Customer Reviews: Read 130 more reviews...
 Excellent TV for a good price May 1, 2008
Steven V. Viscido (North Carolina)
280 out of 282 found this review helpful
Pros: Outstanding, crisp HD picture; excllent color contrast; solid response time
Cons: Slight pixelation with poor quality SD signal
"After doing a huge amount of research, I finally settled on this set. I was actually interested in the slightly lower-priced Toshiba Regza, but every store in my area was out. While shopping around, I noticed that this Samsung in particular seemed to have a top-notch picture. Finally I decided to take the plunge 3 days ago, and I have not been disappointed at all. In the past I have had several issues with LCD TVs, which is why I had been hesitating up to now. I know these issues are on many people's minds, and so I will address each one:
.
Motion Response
-----
First, and most important, is response time with fast motion. I am driven absolutely nuts if the TV can't "hold" the motion (that is, if the image smears, or fractures, when high speed elements are zooming across the screen). The element you are looking for in an LCD monitor that tells you about this is "response time", and you want something 8ms or below. I believe this TV is 6ms (the specs say this on Sammy's website, but several stores have it listed as 8ms). In any case, this TV "holds" the motion of even fast images extremely well. In the store, it held motion best of all comparably priced models, including the Sony Bravias around $1k, and the Sharps around the same price. When I got it home, I tested it out with Star Wars ep. 1 and the battle sequence from Narnia. Both looked outstanding using a regular DVD player with HDMI upconvert to 720p. You will not see ghosting issues with high def images.
.
Color and contrast
------------
Color fidelity and contrast are also important to me, and LCDs have been known to have issues producing deep blacks and bright whites. This is not a problem for this set. It produces excellent color, and did so right out of the box with the factory pre-sets. I have not had to fiddle with it at all. I did try switching to "Cinema" mode, which has some nice characteristics, but even without that, everything looked amazing.
.
Standard Def rendition
----------
Another major issue with LCDTVs and monitors is that anything not displayed at the native resolution tends to look blurred or "fractured". I was very concerned about this because I have lots of old DVDs of shows like Seinfeld and the Simpsons, which I know were never broadcast in HD. Also many TV stations have not yet made the switch (though most have). Here the TV was about as good as I have seen, though it is not perfect. The good news is that upconverted SD sources like the Seinfeld DVDs look excellent -- every bit as good as on a regular TV, if not better. The bad news is that your VHS tapes are going to look blurry and pixelated on a set like this. I don't have a lot of VHS tapes left, and so this isn't a huge deal. Regular SD sources with this set vary in quality. For example, the SD version of Animal Planet had a special on the other night that almost looked HD. At the same time, flip channels to CNN, and it looks terrible. I suspect this is the broadcast quality and NOT the set... otherwise all channels would look awful in SD. So when you get a nice SD source being broadcast, it looks fine.
.
I would highly recommend this set. After connecting my HD cable box today and watching things like CSI:Miami, Vegas, and Miss Congeniality, all in widescreen HD, I can say that I am totally blown away by this set's HD performance. I don't think you'll be able to find a better HD TV set for the price."
 So far so good March 31, 2008
F. Wassermann (CINCINNATI, OH USA)
121 out of 122 found this review helpful
Bought this model a few days ago from H&H Gregg for $807 "on sale." Not clear why they would be discounting a model that just came out this month by $92 off list price when last year's model was still selling for more than that, since the new model boasts better technical specs in several important respects.
Bought Samsung because many reviews indicated Samsung was worth the extra money in picture quality over cheaper 32" models. The picture is excellent. The documentation is good as far as it goes. However, there are a myriad of picture controls that are probably great for the afficianado, but bewildering to any neophyte. Unfortunately, the documentation doesn't give you any real insight into when you would want to deviate significantly from the default settings. You just have to keep experiementing until you find what you like. There are several "automatic" settings that supposedly make adjustments to the picture based on the input source and material, but frankly I couldn't tell whether and how this was working.
