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Samsung LE-40D503
by atomicsheep
They say you get what you pay for.....
This product certainly warrants that title.
Ive had Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba TV's in the past. Ive always bought entry level LCD TV's. I bought this one for £350 from Argos on the basis of it being a bargain for a quality brand.
Unfortunately on pulling it out of the ... box I could already see the inferior build quality compared to my much older Sony TV. This was much lighter and looked /felt cheaply made.
The TV stand was much smaller than my old one despite this being a bigger TV. It also didn't have the swivel feature that my old stand had.
It doesn't offer much in terms of connectivity either.
Just 2 HDMI ports, 1 scart socket. Amazingly no RGB or component connections and no VGA connection either! My Sony had all of these.
It's ok though i thought......The amazing picture quality should make up for it.
:¬( <--that's my sadface at the dissapointment of what was to come. The HD channels turned out ok, but standard definition channels were all sub-par.
But the worst part of it all was the sound, and heck was it bad. The sound was more tinny than that of an empty tin of beans being hit with a rusty old spoon. I changed and tried all the settings and tried manually changing the equalizer. But when the speakers are so cheap its like trying to tune a broken instrument.
I have never had anything bad to say about Samsung before and I'd like to stop the assassination of this product there. However even the remote is one of the cheapest pieces of tat i've seen as well. Bad design, tacky and dated.
I bought this brand for the price, but if you want my opinion, the Toshiba TV I have offers better quality at a better price.
At time of writing this I have just returned my product to the store and will return my custom back to Sony.
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Sony Bravia KDL 40W4500
by TheSpaceBetween2
We as a family were used to old fashioned Cathode Ray tube type televisions and indeed prior to 2 years ago we had never had one bigger than 24 Inches and had only had 2 tv's in around 14 years.
Our Old TV was going on the blink so my dad decided he would look around for a large LCD TV that was HD compatabile and in his ... researching he came across the Sony Bravia KDL 40 inch HD TV. The first thing I immediately noticed when it was unboxed was the sheer number and variety of inputs on the thing. It has no fewer than 3 HDMI input ports, a component audio/video input (the red/white ones I think, always mix this up with composite!), composite video input (Blue,Green etc), Headphone Output, audio output (for connection of a cinema system type 5.1 set up), USB PORT (For Viewing photos), Scart Input.
So Just about every thing you want to plug into this bad boy you can. The quality of the inbuilt speakers are pretty fine but depending the program they will either be to quiet at max volume (for some tastes) or distort a little if its a HD feed your watching. Their are various viewing modes such as " Cinema", "Sport" which are listed as "Scene". You can change it from 1048p to 740i (i stands for interleaved). You can have 4:3 aspect ratio or 16:9 (Determines the shape of the picture you see on TV). It works well with my computer and have used that to watch streams of sports channels on before!
It has in built digital channels on it which is great for those who lack sky and just want to open it up and begin viewing programs. A sky box was fitted by a sky engineer however in our case. The picture quality of the HD channels is quite noticeably sharper than the standard channels and the audio quality is probably even more improved on HD than the picture quality.
One negative is that the inbuilt speakers could be a little better but for those that way inclined they can always purchase additional cabinet speakers to use with the television as the TV has audio out.
I have used the USB input a few times to show some photos on screen but its a shame that they couldn't make the software a little more advanced than stop play etc and that they could not include support for video formats too!
So in justifying my ratings I will say this, we have had, as yet, no problems with the TV at all so it scores full marks for reliability, the ease of use is good however the selecting of different inputs though relatively straight forward for those who are at all tech literate seems a little beyond the likes of some Grans and Mums as is the case with our tv, we just can't explain to them how it works.
The sound quality loses a point for being a little quiet on lower quality feeds and a little distorted on higher quality feeds. As for the features, two years ago I would have gave it full marks as it was the biggest affordable tv at the time, USB input was uncommon, 3D was not so big and internet TV was still confined to a niche minority and TV's are since becoming more and more like computers. Furthermore an inclusive DVD player would have been nice allowing one of the three HDMI ports to do something else.
One way in which this product has actually matured with age is that like a lot of TV's out there the price has sharply fallen over the intervening time so buying one of these now represents a sound relatively cheap investment that is worth every pound. I would absolutely recommend this tv to any one who thinks they need more inputs and who has been staring at a 30 inch tv, it will really make watching detail dependent sports such as F1 a whole lot easier as well as being able to connect a sky box, DVD player and Nintendo Wii all at the same time!
However for those, like myself who already have a 40 inch tv and don't mind spending a little bit more I think a stepup again to a 50 or 48 inch tv with internet streaming would be a more sensible option than buying this product again.
So as ever purchasing this unit depends on what your are looking for how good your Tv already is, if it is small, lacks connections or a USB port then this is a product for you, if you had one like this and it broke down this may be a cheaper alternative to what you previously had but if you want a top of the range one then this is not quite the one for you.
Summary: I will some up by saying this is one cracking TV that will not let you down if you decide to buy it.
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Samsung UE-40D6530
by davewhite497d
This Samsung LED TV has an excellent HD picture and is an incredibly stylish piece of kit which draws attention in a room without being overbearing. I've used this with HD TV and a PS3 and on both it delivers a crystal clear image with excellent colour levels. There have been issues on some sets with clouding, I only noticed this on my ... set when a very dark image is on the screen and only when I was actively looking for it.
The extremely thin bezel on this model makes the set a touch smaller than most 40" LCD TVs and for those with space limitations it is something to consider, it also gives this model a stylish look. The remote is easy to use and has all the functions you could require. The sound (as is the norm for LCD TVs) is far from perfect but there are a few different settings that help improve the bass which is so often lacking in such thin televisions. Although for audiophiles it may be worth investing in a standalone speaker system.
As this is a 3D TV I'll have to mention the quality of the 3D this set is capable of. Like all 3D TVs it depends on the quality of the source material but I have found that even on the highest quality there is at least a small amount of crosstalk which is dissapointing. The set uses active 3D technology which can cause eye strain when using the battery operated active 3D glasses supplie. I've found that using the 3D has given me the odd headache which is something you wouldn't expect with a passive 3D set.
Honestly the HD picture is so strong on this set that I tend not to bother with 3D and don't feel that I'm missing out on anything at all. The blacks are deep, the colours rich and motion good (although watching sports does result in some tearing of the image, usually only a problem on standard definition channels).
There are four HDMI slots on the back, three USB slots, component, PC, AV, SCART, LAN scoket and a headphone socket which is more than ample. One of the USB slots is compatible with an external hard drive, I've used this extensively and can say that it is one of my favourite features on this TV. The set is capable of playing virtually any video format thrown at it, including the popular high def format MKV, which the XBox360 and PS3 are unable to deal with.
As with most modern LCD/LED TVs in the mid budget range, this TV comes with internet connectivity and Smart TV functionality. I haven't spent a huge amount of time exploring this but what I have seems very well laid out, the free 3D programmes/films available are a nice touch and a good way to show of the 3D capabilities of the TV.
Overall this is a very impressive television and I would highly recommend the purchase, you may get more use out of the 3D than I have as I'm not the most avid fan of active 3D technology.
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