| Product: |
Samsung LE-26R41B |
| Date: |
26.03.07 (171 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: HD technology, slim design with wall mount option
Disadvantages: Needs external speakers
My history with TV’s has been a somewhat lucky story, having been either given or inheriting them, and in truth the last TV set I bought was back in 1986.
So the technology and the media have changed immensely since then. So last year moving to a new house we soon discovered that the aerial on our chimney was facing the wrong way and in danger of falling off complete. So the decision to go digital and satellite was taken, and a trip to Comet made quickly so the normality of viewing life was restored to the Scenic household.
Comet in Harlow is one of those new superstores and the choice facing us was endless with row upon row of boxes staring us in the face. We were fortunate that a helpful chap was willing to help narrow the choice after we mentioned the set up we needed.
His advice was good and to keep up with future technology it was decided to go for an LCD screen with HD capability to match the Sky digital box. Now I should state that at the moment we do not have the HD box or an HD DVD, but this is coming over the next year, so the TV is used on the present normal system until Sky decide to reduce the price of HD box and subscription.
So with this reduced choice it was all down to picture quality really and the only ones that came near were the LG and Samsung having much sharper picture and more natural colour. In the end we went for the Samsung on the basis its picture was good and the design looked right with the stand available with it. We opted for the 26 inch screen as we did not want the set to over power the room and also we felt the smaller screen had better picture quality which to me was more important than having a huge box taking up half the living space.
So the Samsung LE26R41BDX was ordered and delivered a week later, but not having the Sky connected till two days later meant it being set up on the DVD only. Mrs Scenic had been given the run down of the set by the Comet installer, but as with me the technology involved in modern electronics washes straight over me, but over the next week we did get to grips with the complexities of the TV and Sky system, but I admit to not having fully read the handbook that came with the set, I have enough trouble keeping up with Car technology and I do that for a living. How ever I have managed to work out the basics of the remote and the various menus therein and as this is the first review of this set I will drop in some more technical details at the bottom so most of you can skip it.
Usability
If you do take the set home and plug it in first time there is a five minute setup process which takes you though the various features on the set. As it has in built free view (not applicable to us) the channels are preset. We connected it to the DVD and watched a couple of films on it. I also played around with the remote to see what was what.
The remote that goes with this set at first glance a bit of a hand full, apart from the normal channel buttons it features a menu selection set up around a circular enter button, around this are up, down and side to side navigation buttons. Once in the menu you are given 4 on screen sub menus; TV settings, audio, USB setting and advanced features.
The bottom section of the remote slides down to reveal another set of buttons for these advanced settings, and I have to say I have not played about with these.
On the set itself are basic control buttons for menu, volume, and source, should your remote get lost or chewed by the dog. On the back of the set are the normal scart connections and audio feeds for home cinema etc.
As I have stated I am your typical technophobe having grown up in an era when 12 pennies made a shilling and men didn’t use moisturisers. But even I can do the basics on this set and to be honest the factory settings are pretty near perfect anyway.
It is connectable to both PC and Games systems and with X Box using HD graphics this would be an ideal companion with screen size suiting to X box output.
The other advantage is its slim line profile which lends itself to wall mounting.
The Picture and Sound
It is interesting to compare the picture with other formats, my Brother-in-Law has a big 42in flat screen (non LCD) which has very good picture quality, but seems a little cloudy compared to LCD. One of our friends has recently got plasma set, again very good, but the brightness and contrast seem to change constantly, and as the picture cuts from scene to scene it seems the set is constantly re-adjusting itself. We did have a similar problem with ours until I discovered it has a brightness sensor that adjusts to the light in the room and the picture being shown on screen, the set seemed to flicker and adjust all the time, by turning this feature off the picture although slightly brighter does not go light and dark and jump about.
Overall I still find the LCD screen to have a sharper, crisp image. Only older VT films seem to cause a blurry image, like the low budget “true movies” filmed in the 70’s and 80’s you can get a lot of distortion as the modern technology tries to cope with the poor film quality. But modern digital programming produces brilliant results. But again its all down to personal taste, we have people over who don’t rate the picture at all, and others who rave over it and have gone out and got LCD sets themselves.
Also worth a mention is the sound, which looking at the set you would imagine the tiny speakers would not be man enough to produce the sound. But they are very good and produce a good stereo sound with quite deep bass and clear treble, although it must be said that home cinema kit is the only way to get the most from ni-cam stereo.
The Technical Bit
• XGA 1366 x 768 Resolution
• HDMI Input Connection
• Component video input (YPbPr) accepting 720P & 1080i input
• Box Dimensions: Length 77cm Width 25cm Height 64cm
• HD ready
• 800:1 Contrast ratio
• DNIe picture enhancement
• PC input - D-Sub, PC Audio In
• Nicam stereo
• SRS TruSurround XT
• IDTV - Freeview Digital Tuner
• 16:9 Sscreen
• Viewing angle 170 x 170 Degrees
• Brightness sensor
• HDMi Input
• 2 x SCARTs, 1 x component in, 1 x video in
• 1 x S-Video in, Headphone out
• Power supply built in.
So there you have it, I did pinch a bit of this, but hope it satisfies you technophiles.
The Price
The set cost us just short of £800. Having done a quick search this model has been superseded , but with almost identical spec’s which is the LE26R74BDX this retails at around £600 which shows just how much the technology has cheapened in a year.
Conclusion
Would I buy another Samsung? Yes. Would I buy another LCD TV? Yes
But the problem here is so much personal choice, what I may find excellent picture quality, you might not. And I suppose that when I am in Curry’s or Comet next time it will all be about personal choice regardless of price. But for now the Samsung wins for me.
Summary: one of the better LCD screens available
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