noangels's Full Review: Samsung LN40A630 40 in. TV
My husband and I currently live in the apartment he has lived in for the past twelve years. When we first started dating, the apartment was in dire need of updating. The bathroom was the original 70’s gold and black tile, which was ripping up from the floor and off the walls. The kitchen had pastel pink shell motif wallpaper. The living room was a mint-y color green that I had only seen used on cement walls in public elementary school buildings. Over the last five years, we’ve made great strides, one room at a time. We completely redid the bathroom which had to be torn out due to water seeping behind the walls. We spent an entire day perforating, steaming, and scraping wallpaper off and we now have a hunter green kitchen. Our public school green living room is now a more neutral shade: a dark taupe. Now our tasks involve replacing many items in the apartment.
My husband owned an early high definition (HD) tube television. It took up a significant amount of space in our inconveniently shaped living room. The room is very long and narrow, and the positioning of the windows leaves only one area for a television to be comfortably placed. The couch faces the television across the width of the apartment, and with our old tube television taking up a few feet, it made the room look very small. This, coupled with an electricity bill that was a bit too high for our tastes, led to the decision that a flat panel television was in order. We love our new Samsung 40” Class 1080P 120Hz Flat-Panel LCD Television (LN40A630).
Picture Quality
Picture quality was paramount in our purchasing decision. I noticed this television instantly among the fifty or so televisions on the wall at Best Buy during our first trip. The crispness and clarity of the picture stood out to me above the others. I also noticed the color contrast and how black looked black, rather than displaying as a dark gray color as it did on many of the other screens. My husband and I met while working at Best Buy and still know some of the employees. Upon leaving the store, we stopped to chat with some old friends. They asked what brought us in the store and we told them about our possible television purchase. We were asked which televisions we were interested in. We told them that a Samsung had caught our eye. Both instantly replied, “The Touch of Color screen?” One owns it and the other was just a fan, but both said that customers had been very happy with them. We confirmed this by reading online reviews. Out of twenty reviews on BestBuy.com, all stated that they would recommend the television to friends and family, and the overall rating was 4.9 out of 5 stars.
Our new Samsung 40” Class 1080P 120 Hz Flat-Panel LCD Television has lived up to our expectations. The picture quality is truly exceptional. The color looks very accurate, yet vibrant. The images are incredibly sharp and detailed. There is minimal blur with fast moving images. The screen has a resolution of 1920 by 1080p, supporting resolutions up to 1080p. This was an improvement on our old television which supported 720p and 1080i. This was one of the reasons for our upgrade as not all of the games for my husband’s new PlayStation 3 support 720p.
When shopping for a television we decided we wanted a screen that was a maximum of 40 inches because our living room is on the small side. When seated on the couch, the television is about seven feet away. My husband did some research and 40 inches was on the larger side of recommended sizes for our viewing distance. This screen is 39 9/10 inches and it is absolutely perfect in our space. It is a big improvement on our old 29 inch widescreen tube television, but it isn’t overbearing in the room. The larger screen combined with the 16:9 aspect ratio really gives everything a cinema feel. I enjoy our home entertainment system much more now!
In addition to choosing a television that suited our viewing distance, we were concerned about the viewing angle. The long shape of the room lends itself well to a long couch. With the home entertainment upgrade, we decided it was time to be rid of the couch that had been in the apartment for twelve years. We wanted a sectional couch with a lounge to optimize seating in the space, and we were worried the long length of the couch wouldn’t work well with an LCD television. We had seen the color distortion (or in some cases, black out) in older screens and we were concerned that guests sitting on the sides of the couch would have a difficult time watching television. This wasn't a problem at all. This television has a 178 degree viewing angle, which is as perfect as it can get. I can see the screen perfectly within the limitations of my line of sight rather than being limited by the viewing angle.
My husband and I play video games and watch movies and television on our new television. Games look outstanding on it, especially the Xbox 360 games. There’s an opening scene to Rock Band 2 where the band is rocking out on a car that looked so real, we were blown away. The colors look amazing. The television boasts a 40,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio which is certainly nothing to sneeze at. This is apparently used in conjunction with Samsung’s Digital Natural Image engine (DNIe) to give the picture such a beautiful color. This engine performs several functions. A motion optimizer works to keep moving images sharp. A contrast enhancer improves contrast without negative effects on the image. The detail enhancer sharpens certain edges of the picture. A color optimizer makes the image more vibrant, while attempting to keep the colors looking natural. Overall, we’ve been really impressed by the color of our television. A few friends have come over to take a peek at our new television and upon seeing the operating system screen on the XBox, simply said “WOW.”
