Samsung LN32A450 LCD HDTV Review - Performance: Motion

The Samsung LN32A450 did not impress us with its handling of motion, with obvious problems in smoothness and apparent artifacts in our testing. The Samsung LN32A450 is capable of handling content produced to look like film, but we did notice some issues with 3:2 pulldown content.

Motion Smoothness (5.5)
We were not particularly impressed by the Samsung LN32A450's handling of motion, not surprising given that the HDTV sits near the bottom of Samsung's lineup and lacks advanced features like 120Hz refresh that help with motion. As it is we saw a lot of blurring and loss of detail in our motion tests and significant problems with interlace effects when dealing with a 1080i signal.

Motion Artifacting (5.75)
In addition to problems with smoothness in our motion tests we also noted some problems with artifacts. In particular we noted significant jagged artifacts in high contrast test screens, both at the native resolution and with 1080i content. Combined with the unimpressive smoothness we mention above this makes the Samsung LN32A450 a less than impressive HDTV for watching high-speed, action content.

3:2 Pulldown & 24fps (6.0)
3:2 pulldown is produced to provide a film-like effect. To see how well the Samsung LN32A450 handles this type of content we ran both a 3:2 signal and a 24fps signal through the HDTV and took a close look at some test patterns. What we found is that there were some significant problems with 3:2 pulldown in areas of high contrast and patterns. In particular we noticed obvious jittering. 24fps content is also produced to create a film-like effect since film is shot at 24 frames per second. Not all HDTVs are capable of playing back 24fps content, but we were pleased to see that the Samsung LN32A450 was able to do so.