 Excellent HD TV, But Requires High Quality Video Feed |
| Review Date: August 13, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Buddy S, Baltimore, MD USA |
This TV is capable of producing outstanding video, but it demands a very high quality video feed (HD source through an HDMI cable) to perform up to its full potential. The video adjustments also require considerable tweaking to achieve optimum performance.
I have owned my Samsung 32" HDTV (model LNT3253H) for about six weeks. The TV is connected to a Comcast HD Motorola cable box with an HDMI cable. The HD video quality is excellent and the standard definition TV video quality is surprisingly good. It is important to note that these results were achieved only after a good deal of tweaking with the video adjustments. I usually avoid looking at instructions, but I found that this is one product where reading the Owner's Instructions was very helpful. There are a large number of possible adjustments, including some that I had never heard of before. These include Gamma, Color Space, White Balance, Edge Enhancement and Digital Natural Image Engine (DNIe). The Instructions explain what each adjustment does and the on screen Menu permits you to see the effect of each adjustment on the fly, as the adjustments are made. There are also a large number of video source inputs, including 3 HDMIs, probably more than most people will ever need.
The TV audio is surprisingly good, especially considering the fact that the sound comes out of two small slits in the front bottom of the cabinet. TV audio is not a big issue for me, however, because I have a home theater system that I usually use when watching TV. But I have no hesitation in using the TV speakers on occasion. The TV sound does not approach home theater quality, but it is perfectly acceptable for watching many programs, especially those that do not involve music or are not broadcast in surround sound.
I have a very old outdoor analog rooftop antenna that was connected to my previous TV, a 27" Sony cathode ray tube set. The Sony pulled in about six local analog channels through this antenna. The new Samsung, connected to this old antenna, receives nothing that is watchable. I have not tried an HDTV antenna with the new Samsung.
The DVD video quality, using a standard definition progressive scan DVD player that did not perform upconverting (a JVC XV-N44SL) was only fair to good -- nothing special. I was disappointed with these results and purchased a new Sony upconverting DVD player (a DVP-NS90V). The Sony DVD player connected to this TV with an HDMI cable produced a dramatic improvement in video quality. I have not deducted from my 5 star rating for this product because of the lackluster non-upconverting DVD player video and poor antenna performance. I did not buy the TV to watch analog over the air TV broadcasts and I assume the antenna performance would improve if I were to use a new antenna designed for HD reception. Also, the DVD picture quality did improve significantly with an upconverting DVD player.
UPDATE 11/13/2007: I recently purchased an HDTV indoor antenna (a Terk HDTVa.) With the Terk antenna connected, the TV pulled in 18 local over the air channels and 5 of these were in high defintion. The high definition reception was crystal clear. Also, those local HDTV stations broadcast in Dolby 5.1 audio were received in 5.1. My five star rating for this product remains unchanged.
UPDATE 1/26/2008: As stated above, I usually did not use the TV speakers while watching this TV. But, about 6 weeks ago while watching two back to back NFL football games on a Sunday afternoon with the TV speakers on, I experienced the "audio drop off problem" several times. (This problem is discussed by some other reviewers and in an Amazon customer discussion thread.) The audio cut off completely. I could temporarily cure the problem by turning the TV off and then back on again or by using the remote to scroll through the input sources back to my football game (on an HDMI input) or by turning the cable box off and then on.
I called Samsung during that week and the service representative recommended "resetting" the TV which consisted unplugging the TV for 30 seconds. I told him I would do this, but added that I wanted the current firmware version for the TV. He then sent me an email, which led to a link on Samsung's website and I was able to download the new firmware to a USB flash drive. The email had complete instructions on how to obtain and install the firmware upgrade. The flash drive plugged into the left side of the TV and I had no problem installing the upgrade. After resetting the TV and installing the upgrade, I have had no problem with the TV audio and I have made heavy use of the TV speakers in the last six weeks to make certain the problem is resolved.
My TV was manufactured in Mexico in March, 2007 and it was shipped with firmware version 1006 and now has version 1022, with the recent upgrade. I should note that "resetting" the TV caused it to loose all the user adjustments I had made to the default settings, including adjustments to the TV video. I now write down and keep in a safe place the numerous adjustments I made to the default settings on this TV - if you loose power or unplug the TV, all of these adjustments will be gone.
