Samsung LN55B650 55" 120Hz LCD HDTV: A Layman's Review

Picture Quality: Gaming

All subjective testing was done with the settings mentioned on the calibration page in addition to a Sony Playstation 3 being used as the primary gaming platform. In this example, the screen captures you see are from the Killzone 2 and LittleBigPlanet. Both games are rendered at 720P resolution.

Please remember that no digital camera (Digital SLR or otherwise) is capable of accurately reproducing an image from a HDTV as the human eye would see it. As such, the pictures below are for illustration purposes only.


Even though many gamers balk at the thought of using a relatively “slow” large-sized LCD panel for gaming, I was actually stunned when I first started to play Killzone 2 on this set. There was none of the usual ghosting or motion blur associated with fast-paced shooters and the LN55B650’s wide contrast range had me finding my way through the darker areas of this game without any issues. Lesser sets always seemed to muddy the dark passageways on Helghan to the point where I found myself guessing where the exit was.


If anything, Killzone 2 is an atmospheric game that relies on its environmental effects to impart a certain feeling upon the player. When calibrated to the best of my (and DVE’s) somewhat limited skills the LN55B650 was actually able to make the atmosphere draw me in just a bit more to get a true feeling of the game.


Looking around the internet, it seems like some people are experiencing a fair bit of input lag (a miniscule delay between when a command on the controller is made and when it appears on the screen). Many people forget that using the wireless controllers from a PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii will impart a measure of input lag upon gaming. Granted, with a wired controller there was still some lag but not enough to seriously affect your performance in a fast-paced game. Unfortunately, there are some issues when it comes to Gaming Mode but those will be discussed later.


Before being calibrated, the LN52B650 tended to have a bit of color bleeding in high contrast areas such as with the glowing orbs in the picture above. In side-scrolling games like LittleBigPlanet there was also some telltale ghosting when a light-colored character was moving against a dark screen but this was taken care of for the most part by adjusting the custom AMP settings. Unfortunately, even this didn’t eliminate it completely and just made it less noticeable.