Samsung The Frame 2018 Calibration Settings

These are the settings we used to calibrate the Samsung 55" The Frame (UN55LS03N), and we generally expect them to be valid for the 43" (UN43LS03N) and 65" (UN65LS03N) as well. These settings apply for most content, but there are some settings that need to be changed for HDR content or for gaming, and these are listed below.

The first thing we did was to turn off all of the Eco Solution settings since we didn't want the backlight level to change during our calibration. This is recommended if you don't want the brightness of the TV to change automatically depending on the room brightness.

For movies and TV content, the 'Movie' Picture Mode gave us the closest result to our calibration goal and it should bring the image quality closest to what the content creator intended.

A Backlight setting of '19' gave us a luminosity closest to our calibration target of 100 cd/m², but most people will find this way too dim. Changing the backlight setting has no impact on picture quality and you should adjust this depending on the brightness of your room. We left the Brightness to '0' and the  Contrast to '45'. We left the Sharpness to '0' to avoid any over sharpening. We left Color to '25' and the Tint (G/R) to its default value of 'G0 / R0'.

We turned off Digital Clean View, but if you are watching some older low-resolution content, you may want to enable it to make the content smoother and with fewer compression artifacts, although this can cause the loss of some fine details.

It is recommended to leave HDR+ Mode 'Off', as we want the content to be the closest possible to the content creator's intent. HDR+ Mode is Samsung's name for their HDR interpolation feature to simulate HDR with SDR content, and is not to be confused with HDR10+.

The Auto Motion Plus Settings is the menu that controls the motion interpolation and the way the TV deals with judder. If it is turned off, the TV won't be able to remove judder from any sources (Blu-ray players, native app or cable boxes). To get the best judder-free movie experience you need to set the Auto Motion Plus setting to 'Custom', set the Blur Reduction to '0', set Judder Reduction to '0' and leave LED Clear Motion unchecked. This won't add any soap opera effect.

LED Clear Motion is the name for the 2018 Frame's Black Frame Insertion feature. It can be enabled as long as Auto Motion Plus is set to 'Custom'. This does not introduce any soap opera effect.

The Auto Motion Plus Settings also control the Frame 2018's motion interpolation. Since it has a 120 Hz panel, it can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 120 Hz. To do so, set Auto Motion Plus to 'Custom' and increase the Judder Reduction and Blur Reduction sliders. The Judder Reduction slider affects 30 fps or lower content, and Blur Reduction slider affects 60fps content. For both sliders, you can adjust the setting to your liking to add more or less soap opera effect.

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.

The Gamma setting adjustment was set to +2 since it was the closest to our calibration goal. The TV will automatically set the Gamma type automatically depending on the content. You should only adjust the gamma curve with the slider (plus or minus) if you find there is black crush or if dark scenes are not deep enough.

In the Color Space setting, it is preferable to leave it to 'Auto'. When set to auto, the color space changes to match the type of content you are watching automatically. Setting the Color Space to 'Custom' will allow calibrating the TV for SDR content. Normally we do not recommend doing this as the TV is already fairly accurate out of the box. If you set the Color Space to 'Custom' you will have to adjust the settings each time you change from SDR to HDR.

Most settings are the same in HDR. The best Picture Mode is 'Movie', and the best Color Tone is still 'Warm2'. In HDR it is recommended to set the Contrast to '50', the Backlight to '50', and Brightness to '0'.

If you find the image too dim when watching content in HDR, the only thing that significantly improved the brightness is to enable Contrast Enhancer, and set it to 'High'. Adjusting the ST.2084 Gamma was found to have almost no impact on overall brightness.

For watching HDR content via an HDMI connection, it is important to set the HDMI UHD Color 'On' for each HDMI input that will receive HDR content. This will permit the HDMI port to transmit all the bandwidth needed for HDR and tells the TV to expect a 10-bit color signal on that input. If HDMI UHD Color is not turned on, some devices will not detect the Frame 2018 as being compatible with HDR. It is recommended to only enable this when connected to an HDR device, as there may be compatibility issues with older devices if this setting is left enabled.

For HDR gaming apply the same HDMI settings mentioned in the HDR settings above, and in the gaming settings below. Note that when in game mode, the TV won't change the backlight setting and the local dimming setting automatically, so it is preferable to set the backlight to max.

To enable Game Mode, select External Device Manager from the General menu, and then select Game Mode Settings. Set Game Mode to 'On'. For SDR gaming set Sharpness to '0' to remove any sharpening. To enable chroma subsampling when playing from a PC, set the input icon to 'PC' under the Input Device Manager submenu.

When connected to a FreeSync compatible device, such as a PC with an AMD graphics card or an Xbox One X/S, FreeSync can be selected once 'Game' mode has been enabled. There are two FreeSync modes: 'Basic' and 'Ultimate'. Generally, 'Ultimate' is the best setting, but depending on the game and the device's capabilities, there may be some compatibility issues with 'Ultimate'. If you experience any issues, switching the FreeSync mode to 'Basic' may correct them.

On the 2018 Frame, Samsung has added new options for Game Mode including the ability to interpolate lower frame rate games up to 120Hz. To enable game motion interpolation select Game Motion Plus Settings. From there you can adjust the Blur Reduction and Judder Reduction sliders to whichever you prefer. The optional black frame insertion feature can be enabled by enabling LED Clear Motion from this menu. 

The Frame 2018 features an Art Store that is similar to the Ambient mode found on other 2018 Samsung TVs to display artwork when the TV is not in use. The Art Store is available as a monthly subscription, and some artwork is available to purchase individually. Your available artwork collection can be sorted by color, medium, artist, and subject. There are also curated collections that be purchased and displayed. You can also add your own photos by connecting your smart phone or with a USB drive.

There are also separate display options for the art mode. The color and brightness of the screen can be changed independently from the picture settings. The Frame can also set to turn off if there is no motion in the room, or at night time using the ambient light sensor. Note that these features work regardless of the Eco settings on the TV. You can set up your own collections and setup slideshows, similar to a picture screensaver on a PC.