New Year, New TV
Written: Jan 16 '08 (Updated Feb 27 '08)
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Pros: 15000:1 contrat ratio, 1080p, Anynet+ breathtaking picture
Cons: Weak Speakers
The Bottom Line: Probably the best LCD HDTV out there for under $2000. Amazing Picture especially in 1080p!
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| brett_day's Full Review: Samsung LN-T4066F 40 in. TV |
I love TV! Who doesn't! I had previously written a review on my 37" Westinghouse LCD and i really did love that tv very much, but then one ill fated day the panel decided to go out on it and Best Buy was unable to find a replacement Panel. The scraped out my tv, gave me $1500 credit, and boy i was like a kid in a candy store! So how did i make my decision to purchase the Samsung 4066F?
The defacto standard for HD viewing is 1080p, which is the amount of lines that are produced horizontally and vertically to make the picture. The P stands for progressive which means that both the horizontal and vertical lines are drawn at the same time, unlike I which stands for interlaced, the lines get drawn separately! Although most tv content is broadcast in 720p or 1080i, in a year or so everything will be 1080p! So if you are in the market for a tv do not buy anything unless you choose 1080p!
As soon as you walk in the store, the Samsung really stands out! The case of the tv is a shiny black and the screen is incredibly bright. It was 40" so it was bigger than my old set, and it was on sale for $1499, regular price of $1899. LCD prices have taking a pretty big dip in the last year! I was excited that i would be able to get a bigger, better tv than my westing house for the same or lower price! I knew i wanted a bigger screen but did not know which brand to choose. Samsung makes some of the best lcd sets available and they are constantly winning awards for their sets! I set out with Samsung on my mind! In the store the Samsung 4066F looked so much better than the other sets, however this does not mean much in the store setting, it is when you get it home when you decide if you really like it!
On opening the box and taking the TV out, you will be floored at how beautiful this set is! I could just stare at it all day long even without it turned on (yes i am weird) Upon further inspection you will see that this tv has connections galore on the back and the side of the set. 3 HDMI connections, 1 usb connection, 2 sets of component connections, a tos-link (or fiber optic) connection so you can link it to your home theater system for digital sound, 1 DVI input, 2 S-Video connections and a pc connector so you can link your home computer to this set! It also has your regular antenna connector, and a headphone jack! This set has plenty of connections for all of your equipment you will always be able to have all of your gadgets hooked up and ready to go.
Setup of the TV is as easy as 1,2,3. Once you have all of your equipment hooked up, turn on the set and it will automatically find and tune to all of your devices! thats it! Your ready to start watching tv! The picture is breathtaking in HD. My word!! If you think you have seen a good HD picture before you are wrong! Wow this really puts the Westinghouse to shame. The picture quality and clarity is a joy to behold. Vivid colors that makes you feel like you are there! You can change just about every aspect of this television via the menu system! Everything from contrast, to back light settings to brightness and gamma settings! The tv has 3 preset viewing options and they are. Standard, dynamic and movie! All offer a great picture and it really is a matter of personal taste when it comes to how you like your picture! For me I am good to go from the box with the Dynamic setting! It is really an amazing choice out of thew box! There is also a mode for the gamers out there called Game Mode (yes very original) it makes the picture a little dimmer but also adds an anti blur feature for fast moving games! Not that you need that as the set already has 8 m/s response time, but again it is a nice touch.
This LCD has a contrast ratio of 15000:1 and a brightness of 450 cd/m2. The contrast ratio measures the difference between the brightness in the white portions of a screen vs. black portions. If a tv had a 1000:1 contrast ratio it would mean that a perfectly white pixel is 1000 times brighter than a perfectly black pixel.
cd/m2 is Candela Per Square Meter. This tells you how well you can view the TV in brighter lighting conditions. The higher the value the brighter the screen will be and the easier it will be to see in bright light conditions. The specs of this set are amazing! So what does standard definition look like? It look great! LCD have some problems showing standard definition pictures because the picture has to be stretched to fill the screen which means that you lose some picture clarity. You will get used to regular broadcast maybe not being as clear as your old CRT set but all that will change when we go all digital next year as everything will be in 16:9 format (wide screen)
The sound that this tv produces is a little weak and for me is the only down point to this set! The speakers are tinny sounding and have no real substance to them, but then most tv's have bad speakers still you are paying a substantial amount for money for the tv, this is an area that all manufacturers can improve on! There are multiple settings for the sound that comes from the tv though! You can change it so that the sound you hear is set to make dialog easier to hear or you can set it so that it sounds like you are in a concert hall, it will add an echo effect to the sound, which is a nice touch, but overall the sound is disappointing! I would suggest using a home theater system for your sound!
The remote control is very nice. It is a universal remote, so you can program it to control most of your devices. If you have other Samsung devices the tv and remote feature the Samsung anynet+ feature, which is where the the Samsung components communicate with each other, thus making your life much easier! The remote has some buttons that light up in the dark which is nice. The button layout is very good and overall the remote is nice and easy to use! Nothing ground breaking, it is just a remote that does it's job well.
Overall this LCD from Samsung is an amazing set! The specifications are mind blowing. The connections are more than you would ever need, the ease of use is a breath of fresh air when it comes to electronics and the in menu options will never make you feel like you are not in control of your tv. Oh speaking of connections, Whats the USB port for? You can do a few things with this port! Samsung on occasion may release new firmware (software) for the TV. You can download the firmware to a thumb drive and then update the firmware that way. There is also a built in feature that is not to dissimilar to Media center on your PC. IF you have a thumb drive that is loaded with MP3's or pictures, you can put your thumb drive in the USB port, turn the tv to the correct setting and you have a built in media player in the TV! You can view your pictures on the 40" screen (great when the family comes around) or you can listen to your music! A very cool feature!
If you are in the market for a new HDTV do yourself a favor and go and take a look at this beauty! The price is just right (around $1500 on sale) the options are countless, it is 1080p and the size at 40” is perfect! Apart from the sound being a little disappointing this set is amazing both in quality and value.
One quick note about Best Buy! The 4066F is a best buy exclusive. They also have another set that looks identical to the 4066f and the model number is 4065F, they are the same price and again look identical but they are different in terms of the specifications (10000:1 contrast ratio compared to 15000:1) Do not let Your associate hand you the tag for the 4065F like they did to me on 2 different occasions at two different stores! Coincidence or are they being told to do this? Hmmmm the mind boggles! Get the 4066F and be amazed!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1499
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Epinions.com ID:
brett_day
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Member: Brett Day
Location: Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Reviews written: 79
Trusted by: 25 members
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