Likewise, there is a special feature that is supposed to enhance picture quality to the highest level (precisely how is a little unclear), but that feature may be toggled on or off, and is available in only the "dynamic" mode, not the "regular" or "movie" mode. Again, why this is so is not in any way explained in the manual.
Nevertheless, the picture if excellent under most conditions and probably just a little tweaking of the default settings is sufficient most of the time. I did notice a little shadowing in the action scenes from a PBS drama. There was also some weird flickering in an HD broadcast of an NHL hockey game, perhaps because the white ice is on the screen so much of the time. This did not occur in any of the other sporting events - NCAA basketball, golf, NASCAR etc - all of which looked awesome.
On this model, the speakers are hidden below the picture and the sound quality is a bit weak. But then for any sound that matters much to you, output can be sent to your external speaker system.
Set up was easy. The set looks great, so much sharper than the clunky CRT set that it replaced. Only problem was that the first effort to automatically detect local over the air HD stations failed to find a couple, which turned up on a second try. The "Favorite" channel designation feature is a nice way to focus on the few stations you may want to consistently view.
Samsung 4 Series 32" HDTV - Good value & good quality April 13, 2008
Ed Hill (Atlanta GA)
92 out of 93 found this review helpful
Good image quality watching local HDTV stations, DVD movies and video games. This 32" LCD HDTV has 3 HDMI inputs, S video, composite video in, component video in and optical audio out.
The HDTV is easy to set up, with an automated feature that finds all the HDTV channels on air or your local cable. The black levels and contrast are quite good. This screen features 720P progressive scan.
The remote and menu software are well designed, so that you don't have to go too deep into the menu to adjust settings. The prices in Atlanta area ranged from $800 at Fryes Electronics to $712 at HH Gregg. Prices online appear to range from $700 to $1000.
Since the Samsung 400 series was launched in March 2008 this is quite a range of prices. The Samsung 4 series is intended as Samsung's value line, compared to the more upmarket Samsung 5 series. However, this monitor seems to have better picture quality than some of the other 32" LCD TV's we reviewed in the $800-900 range. This price and quality makes the Samsung 4 series a good value for the dollar.
Great Picture, Poor Customer Service April 27, 2008
James A. Crosson (Fair Lawn, NJ USA)
41 out of 45 found this review helpful
The engineering and picture quality on this is amazing. Quite Frankly, however, Samsung has the worst customer service I have ever witnessed. The base of the unit was broken upon arrival. Samsung informed me that they don't cover any physical defects, even though it was boxed at the Manufacturer and the box was defective. They were rude and obnoxious to me on the phone.
The seller through Amazon replaced the TV for me, thankfully. The TV is really a great device, but if you are bothered by rude corporate beaurocracy when it comes to customer service, buy something else.
Amaze-on! June 4, 2008
Croft (Philadelphia, PA USA)
38 out of 38 found this review helpful
First of all I'd like to say that Amazon provides absolutely spectacular service.
I ordered this TV late on Thursday night and was already watching it on Monday. Amazing Amazon! The delivery company that they've used was CEVA, and I'd like to say "thank you" for the stellar and courteous service.
This TV is truly a gem. Number and variety of connections is very versatile and conveniently located. PC connection and USB port is a cherry on top. Picture is magnificent right out of the box, gorgeous deep blacks. Color accuracy is commanding, as well as video processing.
I was also pleasantly surprised by its performance on Standard Definition channels.
Remote control is feature rich and among other things has a hot key for 4 available aspect ratios.
I am very impressed with the speakers (which you can hardly see) that produce very respectable and clear sound.
Initial setup is a breeze, no need for late night TV Manual reading, just turn the TV on and follow simple screens.
TV and the tabletop mount come separately. Putting it together takes under 10 minutes, you'll need a long thin philips screwdriver and 4 provided screws. The single leg mount is very slick and easily swivels side to side.
For wall mounting - the back of the TV is a standard VESA 200x200mm, so it is compatible with a vast majority of mounts.
So far I am very impressed and would recommend both the product and the seller (Amazon) to anyone.
Thank you!
|
