 UNBELIEVABLE VALUE!!! |
| Review Date: November 23, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Snaby, Glen Allen, Virginia |
| Picked this up in a "pre"-black friday sale. I returned a Samsung Plasma and exchanged it for this LCD LN40B500. I originally bought a Samsung plasma because the salesman sold me on the "better contrast, blacks, and refresh rates of plasmas." Yeah whatever, got it home and absolutely hated the picture quality compared to my previous 720P Samsung LCD. When I saw this TV in a pre-black friday ad for $597 decided to give it a try. Boy am I glad I did. The picture is absolutely amazing. I have watched many types of programs on it so far; movies, cartoons, sports, standard def, high def 1080i, upconverting DVD. All have been more than satisfying and select 1080i channels on FIOS have been absolutely breathtaking visually. Even though this is a 60 HZ model, I'm noticing no motion blur even in sporting events (this can be quite annoying in some "budget" LCD models) No worries, this set can easily handle quick pans and motion without even a hiccup, at least to my untrained eyes. (120 HZ models definitely look different, but to my eyes, different in a bad kind of artificial appearing way). The audio is more than adequate for a reasonably sized room, with a little tweaking of the audio settings I have been watching TV without even firing up the Home Theater Receiver quite often. The picture quality is absolutely stellar, I do recommend getting into the Picture Adjustment Menu though and adjusting the "cell lighting" to setting 5 or 6, as this is more than enough to light the screen, and substantially improves the image and contrast. At this price point, they have cut back on the inputs (2 HDMI) and no inputs on the side, but that wasn't a deal breaker for me, I ran my FIOS through HDMI 1, DVD HDMI 2, and Wii through Component. Hopefully Christmas will bring a BluRay player to see what the 1080P will do on this set. I can't imagine the picture looking any better than it already does. The cost to value ratio on this set is out of the ballpark. (Paid twice this much for a 32 inch 720P Samsung 3 years ago). As long as your cool with the limitted number of inputs and a 40 inch screen size, I wouldn't pass up this deal! |
Great value
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| Review Date: November 30, 2009 |
| Reviewer: David I. Leavitt, Washington, DC |
| If you need more than two HDMI inputs, this is not the TV for you. However, it's a fantastic TV for the price. I got mine on black Friday and have barely turned it off ever since I got home. |
this is what a value TV should be, and comparison with Sony 46W5150
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| Review Date: December 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: omega6, San Francisco, CA USA |
In the last three months of this year (2009) I did hours worth of research deciding on which 2 LCD TV's to buy: a 46" for myself that I planned to do all kinds of crazy things with including hooking up my computer via DVI->HDMI, using a roof-mounted antenna for the over-the-air tuner, using with a HTPC, etc; and a 40" for my mom and dad that would simply offer great picture quality.
For myself, I bought the Sony 120hz 46W5150 Bravia Engine 3 1,000,000:1 contrast; and for mom and dad, this TV, ths Samsung 40b500.
The result is that this TV (Samsung) is perfect for mom and dad, and in truth probably would have satisfied me too.
Both are exceptionally vibrant and clear. My Sony TV offers a few shades deeper (almost perfectly pure) black level, but this Samsung is almost there with deep/rich blacks. If you are downgrading from a 120hz TV to the Samsung, you will notice the lack, but if you've only ever had a CRT or 60hz LCD I do not personally believe 120hz justifies a lot more money, but this is personal preference. Speakers are comparable. My Sony offers 8+ inputs including 4 HDMI, this Samsung only has 2 HDMI and 1 component/composite shared.
I could go on an on making technical comparisons, but I think the most helpful info I can share is that, having lived with and loved my Sony W-Series for a few months (a mid to top of the line unit), this Samsung offers 80-90% of the black level, contrast, and beautifully sharp image at about 50% of the price.
The low number of inputs is not an issue if you are aware of it beforehand. I hooked my parents cable box up to the component, their DVD player to the HDMI 1, and the Roku HD player to HDMI 2. If they get a blu-ray player, it will replace the DVD player on HDMI 1. |
I Got What I Paid For- & It's Perfect
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| Review Date: November 30, 2009 |
| Reviewer: W. Gillaspie, Atlanta, Georgia |
I'm always amazed at the different responses that people have, and I always read the reviews before I invest in a new item. Sometimes I wonder if we're talking about the same thing. This Samsung is wonderful - but you should understand that it's the first HDTV for me and I didn't bring a lot of expectations to it. Times are tough. I'm retired, and I drive a ten year old car with 150,000 miles on the speedometer - not a Hummer. So you can see where I'm coming from.
I bought this Samsung at a Walmart on Black Saturday at the doorbuster price of $[...]. When I got it home and out of the box it was easy to set up. The picture is *wow*. I don't have HD hooked up but honestly the picture is amazing and I don't think I need HD channels. You might think that too - the picture is that good. Almost spooky real.
As far as the sound, it's good enough for a mid-sized room; although I know for people who need a theater experience this is not the set for you. It is what it is, please read the specs before you buy.