I also note with some concern that a few Amazon reviewers who purchased recently manufactured versions of this TV continue to encounter audio problems. A TV that can not produce reliable audio is a serious problem. I, however, am not changing my 5 star rating for this product because I have to judge this TV based on my experience and not that of others - the audio problem I encountered was quickly resolved by "resetting" the TV and installing the firmware upgrade.
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Best Bang For Your Buck
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| Review Date: June 12, 2007 |
| Reviewer: P. Irwin, Tallahassee, FL USA |
For a 32" LCD HDTV in this price range, i can't justify getting anything else. the TV is an absolute blast to use, the quality is amazing, it seems to be built well, and i'm immensely happy with it so far.
SD Quality - like almost every LCD HDTV out there, the SD quality on this unit leaves much to be desired. it may be the poor cabling in my apartment for my cable channels, but they look pretty bad. i'm guessing that if you had a good quality cable line run to the TV, it would look better, because the digital SD channels from my cable box look pretty good. also, it's not the fact that it's SD that is the problem... because SD DVDs and 480i digital over-the-air look great. it's just cable, and presumably analog over-the-air as well. so make sure you have a good quality cable line run to your TV/cable box and maybe even an amplifier.
HD Quality - outstanding. 1080i looks indistinguishable from 720p, as this is a 720p TV with a good 1080i deinterlacer. i don't know why someone tagged this as 1080p, since it clearly doesn't support it. but the quality is amazing, especially with the contrast as high as it is. I have not tried anything over HDMI, since i don't have any HDMI devices. but analog component looks great.
Contrast - i have found some of the "Dynamic" settings can be a bit extreme... i actually had to tone down the contrast a little, and i turned the dynamic contrast to Low. Also, this is a very BRIGHT TV, but luckily you can adjust the backlight. on the backlight adjustment that goes to 10, i have mine set at 7, and it's still very bright.
Games - i have a Nintendo Wii hooked up via component and it looks great. it's also nice since it supports 480p and 16:9 mode, so in the games, such as Wii Sports, you can have vertical split screen that is actually useful. There is also a "game mode" to enhance how games look on the screen, but i have not yet used this.
Over-the-air - This TV does include an OTA tuner for HD and SD digital. I hooked up a cheap little unpowered antenna and i was able to pick up in-town 480i digital stations fine, and they looked AMAZING compared to their cable counterparts. I wasn't able to get any HD channels without a powered antenna, since all the broadcast towers are out of town, but i'd imagine you'd get a much better quality (assuming you can get a good signal) than from digital cable, which suffers from severe compression artifacts in my area.
Inputs and Outputs - there are PLENTY to go around, but considering i have 6 component devices, it would be nice to have more component inputs. there are 3 HDMI inputs, one on the side, and two component sets. In addition there are 2 composite inputs for SD, one on the side, and a PC input. DVI is supported in the HDMI port with an adapter.
Remote - the remote is easy to use and comfortable. There is a handy P.Size button at the bottom (blue button) that allows you to change between 16:9 stretched, Zoom 1 (cropped), Zoom 2 (i think an even tighter crop), and 4:3 pillarboxed for SD programs, which is very handy. For example, when a widescreen letterboxed program comes on an SD channel, you can go to Zoom 1 with a push of a button and it completely fills the screen, unletterboxed and unstretched. The volume and channel controls are also backlit with the touch of a button.
Sound - the sound is a good and bad thing about this TV. it has a cool virtual surround feature that actually sounds pretty neat, especially while watching concerts and programs that make good use of stereo sound, and it has optical output to run to a 5.1 unit for audio from OTA HD or HDMI. The downside is that bass is lacking, but considering how thin the TV is, this is not surprising, and i'd posit that the sound on ths TV is better than other LCD HDTVs i've heard in stores. There is an equalizer as well to fine tune your sound. Another cool feature is that the speakers are under the TV, so the bezel is significantly smaller than other competing units.
Appearance - the unit is a piano black, plastic finish, and there is a glowing blue LED at the bottom. the LED is not distracting at all, and you can program it to be on when the TV is on or off, whichever you prefer. The whole unit is very customizable, you can adjust many tiny details of the image quality, sound quality, channels, and settings for the TV. The controls on the TV itself are touch sensitive and on the side of the unit. The only downside is you can't really see what they are unless you're in a brightly lit room, so i end up relying on the remote more than the controls on the unit. The upside of this is that you wouldn't know they're there upon looking at it, and it makes the bezel very attractive. |
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