List Price : $1,799.99
Click buy cheap price @ Amazon.com
- Stylish 40-inch LCD TV in black with integrated HDTV tuner; measures 39 x 28.1 x 12.8 inches (WxHxD) with included stand
- Game Mode optimizes image quality and sound; connect portable digital players and control via remote (with RS232 cable connection)
- 1366 x 768-pixel resolution, 500 cd/m2 brightness, super-fast 8ms response time, 4000:1 contrast ratio, 170-degree viewing angle
- Connections: 2 composite A/V (1 side), 2 S-Video (1 side), 1 component (Y/Pb/Pr), 2 HDMI, 2 RF, 1 USB, 1 RS232
- Two stereo speakers, 10 watts apiece (20 watts total); SRS TruSurround XT virtual surround
Product Description
The Samsung LNS4051D 40″ Wide HDTV with Integrated ATSC Tuner in elegant piano-black, is a flat-panel LCD that combines high style and high definition in equal measure. Perfect in the bedroom, a small living room or kids playroom, its 4000:1 dynamic contrast ratio creates an intensely color-saturated picture in crisp focus.Even high-speed sports remain clear-cut, thanks to Samsungs ultra-fast switching technology. And for gamers, the new, optimized game mode brings
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Flat HDTV prices are falling almost as fast as the stock market these days. It would seem that this might be the right time to jump into the HDTV craze. Let the research begin then. I’ll get to the details of the Samsung unit itself after a brief, er, long background intro.
I tend to be the type of consumer that will read every unbiased CR style review, online article, visit every store within a 100-mile radius and test every model in existence–no matter what the purchase. This is particularly helpful when purchasing a television, since you really don’t know just how good a picture will be, no matter what the specs say, until you see it side-by-side with the competition.
I’ve been holding out for the $2000 price-point for a large-screen Flat HDTV, and the time has now come when there are several options from which to chose. CR reports, quite accurately I might add, that Costco has some of the best prices among retailers, but I will say, as a HUGE Costco fan, that the selection is a bit limited, as is the nature of their business.
After looking at about 50 (literally) different Flat-TV’s, and originally wanting to go with a Plasma, I narrowed the choice to a 37-inch LCD from Viewsonic, a 42-inch LCD from Philips, and two 40-inch Samsung LCD units. Consideration was made for size, picture quality, design and style, features, overall research and brand reputation/reviews, value, bang-for-the-buck and more. Say what you will about Plasma, and they are beautiful, I’ve seen too many red-glow, distorted and burned pictures, and the last straw was a brand new floor model that had already gone bad in 2-weeks at a local store. LCD it is then–I purchased the Viewsonic at Costco, only to receive a unit with a defective tuner, back to the store for a full refund–no worries. As I’m strolling through the aisles of another establishment, I come across a vision of beauty, she looks amazingly like Liberace’s reincarnated baby-grand piano. She is brilliant in her little black dress, even standing next to the costliest supermodels from Pioneer and Sony–in fact, she may be more beautiful. The Samsung LNS4051D they tell me. Samsung name, 2 HDMI inputs, 4000:1 contrast ratio, PIP, you know the rest…and stunning good looks to boot! But the cost was too high. A few clicks later, I find her on Amazon for my target price, including shipping…S-O-O-O-L-D, says I!! Return policy is a bit harsh, but delivery was on-time, and price was unbeatable. Well done Amazon.
Panasonic may hold a slight edge in overall picture quality, but Samsung is the world’s largest producer of LCD screens, and they can be quite proud of this unit.
A few areas for improvement–not even the most beautiful of ladies is perfect–blacks still need work, which is what keeps it from being the best-of-the-best, the remote needs work (don’t they all), and once hung on the wall, the connections are nearly impossible to access, due to the back, rather than side connecting style.
Flat HDTV prices are slated to continue falling over the summer, and will then flatten out–if you are lucky, you might just be able to snag a date with one of these hot little numbers, before they’re all spoken for.
