The black-level performance of the 42EP14S was not impressive, and the panel introduced significant false contouring and dancing motes of video noise in dark material.
On the positive side, color decoding was quite good, especially for a budget-priced panel such as this. We were able to turn up the color control and fully saturate the image without losing accuracy in areas such as skin tones.
After calibrating the panel, we watched some scenes from Alien in the standard color temperature, and the darkness of space did appear a bit too blue. Artifacts were also distracting in these dark scenes. Chapter 12 of Seabiscuit looked good with excellent color saturation and fine detail, which tells us the 42EP14S handles bright material much better than dark scenes.
HD material from our DirecTV HD satellite feed looked mostly good, though naturally not as detailed as it would on a higher-resolution panel. A rather dark concert video of Boz Scaggs looked surprisingly good; still, some artifacts were visible.
| Before color temp (20/80) | 7,150/6,600 K | Average |
| After color temp (20/80) | 7,450/6,500 K | Poor |
| Before grayscale variation | +/- 369 K | Good |
| After grayscale variation | +/- 222 K | Average |
| Overscan | 2.5% | Good |
| Color decoder error: red | +5% | Good |
| Color decoder error: green | 0% | Good |
| DC restoration | All patterns stable | Good |
| 2:3 pull-down, 24fps | Y | Good |
| Defeatable edge enhancement | N | Poor |
What You'll Pay
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