- 40-inch (60Hz) LCD HDTV with full HD 1080p resolution for the sharpest picture possible and red Touch of Color design
- 70,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 6ms response time, Wide Color Enhancer 2 for more vivid colors
- Game mode speeds up image processing response; side-mounted USB port for displaying JPEG/MPEG files and listening to MP3 audio
- Inputs: 4 HDMI-CEC, 2 component, 1 composite, 1 PC, 1 USB, 1 optical digital audio output
- Includes removable stand; measures 38.7 x 26.6 x 10 inches with stand
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 An excellent set! |
| Review Date: April 7, 2009 |
| Reviewer: pelagikos, |
I was undecided between this 2009 model and last year's LN40A550.
The features are substantially identical, but after figuring that the difference between best prices for the two, which I could find after extensive shopping around, was only $50, I went for newer one for its updated look and lighter weight.
In the reviews, one of the principal complaints for 2008 was the sound quality. I can't directly compare 2009 and 2008, but found 2009's LN40B550 to have perfectly adequate, if not excellent speakers, as far as TVs go.
Picture quality, menus, setup are excellent as expected.
One aspect that I did find puzzling is Wiselink not being able to recognize my old trustworthy USB Flash Drive. I even tried formatting the drive in various ways, unfortunately none of the tricks worked.
Perhaps, it's the ancient drive not being comparable in some way, but it had never let me down before. Anyhow, I ordered a few different flash drives, and will try again, and then post an update.
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Tried four various flash drives, all of them work just fine in computers, all four freshly formatted same way (FAT32). Two of the drives are read by the TV with no problems, the two others are not recognized at all... Go figure... The slideshow functionality is nice, quite limited, but does the job.
Just for the reference, one of the drives that does work in this TV is Kingston Data Traveler 4GB. |
Feature packed and really good picture quality for a decent price
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| Review Date: May 6, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Byron Hooper, Saco, Maine |
I had been eyeing upgrading to an HDTV of some sort for about three years. I had been researching and dreaming about it for the whole time. Samsung was always on the top of my list, and when they came out with this model, which has a lot of features for a comparatively reasonable price tag I finally decided to take the plunge.
I have the most basic Cable service imaginable, so most of the time I am viewing SDTV (480i) stretched to 1920x1080. Considering this enormous stretch, it looks pretty good. It is definitely a tad fuzzy, it looks as good as any other 1080p TV I've seen. Similarly, my Wii is pretty fuzzy if you get up close, but it looks fine from my couch, especially when I enabled Progressive output. The Wii isn't trying to be a graphics powerhouse anyway.
On the flip side is my DVD player. It has component output and is capable of doing 480p, and holy cow does it look awesome! After watching the SDTV and Wii, I was a little worried my DVDs would be equally blurry unless I upgraded to an upscaling player, but with progressive output, holy cow, I do not feel that is necessary at all. I was very pleased because watching movies is what I do most.
As for HD picture, my options are limited currently, but I for some reason NBC does come in in 1080i over my plain non-digital cable and I also tested OTA HDTV and I've gotta say, it is GORGEOUS. So in my limited experience, the HD picture on this TV looks fantastic.
My Dell laptop has an HDMI out (video and audio) so I decided to hook it up to the side HDMI connection on the TV. At first it looked kind of terrible and I had to do a lot fiddling. It still didn't look right though. After consulting the manual, I discovered that computers are really supposed to be connected to HDMI 1. Switching to that I also discovered that naming the HDMI 1 port "DVI PC" it disables audio input, so bear that in mind. Once I hooked it up right though, it is fantastic. Videos and games look great and surfing the web with a wireless mouse and keyboard is AWESOME.
There are tons of video options and tweaks so you can get the TV to look perfect in whatever environment it is in. Another great feature is that you can connect a Digital Camera or USB storage device to show pictures at the full resolution intead of 480i all streched out if you do it over composite video. It looks great, but unfortunately my Canon camera uses PictBridge instead of acting like a USB Mass Storage device, so I can't do it. I've tested it with a USB Thumbdrive and it looks great though.
So, here's a recap for the "Too Long; Didn't Read" crowd:
+PROS+
+Great Price/Feature ratio
+Awesome HD Picture (as far as I'm concerned)
+Great DVD 480p picture
+Tons of Video Tweaking options
+USB
+Tons of Inputs
+Digital Audio Output
+Rotatable mount
%Neutrals%
%SDTV Picture is only OK
-Negatives-
-Auto Program takes FOREVER
-Front buttons are practically invisible... and therefore practically unusable.
-No Picture-in-Picture at all
As you can see, the negatives are pretty minor (except maybe the PIP for some people). All in all.... I love this dang TV!! |
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