Rating: 5 / 5
Like others, I took a long time before making the decision to finally purchase a large screen flat panel television. Finally, with prices coming down so much, I decided to purchase one. I bought this tv directly from Amazon. They had an extremely competitive price, no sales tax, and were offering free delivery. As has already been noted, that equated to hundreds of dollars of savings compared to purchasing the same tv at the local large outlet stores. Initially, I narrowed my buying choices down to a 42″ Panasonic plasma that had been highly rated, Sony Bravia LCD, or the Samsung that I ended up purchasing. First I chose LCD over the plasma for several reasons: 1. plasma is newer technology than LCDs, so has less of a track record as far as known durability and working life; 2. LCDs for the comparable size weigh less and because of the technology they use and construction materials tend to be more durable; 3. LCDs use less energy and do not have the same potential noise issues (buzzing) that plasmas can have; 4. no burn in issues; 5. much less screen glare with an LCD because the display panel is not a shiny sheet of glass; and 6. prices of LCDs have dropped to be comparable to plasmas. Also, in terms of viewing angle, LCD technology has caught up enough that plasmas no longer have an edge in that one. Finally with regard to contrast ratios, although most definitely plasmas generally have much higher contrast ratios, both static and dynamic, most manufacturers inflate their numbers, oversell the importance of these numbers and measure under the most extreme conditions that consumers don’t watch their tvs under. Whether you care about contrast ratio really depends on the ambient lighting situation, in very very bright light conditions (i.e. sun light) you may be able to tell the difference between two tvs where one has a higher contrast ratio. But under normal indoor conditions, and especially in a dark room, and watching programming that is not in 100% black and white (I mean when do you watch something like that?) the need for the higher contrast ratio wont even come into play and the viewer in a darkened room watching normal programming will notice no difference between tvs that have different contrast ratios. Then after deciding to get an LCD I ended up choosing the Samsung over the Sony. After physically looking at both tvs in the stores multiple times I thought that Samsung had the better picture. And money wise Samsung was a better bargain for the quality of tv you got.
As far as getting the tv, the delivery was a little delayed, and I was not all that impressed or happy with Amazon’s shipper Eagle delivery service. But hey, it was free, and when they did deliver it, it came in perfect condition. Setting up the tv was easy, the main thing is to have the best connector cables (HDMI & component) and optimize, to the extent you can, the signal source to make sure you’re getting the best picture out of the tv. I have Comcast digital with a DVR, made sure to use HDMI connections (on that I didn’t buy Monster, but an HDMI to DVI cable that cost a fifth of the price and works great also ordered from Amazon); and component cable for the DVD player. Also made sure the output settings on the cable box were 1080i for HD broadcasts and 480p for standard definition broadcasts, and the DVD player set at 480p for progressive scan. Picture looks beautiful. HD channels are amazing in their clarity. Even the standard definition programs look good on this tv. I initially thought the sound was so so, but then used better RCA cables and it improved a lot. Though, I have everything hooked up to a 5.1 surround sound system so don’t really use the actual tv speakers much. Overall I am very pleased with this television. The picture quality is one of the best I’ve seen for the money. The functions on the tv are easy to learn, the remote also was easy to pick up and just start using. Also, the tv comes with plenty of inputs. Though, I would have preferred if they had two component inputs instead of just one. Finally, the tv physically looks great, piano black, clean lines, a nice addition to the living room. I highly recommend this tv.
Rating: 5 / 5
I purchased this tv back in June it has the best picture quality that ive seen in this price range i saved about $700 over circuit city hey no tax and no shipping cost.
Just a note to Michael Barry from NYC who didnt like this tv. You have to have an HD signal coming into this tv first of all. Second call your cable company they should give you a HD coverter box, and spend the money on the HDMI cables (pricy but worth it, i paid $120 ea. and i needed two), i also bought a Monster clean power box to filter the signal and stop any further types of interferance.
Your picture will look blurry and not clear if you just screw the coaxil cable into the back of this tv and watch non HD channels, in my area for example all of the major networks brodcast in HD and they still brodcast in analog to, for example ABC in the regular signal is channel 7 and to watch ABC in HD it’s channel 707, my HD channels are in the 700’s. These tv’s are not like the old tv’s we are use to when we just screwed the cable in the back and that was it. The HD signal is the fuel that makes these tv’s go.
Rating: 5 / 5
You really have to do your homework when you are moving into HDTV for the first time. There are basically three types of technology out there; DLP, LCD, and Plasma. I was so tempted to go all the way to DLP but I decided on LCD because of all the great reviews that it gets and because of the great look LCD’s have in the store. I also had a friend that had already invested in LCD over a year ago and his investment still looked great when we last watched a football game together. Plasma was just out of the question because of past burn in issues. DLP is still improving and is about one step away from resolving the light bulb replacement issue altogether. When they get a permanent LED white light bulb, DLP will become my new first choice. So, I decided to go with a flat panel LCD HDTV.
The next question was what resolution did I need. This came down to the size TV and the size of the room where I was going to be watching it. I only had 40 inches of horizontal width for a TV body to fit within and this TV allowed me to make maximum use of my limited space by locating the speakers to the bottom and in the back. With this 40 inch TV, HD resolution of 1366 x 768 (720p) is basically indistinquishable to my eyes from 1080p TV’s sitting on the showroom floor when I was standing over 6 feet away. So, I saw no reason to buy something that I really didn’t need. Plus, I don’t own an HD DVD or Blue Ray DVD yet so I was not going to be driving this thing with a 1080p signal anyway. Additionally, the best that can ever be broadcast in HD is 1080i, thus another reason not to buy a full 1080p HDTV now. So, for me, this 40 inch model really fit the bill.
