Samsung PN50B430

Color Temperature (9.82)

Color temperature is the overall color cast of the blacks and whites. Ideally, you want every shade on the greyscale curve to be 6500K. Typically color temperature can wander around a bit, either acquiring a bluish or reddish hue.

In the graph below, any fluctuations within the faintly shaded area are outside the limit of human perception. As you can see, the PN50B430 managed to stay within this area. We didn't see any problems with the color temperature vacillating too far towards either extreme. 

Color Temperature

RGB Curves (6.81)

The PN50B430 was solidly above average on our color representation tests, but they still had some issues. The reds', greens', and blues' performance results are graphed below. Although the lines had a good curve to them overall, they didn't progress very consistently. This means, as the colors' intensity is instructed to increase, the colors actually shift to a darker shade before progressing. In terms of actual viewing, this might lead to the loss of some minor details.

RGB Curves

In the below table, we compare how a few TVs handle reds. All of them drop off to black before they should. Many of them peak out a bit earlier than they should. Some of them have a slight 'staircase' effect, because the color doesn't shift smoothly from red to black. For the most part, the PN50B430 did about the same as these other televisions. It might have slightly more issues with an even transition than the other TVs.

Red Response Comparisons
Ideal Response
Samsung PN50B430
Panasonic TC-P42X1
Samsung PN50A760
Vizio SV471XVT

The PN50B430 had a similar performance with green. Some of the other TVs had a slightly wider spectrum from green to black, and some had a smoother progression.

Green Response Comparisons
Ideal Response
Samsung PN50B430
Panasonic TC-P42X1
Samsung PN50A760
Vizio SV471XVT

The PN50B430 looks like it had a smoother transition here, but the individual errors are slightly more noticeable. Again, however, the blues drop out before they should.

Green Response Comparisons
Ideal Response
Samsung PN50B430
Panasonic TC-P42X1
Samsung PN50A760
Vizio SV471XVT

Color Gamut (4.20)

The color gamut describes the spectrum of colors the TV can display. A TV's color gamut is supposed to adhere to an industry standard, called Rec. 709. If the TV's gamut is off from this standard, it means it'll be displaying different colors than it should. Most of the time these differences will be minor, but it can lead to over-saturation or give color cast to certain colors.

The PN50B430 is slightly off across the board. Greens and reds are too saturated, and blue is slighly shifted towards red. Although none of the differences are staggering, they do exist. Given the TV's odd performance in the above section, however, we were surprised it stayed as close to Rec. 709 as it did. 

Color Gamut

Below is a chart detailing our color gamut mesurements.

Compare the Samsung PN50B430 to other HDTVs
Panasonic TC-P42X1 42 inches	Samsung PN50A760 50 inches	Vizio SV471XVT 47 inches