Samsung Q7F/Q7 QLED 2017 Calibration Settings

These are the settings we used to calibrate the Samsung 55" QN55Q7F TV, and we expect our settings to be valid for the 65" version (QN65Q7F) and 75" version (QN75Q7F). These are suitable for any content, from watching movies to TV shows and gaming. For Gaming, some minor adjustments need to be done, and they are listed below.

For movies and TV content, we selected the 'Movie' 'Picture Mode', since it is the picture mode that gave us the closest result to our calibration goal and it should bring the image quality the closest to what the content creator intended it be.

To have a luminosity closest to our calibration target of 100 cd/m² we set the 'Backlight' to 7. Note that you can change 'Backlight' to match your room lighting and it won't affect the picture quality. We left the 'Brightness' to 50 and the  'Contrast' to 95, their default values. We set the 'Sharpness' to 0 to avoid any oversharpening. We left untouched the 'Tint (G/R) to its default value of 'G50 and R50'.

We left unticked the 'Digital Clean View', but if you are watching some older low-resolution content, you may want to set it on to make the content smoother and less digitalised. For the calibration, we left the 'Auto Motion Plus Settings' Off, but if you like the Soap Opera Effect, 'Auto Motion Plus Settings' is the setting that is related to the motion interpolation (to know more about the motion interpolation feature of the Q7F, you can go here). We set the 'Local Dimming' to 'Low' for the calibration (usually, we turn it off for the calibration, but that was impossible for this TV). The local dimming feature is not that great on this edge-lit TV, so we recommend the 'Low' settings for normal content. 'Contrast Enhancer' was left turned off since we don't want to add any extra image processing so we could see movies or any other content as it was intended. 

We selected the 'Warm2' 'Color Tone' since it was the closest to our calibration goal, but you can change it to a cooler 'Color Tone' if you find the color too yellow or red. We adjusted the 'BT.1886' gamma to +1, to reach our desired goal of a 2.2 gamma. It is important to note here, that the 'Gamma' will change itself to match the content that is playing on the TV. For standard SDR content, the 'BT.1886' is the one that is selected, and you can't change it. 'RGB Only Mode' is left untouched, since we don't need this function. 'Color Space Setting' was set to 'Custom', since we needed to calibrate the color space, but you should leave it to 'Auto' if you don't intend to calibrate the color space.

For watching HDR content via an HDMI input it is important to set the 'HDMI UHD Color' on for each HDMI input that will receive the HDR content. This will allow the HDMI port to transmit the bandwidth necessary for HDR. If the 'HDMI UHD Color' is not turned on, some devices might not see the Q7F as being HDR compatible. For HDR content, it is also preferable to set the 'Backlight' to max, set 'Local Dimming' to 'High' and set the 'Color Space Settings' to 'Auto' or 'Native', since HDR does not use the same color space as SDR content.

For playing games via a video game console or PC you can keep the general settings previously mentioned and you need to turn on 'Game Mode' from the 'External Device Manager' to have the lowest possible input lag. If you are playing on a PC then set the input icon to 'PC' to support chroma subsampling.

For HDR gaming whether you are using the XBOX One S, the PS4 Pro or a PC, apply the same HDMI settings mentioned in the HDR settings and game settings above.

Update: While the TV is in game mode, if it detects HDR content, it will change to the right gamma settings, change to the right color space (when it is set to 'Auto'), but the 'Backlight' and 'Local dimming' won't change. To have the best HDR experience, just change the 'Backlight' to max and the 'Local Dimming' to 'High. This is a bug in the TV operating system, similar to what is happening with the 2016 KS8000.