I didn’t purchase from Amazon because at the time that I made my purchase this TV was only 50 bucks more at CC (tax included) than from Amazon shipped and I didn’t want to wait two days for it to ship. So, I bought it and brought it home. I got it home and had it out of the box and running in probably less than 30 minutes and it was amazing. The next day I went by Comcast and picked up a Digital Tuner box. They were out of the DVR boxes which have the HDMI interface so I just took their standard box with the component (red,green,blue) cables and hooked them into this TV. I have to say that “stunning” does not capture how great the picture on this TV looks just from component feed and all for only an additional 5 bucks a month on my standard cable bill with Comcast.
Of course you might say that I didn’t need to get a TV with a HDTV tuner if I’m using a digital tuner cable box and driving the TV with the component video source and for now you would be correct. I certainly could do what I’m doing now with an “HD Ready” TV and that is something you may want to think about before you buy. I do plan to get a stand alone HD antennae for the locally transmitted HD channels in the event that I want to see these in the highest resolution this TV offers. The digital tuner cable box also supports a coax cable signal pass through feature as well which I currently have hooked up but have failed to get to work as of yet. Also, depending on your cable service, you may or may not need a digital tuner box to see some of the HD channels available from your cable provider. My friend receives all of the local free HD channels directly over his cable without the need for a digital tuner cable box.
Anyway, the bottom line is, if you’ve been waiting to jump into HDTV and you are moving from old non-HDTV, this is a great model to go with. I don’t believe you will be disappointed. The picture is nothing short of amazing. I had no idea what I’ve been missing out on. Watching some of the college basketball games was almost like looking through a glass pane at the live action on the basketball court. You can see things happening almost like being there in person right from the comfort of your living room.
The only negative that I can share with you is that I have noticed some rattling with the speakers especially when you have them turned up a bit and there are some low frequencies that are sustained long enough for the speakers to resonate a bit. Of course, this won’t even be a problem when you buy that next must have item, the surround sound system, and hook it up. I don’t notice this often. Its very infrequent. The built in simulated surround sound feature was okay but nothing I’m going to use in lieu of getting a true surround sound system down the road some time.
Also, there is mention in the operator’s manual for this TV about a possible concern over burn in when running the TV in 4:3 mode for extended periods of time. In this mode the image only occupies the center of the screen leaving two vertical black lines on either side of the TV image. I have run this TV in 4:3 very long and I have seen no such problem. I believe this is an error in the manual that probably was an artifact of copying and pasting repeated portions of text from TV manuals supporting a variety of TV types including plasma where this is a known problem.
Finally, find a good price on your cables and don’t buy something that you don’t need. I bought a new component cable and when I picked up the digital tuner from Comcast the component video cable came with it. So, I had a cable I didn’t need. And, I guess, HDMI cables don’t come with new DVD players. I haven’t found one yet with them included. In some cases the cable costs more than the player. I’m waiting to buy a new DVD upconverter with a surround sound system. So, I’ll just wait on that purchase for now.
Rating: 5 / 5
The picture on this LCD TV can be summed up with one word…Stunning!
I investigated several LCD TVs before I bought this one; and I’m very happy with my decision.
The Pros:
1.) Crystal clear image when viewed from a source with High Def.(HD) broadcast AND you have the necessary cables. [see below Cons: 1.)]
2.) 4000:1 contrast ratio: this is basically a comparison between the whitest white and the blackest black that the TV can give. This ratio is outstanding and accounts for some of the units exceptional video performance.
3.) Lots of inputs on the back; 2x HDMI inputs, 1x S-Video, components, PC connections; as well as output jacks for connections to home theatres.
4.) Inputs on the side of the unit for external devices such as video games and camcorder; these include an A/V input and a S-Video input jack. There is also a Headphone jack for private listening.
5.) The external cabinet is a high gloss metallic surface that just glistens; I don’t think I ever seen a TV as eye appealing as this one.
6.) Comes with a good swivel stand and fully functioning remote.
The Cons:
1.) The unit does not come with any connecting cables except for the power cord; so, if you want the best HD reception you need to get a triple video (Y/pb/pr) or a HDMI cable. Also, you may require S-Video or component cables if they are needed for other external input devices (VCR, DVD etc).
2.) Some other reviewers have felt the audio/speakers were somewhat weak; I thought they were adequate. I purchased this unit for its video aspect; if I want top end sound I can hook this TV up to my stereo system.
All in all, in spite of the minor concerns mentioned above, this is an outstanding LCD TV; the picture is as good as I could ever wish for. If your looking to invest in a high end HD TV, then you owe it to yourself to check out this unit before you make your decision. 5 Stars.
Rating: 5 / 5