There are plenty of settings to adjust the color, brightness, and sharpness of the screen to your liking. We were quite happy with the default settings of the television and only made some minor tweaks. I’d say our television is optimized for playing video games. Sometimes movies and television shows look too realistic. How can this be a negative trait? Low budget productions look awful. My husband and I were using our Xbox to stream television shows and movies through Netflix. We were watching an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess. It looked very cheesy. The high level of detail made all of the imperfections in the lame props more noticeable. The main characters were walking through ruins and you could tell the “stone” ruins were foam. Sam Raimi is known for his cheesy, tongue and cheek type of humor. This made the show even more comical. The harsh lighting made it look like the actresses were a few feet in front of you and made it hard to be immersed in the show. Luckily, there are a few pre-set modes to correct this. Placing the television in “Cinema” mode puts a warm filter over the color and softens the image. It looked closer to what it did on our old television. Who knew that more detail and better color is not always better?
The television has a 120Hz refresh rate and 4 ms response time. This seems to reduce blur with motion very effectively. My husband noticed a small amount of blur on very fast moving graphics in Fable 2. This was the only time we experienced this blur. Audio
The Samsung LN40A630 has two 10 watt speakers built in. It also offers simulated surround (SRS TruSurround). From the demonstration in the store, I’d say the audio on this television is on par with its industry peers. We used them for a few minutes upon connecting our television, just to ensure everything was working. Of course, a few minutes and a store demonstration is not the best test for audio quality, but we have no need to use the television’s speakers. Our home theater system is hooked up through an audio receiver and the speakers connected to it provide our sound. Connections
We have quite a few home theater components that need to be connected. We have three video game consoles; the Xbox 360, the Wii, and the PlayStation 3. We decided to eliminate the DVD player for simplicity’s sake and use the PlayStation to play DVDs. We purchased an audio receiver to use with our five speaker surround sound system. We previously had a TIVO and cable box, but decided to upgrade to a newer HD TIVO which requires cable cards. These eliminated the need for a cable box as well. With so many components, we wanted to make sure we had plenty of connections, even though we knew we’d hook most up through the audio receiver. This television has an overabundance of connections.
Our last television had only component connections for HD components so we were very adamant about having HDMI connections. This television has three of these uncompressed, all digital audio and video connections; two on the rear panel of the television and one on the side. Our audio receiver is now hooked up via HDMI and the side port allows me to hook up my laptop. This functionality has proved very convenient as we’ve had a number of guests visit and ask to see our wedding photos. We have not yet received our album so a slideshow of the professional pictures on my laptop is a good alternative.
I was surprised that there was no DVI connection on this television, though there is VGA. There is one S-Video port located on the side panel of the television. This also works well for connecting a computer, though it is a much lower quality connection. My widescreen laptop looks terrible through this connection. A USB port is also located on the side of the television for easy mp3 playing and picture viewing.
The television has two component connections and two composite connections. The latter is split up between the rear and side panel. This would work well for those who own video cameras, giving them easy access for playing video on their televisions. I've hooked up my digital camera using this connection to view pictures through the television as well.
A headphone jack is located on the side of the television should the need for personal sound arise. This television also has an HD Tuner built in for use with an HD capable antenna. Due to our cable box, we have had no need for this functionality. Design
The Samsung LN40A630 has a sleek design. It’s as visually pleasing as a television can get. The outer rim is piano black with Samsung’s signature “Touch of Color.” There a subtle red tone hidden under the black. It’s a very pretty accent.
The screen is 26 2/5 inches high with the stand, 24 inches without it. It is 38 8/9 inches wide. It looks very proportionate in our small room. The flat panel is very thin, measuring only 3 4/5 inches deep. With the stand, the television is 9 2/5 inches deep. I was surprised that it was as heavy as it was, though it’s not excessively heavy for a television. The screen weighs 35.7 pounds without the stand, 42.1 pounds with it. Ease of Use
This television was easy to set up and use. Connecting our components was as easy as plugging them in and turning everything on. My husband was quickly able to navigate its various settings and configure it to our liking. Parental controls are available on this television and seemed easy enough to set up, but we have no use for them at this time. Power
This television is Energy Star Qualified, which we’re hoping will save us some money on our electricity bill! Warranty
The Samsung LN40A630 comes with a one year warranty that covers parts and labor. We also chose to purchase an extended service plan from Best Buy. It was four years for $169.99, which we considered to be a good price to protect our television. Price
The Samsung 40” Class 1080P 120Hz Flat-Panel LCD Television comes with the stand and remote. We have used the stand since ours is not wall mounted. The remote was used to set up the television, but now sits unused, having been replaced by our Harmony remote.
This television is regularly priced at $1499.99. When we first attempted to make the purchase, it was on sale for $1399.99 in the store. They were out-of-stock and available to order with a delivery date of February 14 (more than a month from the purchase date). Friends advised that several would be arriving on a truck the following week and said they would match the sale price for us. That following week, they went on sale for $300 off. We purchased our new television the day they arrived in the store for $1199.99. It is an exceptional television for the price.
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