I hooked up my Roku box, the Netflix player with the HDMI cable and I'm set for movies. It's a lot of bang for the buck. Today that says a lot.
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Samsung is Fantastic
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| Review Date: January 3, 2010 |
| Reviewer: T. Shows, West Virginia |
I wanted a HDTV during black Friday, so I got out the ads on Thursday and began looking. I looked over many of the televisions, but I always seem to fall for Samsung or Vizio when it comes to LCD or LED HDTV's. This occasion was no exception. Now, some of the Sony Bravia's are beautiful too, but they tend to be a little expensive because of the name. Nonetheless, I found myself liking the $600 deal that was available at Walmart with this model, so I made the final decision this TV.
I haven't had much "first hand" experience with Plasma televisions, but of what I did experience, I liked Panasonic and Pioneer the most. However, plasmas are good for dark rooms, but there really aren't that many people (as far as I know) who have very dark living (tv) rooms and no windows. So, I tend to go with LCD. Here we go w/ specs:
FORMAT:
This model has the current 1.3b hdmi format, and so do almost all hdtvs, but there really isn't much of a difference between the a and b format (my opinion).
LIGHTING:
This TV is a CCFL display, which is understandable for the price, because LED-lit TV's tend to be more expensive. Basically, CCFL is fluorescent lighting, so you have bar-like lights behind the LCD crystals to light them up, whereas LED would have lots of little lights spread all across the back of the TV (local dimming) unless it's edge-lit (leds only on the edges of the tv to make the tv thinner). This television is plenty bright enough after I had a look at the picture.
PICTURE QUALITY:
The quality of the picture, after I adjusted it, is fantastic! I believe it's also because it's a Samsung. But, you MUST adjust it in order for it not to look pretty "run of the mill". All HDTV's are like this, and no matter how many thousands you pull out of your pocket, if you don't adjust the picture, your tv probably won't look as good as it could. The default settings always seem to make the tv too bright, and the sharpness is usually up too high. But, that's what you see when you go to the store to get one. The tvs are all set to look "bright" and "vivid" so that it sells. Now, I'm not a professional when it comes to adjusting picture quality, but I do know what I need to do to make it look good on the eyes. This tv refreshes at 60 times a sec. (60hz refresh rate), and for some, that is a good thing. If you start getting tvs at up to 180hz and 260hz, it begins to look a bit like "plastic" or "fake" to me, so 60hz is fine.
1080p....highest picture quality available right now, but you can't really experience it until the cable providers decide to make the switch from 720p to 1080p, or if you've got a blu-ray player.
ADJUSTING THE PICTURE:
I did lots of research online, but just couldn't find any forums that have had the pros set this tv yet. I finally decided that the best one to go with was the LN40B530. But, I still wasn't happy. The picture looked too dark to me. Although, I do have a living room that tends to get pretty bright when the drapes are pulled back, so I decided to do the adjusting myself. I did the settings based on 720p quality, so it may look somewhat different to you if you do it while watching something in 1080i or p. Nevertheless, you can try the settings I found and made and choose which one you like the most or tweak it to how you like. Here are the 2 sets of settings for your convenience.
MINE:
Mode: Standard
Backlight: 8
Contrast: 80
Brightness: 49
Sharpness: 50 or lower (find what
you like)
Color: 50
Tint: G51/R49
Black tone: off
Dyn Contr: Medium
Gamma: 0
Color Space: Native
White Balance: Default
Flesh Tone: 0
Edge Enhancement: On
Color Tone: Normal
Size: 16:9
Digital NR: Off
LN40B530 (set by pros)
Mode: Movie
Backlight: 4
Contrast: 100
Brightness: 37
Sharpness: 0
Color: 46
Tint: G51/R49
Black Tone: off
Dyn Contr: off
Gamma: -3
Color Space: Auto
White Balance: Default
Flesh Tone: 0
Edge Enhancement: off
Color Tone: Normal
Size: 16:9
Digital NR: off
-If you do have settings that you think are better, let me know.
CONVENIENCE:
There are buttons on the right side of the TV, which is fine, and works for me. The lettering for what each button does is not extremely easy to see, but it's not a big deal. The ports are all behind the TV, and on the right side, so it's better that it's not in the middle, but it's still somewhat inconvenient for me because I hang my TV's on the wall, and I have to feel around to find a port. However, what really frustrates me is the lack of HDMI ports. You get 2. 1st of all, you already have one taken up for cable. Then, you have a dvd player, all of your gaming consoles, and anything else you'd like to hook in. It's not just this tv I'm frustrated with, it's most tv's. Why can't they add more HDMI ports? I guess I should go out an buy a switcher. Other ports include a cable out, optical cable output for audio, a VGA port, Audio line in, and your typical composite and component connections (red, white, yellow, blue, green, etc.). Overall, the tv is pretty convenient aside from things I mentioned.
Overall, I was very happy with this choice on a tv, and I would recommend this to anyone that is on a budget and looking for a great tv. I give this TV 5 Stars. |
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