Samsung UE32C6000

The C6000 is a TV with Edge LED that Samsung is making some bold claims about: the manufacturer boasts of excellent colours on a display that's unaffected either by electronic noise or unwanted reflections.

The manufacturer is also keen to stress the advantages of the media player: plug in an external hard drive or a USB key, and you'll be able to enjoy your own photos, videos and music.

A TV with panel problems

When we looked at how panel switching affected Samsung TVs, we found two different displays in different versions of the C6000.  The 32'' model is no exception: the one we tested had an MVA panel from CMO, but it's also possible that the one you buy will have a PVA panel from Samsung-Sony or an MVA panel made by AU Optronics.  All told, then, this TV comes with two different panel technologies from three different manufacturers.

Build Quality and Design

Whether its display is made by Samsung-Sony, AU Optronics or CMO, other aspects of the TV are the same across the whole range.  The main features include a rotating metallic stand, two USB ports, four HDMI inputs, an Ethernet port compatible with internet@TV and DLNA, a media player and a backlit remote control.

Apart from a few small details, the frame is almost the same as the one used for 2009's B6000, B7000 and B8000 ranges.  The panels, meanwhile have all been finished with an anti-glare coating, making them less susceptible to reflections, without being as attractive as a matte panel.

Image Quality

The real problem with the C6000's CMO panel is the image quality.  With Samsung, we're used to seeing a very saturated picture by default that can easily be corrected by switching to 'Cinema' mode.  By setting backlighting to 14 and gamma to +2, there's a definite improvement, but things are still far from perfect.  Some colours, including red, green, blue and magenta suffer from a very strong discrepancy.


As is often the case with Samsung, it's impossible to deactivate the dynamic backlighting.  If you're looking at scene which is mostly dark with only a few light areas, the TV reduces the brightness of the LEDs to produce a deeper black, which allows the contrast ratio to climb to 2164:1.  Fortunately, the variations are not abrupt enough to be too noticeable.  The brightness of white falls from 199 to 149 cd/m², but that can still put some people off, especially Home Cinema purists who prefer a strictly neutral display.

Upscaling an SD source works well, but a recent console will do a much better job with a film.  On the other hand, HD content looks excellent, and the only remaining problem remains the defects with the colour reproduction.  To smooth out jerkiness, it's a good idea to adjust the settings for the MotionPlus 100 Hz filter by adjusting the values for blur and judder to 10 and 3 respectively.

Ghosting and input lag

Responsiveness
Light Background	Dark Background	Average

The good news is that, although it struggles with reproducing colours, the CMO panel doesn't suffer from much ghosting.  It's at the very top of the table with an average response time of 9.5 ms.  With a white background, a trailing frame will take 9 ms to disappear, while it will last for 10 ms on a dark background.

Unfortunately, the TV's electronic circuitry adds too much input lag, putting its display four frames behind a CRT monitor, which can prove problematic for video games.

Our model had clouding

The panel we tested had a problem with unevenly distributed brightness, a phenomenon known as clouding or the Mura effect.  As you can see in the photo above, a pale halo leaks out into the parts of the screen that are supposed to remain black.  You can also see bundles of white LEDs that are still on in each of the four corners.

We should point out that this problem varies, even within a range of TVs made with the same panel, so not all C6000s will suffer from this problem.

Audio Quality

A traditional downside of thin TVs, the C6000 included, is their speakers.  Not only are they quiet, you can't hear the bass at all, although other elements of the sound are acceptable.  The speakers are good enough for everyday use, but we suggest you invest in a sound bar or a Home Cinema kit if you really want to immerse yourself in your favourite film.

Energy Consumption

The C6000's LED backlighting doesn't require much electricity.  Once we fixed brightness at 200 cd/m², our equipment indicated consumption of 70 Watts, working out at 248 W/m² based on our 35% grey test card.