Samsung LN-T2642H: I'm ready for the end of the (analog) world as we know it!
Written: Jan 24 '08 (Updated Jan 24 '08)
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Pros: Clearer picture and sound on digital channels, love the better contrast, great potential for upgrades
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: While it's not the biggest or "the best" HDTV around, Samsung's LN-T2642H still has much to offer TV lovers who are on a budget yet still need a digital TV.
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| alexdg1's Full Review: Samsung LN-T2642H 26 in. TV |
One of the very few certainties in life - besides death, taxes, and that computers become obsolescent almost as soon as one leaves the electronics superstore - is that change is inevitable, especially as far as electronics are concerened.
For the past decade or so, electronics-savvy consumers in the U.S. have known - or should know - that on February 17, 2009, television stations in every market in all 50 states and territories will, by federal law, have to convert from analog to digital signals. (There are several reasons for this law; for more information, see the FAQ page about Digital TV at the FCC's DTV page -http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html#faq1.)
Even though I could simply purchase a converter box that will enable my eight-year-old Samsung analog TV set to receive digital signals, I figured that if I took the plunge now and bought a modestly-sized High Definition Television (HDTV) that wouldn't leave my modest bank account nearly empty, it would satisfy my tech-toy curiosity and at least make the February 2009 transition a bit less stressful. (I mean, who wants to buy an HDTV in a panicky mood, right?)
Because I have been discussing the topic of my wanting to get an HDTV (two would have been ideal, but one to start with, at least), my friend Baldomero was already keeping an eye out for a good deal on an LCD set that met the following criteria:
1. The screen size had to be similar to my analog set's. Same size (28") would have been nice, but a few inches shy wouldn't have been a deal-killer.
2. It had to be from a good, well-known brand. Sure, there are smaller electronics outfits out there making LCD or plasma sets, but having already been "burned" when I bought a crappy DVD player because it was from a lesser-known manufacturer, I decided to stick to products from better-known companies such as Philips, Zenith, and Samsung.
3. It had to be affordable.
To make a longish story short, the other night Baldo called from the Circuit City store close to my house. Without preamble, he said, "I found a Samsung LCD TV set, out-of-the-box, 26 inches, at $400. If you want, I can go pick you up and we'll get that one."
While $400 was about $50 to $100 more than I had wanted to spend, for a Samsung TV (listed here at a base price of $620.00) that's a bargain. Sure, it's one of the sets the store was using as a display, but Baldo said it looked nice, didn't have any scratches or dents on its glossy black finish, and it had A/V inputs for standard DVD players plus HDMI (I assume that stands for High Definition Media Input) ports for such gadgets as PCs, next-generation game consoles, and either HD-DVD or Blu-ray players.
"Okay," I said, and after getting my Visa card and telling Mom that we were going to have an HD TV that night, I rode over to the store, talked to the sales clerk, and bought the LN-T2642H set (and a three-year service plan.
Because the store didn't have any boxes in my TV's size, it was carefully placed in a plastic "bubblewrap" bag along with the manual, warranty papers, and the remote control. I was amazed to see Baldo carrying a TV set almost effortlessly - it weighs less than 20 pounds - and easily put it in the back of his Ford SUV.
Although at first we weren't too sure if setting up the TV would be easy, all we had to do - after disconnecting the older analog set from the cable and DVD RCA connections - was to secure the flatscreen set to its stand, plug in the cable antenna to the CATV connector in back, and connect the DVD player's RCA cables to the A/V input jacks on the side of the console.
After finding 2 AAA batteries for the remote control, Baldo and I did some of the basic setup in a few minutes. I remembered how to set up the analog using the remote and its MENU command, and although later that night I'd have to tweak some of the "Autoprogramming" of the channels, in less than 30 minutes we had the LNT-2642H up and running.
First impressions from a non-techie:
While the 720p (p stands for "progressive scan") basic resolution of the set is wasted on analog channels - "regular" stations' signals look a bit murky on this set, the sharpness and clarity of DVDs and HD broadcasts look really nice on my Samsung LN-T2642H HDTV, especially from a distance of about 20 feet or more.
For instance, the LN-T2642H features 4000:1 dynamic contrast, which solves some of the problems that crop up when watching scenes that are either too dark or too light. On analog TVs, movies such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - which tend to have night-time sequences or dimly-lit settings such as basements and dark corridors - are really hard to see.
Not so with the 4000:1 dynamic contrast feature on the Samsung LN-T2642H; here, the backlight intensity is adjusted automatically, resulting in a 400% improvement in contrast. In short, things that were very hard to see before are now clearly visible.
Oh, and for electronics experts who understand what "response time", here's a quote from the Samsung website entry on the LN-T2642H:
The ultra-fast eight-millisecond response time means smooth, crisp fast-action video.
If that means that this TV has killer graphics, especially on DVD and HD channels, then I'll have to agree with a "Hell, yeah!"
Sound-wise, the new TV is far better than the Samsung analog set it's replacing, and that's saying a lot, because my older TV had relatively kick-butt sound quality. Perhaps it's partly because of the placement of the stereo speakers (at the edges of the set as well as hidden ones at the bottom) and partly because of the new tech stuff, but with SRS TruSurround XT, it almost - but not quite - sounds just as good as though I had a 5.1 Surround home theater system.
Another unexpected bonus is that this set's closed captions work way better than the ones on my older TV. This isn't a big deal most of the time since I can still hear most TV shows' audio signals without needing to put captions for the hearing impaired, but for some reason I do need English subtitles when I watch movies, especially at night. Most of the DVDs I own have subtitles, but a few, like Band of Brothers and Boogie Nights have just closed captions, and on my other set they looked like gibberish, full of typos and incomplete phrases.
Out of curiosity, last night I decided I'd watch one episode of Band of Brothers, and wanting to see if the DVD had closed captions, I pressed the "Caption" button. Voila! It did! And the captions were nicely rendered and there were no misspellings or missing words.
The remote, by the way, can also operate various peripherals - there are function buttons for not just the TV, but also DVD players, a cable box, and the satellite receiver box. As far as the DVD player controls go, they only include the basic commands (Play, Stop, Pause, FF, and Skip), but this makes watching DVDs a bit easier if you don't like alternating between remotes.
There are, of course, quite a few features I haven't yet used or - knowing me - I probably won't use, such as connectivity to a personal computer. There are two HDMI connectors - for newer DVD players and satellite inputs - a USB port (to install updated "firmware" from Samsung via USB removable drives), VESA standard hole mounts to hang the LN-T2642H on any wall.
Final Thoughts: Although I had hoped to find a sweeter deal (two HDTVs for $300.00 each) so Mom could also have a digital TV in her room, I have no regrets about having bought my LN-T2642H, even if it was $160 more than I had planned (and with the three-year service plan, a bit more than that, actually). It works well, looks nice, and was easier to set up and use than I thought.
And, at the very least, when the end of the (analog) world comes next year, I'm ready!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 600
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alexdg1
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Member: Alex Diaz-Granados
Location: Miami, FL USA
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Rest in Peace, Mrs. Barbara Axler Fields. I will miss you lots!
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