Samsung SP-H710AE Projector Review – General Performance

Samsung SP-H710AE Menus

The Samsung SP-H710AE projector’s menus are straight forward, and you will find a surprisingly limited number of options compared to many other home theater projectors. One reason for this is the concept behind the SP-H710AE, which is to deliver a nearly perfectly set up projector, out of the box. Iin-depth color controls do exist, they are available in the custom mode. I

There are four main menus. The first one, Input, allows you to select an input, and below the Source List, you can assign your own names to the inputs, such as HD-DVD player, or Cable TV…

I should note that also on the Picture menu is DNIe (dynamic natural image engine) which Samsung describes as allowing for “brighter, sharper, more dynamic pictures.” I viewed most movies with the DNIe off, but found that with it on, the overall image had a touch more punch.

The next menu, the one with most of the “goodies”, is the Picture menu. First you can select from the many preset modes, including Movie 1 and 2 (we found Movie 1 works best), Dynamic and Standard, there is also Custom, and the User memory areas.

The Custom Picture option allows control of brightness, contrast, color saturation and tint. Selecting More (options), allows further control. including selecting the color standard (SMPTE C is default, for movies, there is also an HD standard, and EBU for Canada/Europe.) You also gain manual control for setting the color temperature. and gamma.

For a good look at most menu functions, you can click here, to download the pdf manual for the SP-H710AE home theater projector! (Most of the info you would be looking for starts on page 30.)

The other major menu is the Setup menu shown here. It allows you to select positioning (front/rear projection) inverted or normal (ceiling/floor).

There is also the toggle between Theater mode and Bright. You definitely will want Bright, if you have some amount of ambient light in the room.

Samsung is nice enough to provide 8 test patterns, including a full color bar standard screen, and also two whites – one for doing adjustments, and one set for a 6500K white.

Lastly, you can do a reset of the projector back to factory defaults, and there is an Information menu, showing many of the projector’s source info and settings.