid-brightness areas too dark. Switching to the Video gamma helps, but goes too far the other way: 2.04. Still I suspect most folks will, for most movies, prefer the Video setting, although it means images will likely appear a little less dynamic looking.

I want to briefly mention Movie 2 mode. Seems like its intended for viewing black and white movies, for which, I believe the optimum grayscale temperature is 5800K. Movie 2, however, is well below that, at just over 5000K. If you want to get Movie 2 to be ideal for those black and white movies, calibrating it a bit will definitely allow you to up the color temp.

If you are a first projector buyer, keep in mind my reviews are pretty critical, most folks seeing this projector in action will be very impressed. Thing is, many people quickly go from first time buyer to enthusiast, and that's when these criticisms are helpful, as those people demand more perfection.

We'll finish our look at comparative images of entry level 1080p projectors with the crew image from Space Cowboys. First is the Samsung, then the Epson Home Cinema 6100, followed by the Sharp XV-Z15000:

SP-A600
Epson_6100
XV-Z15000

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