SAMSUNG 40 INCH LCD TV 1080P 5 SERIES
Posted by Notcot on May 9, 2010 in Home Cinema & Video |
Product Description
- 40″ Full 1080 HD LCD Screen
- 1920 x 1080 Resolution
- SRS Trusurround HD
- 2 x HDMI
- 998mm x 260.1mm x 686mm
- Bring the cinema home with the Samsung LE40B530 LCD television! With immersive SRS TruSurround HD sound, 24p Real Movie and Progressive Scan technology, the LE-40-B530 is your gateway to high-definition viewing! The LE40 B530 ensures excellent image quality thanks to Full HD resolution, and even has an HD Freeview tuner and DNIe+ technology so you can enjoy all your favourite shows in high-definition. When it comes to connections, the LE40-B530 has all you need for easy integration into you
- r home entertainment set-up, including 3 HDMi sockets and the Anynet+ function for controlling all your devices with just one remote. What’s more, the Samsung LE40B530 LCD TV makes a decidedly greener choice as it comes approved by the European Eco-Label.
This TV has recently become available from various high street and online retailers for sub £500 and at that price it really is an impressive piece of kit.
At 40″ in gloss black it looks fantastic and is very easy to set up.
The stand pivots for easy viewing in any conditions.
I’m no tech geek but I do have an eye for detail in picture quality, and having struggled to find a review online before I bought, I was relieved to find the TV provides excellent pictures from any source. The default set-ups aren’t bad, but I spent a while tweaking the settings until I had it just right – this is probably more due to my obsessive nature than any weakness in the performance.
The picure from Freeview and SD Sky is very good, much better than my 3 year old LG 32″ that I paid £600 for. This TV really shines when running HD though, with Sky HD looking truly incredible! I haven’t seen a sharper, more vibrant colourful picture on any TV anywhere. The black levels are really impressive too, inky and solid.
I’m an avid gamer so my Xbox 360 image was particularly important. I must admit that it has taken ages to get this bit right. The “Game Mode” seems pretty useless as it renders the picture too dark (I think) so I’ve experimented at length with using both component cables and HDMI in both 1080i and 1080p. Finally seem to have settled on HDMI in 1080p but the mix of Backlight/Contrast/Colour/Brightness was tricky to get right.
I’m happy now though and there are no signs whatsoever of lag, jaggies or tearing even on fast paced games. Friends have been round and marveled at the quality so it must look good to the casual observer.
The sound is the only weak point to this set – although it’s crystal clear there really isn’t nearly enough punch. A woofer & surround sound system easily sorts this problem though.
Smaller but oh so important details such as the on-screen menus and the remote also reassure you that this is a classy TV. Some people I’m sure would swear that you have to spend £1000+ to get a decent 40″ these days, but unless you’re an audio & visual expert, this will do the job just fine for half the price.
Rating: 4 / 5
I’ve owned several Samsung products, and have never failed to be disappointed with them- great specs and poor performance tend to make them a “jack of all trades, master of none” in my opinion. I did my research, not only on this model, but on their TVs generally, and all reviewers and owners were generally positive so, with some trepidation, I purchased the LE40B530P.
The setup procedure was very straightforward, and each step was very well explained onscreen. The TV has a built-in Freeview tuner (as you’d expect), and the channel scan started. It must be pointed out that the reception in my area isn’t great. The Samsung only picked up BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 3, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC News and BBC Parliament. This is very disappointing as my old TV picked up around 30 channels, leading me to think that the tuner in this TV isn’t great. However, the picture quality of those channels is superb, as is the EPG (which is Hi-Def).
I don’t yet have an HD input source, so can’t comment on that aspect of performance, but this did lead me to an unexpected problem: lack of suitable connections. The LE40B530P is bestowed with three HDMI inputs, but only one SCART input, giving me a problem connecting my Sky+ box and DVD player. Fortunately, both the TV and DVD player have component sockets. I’m not sure whether it’s the connections, the TV, my ageing DVD, or a combination of the three, but the picture quality is nothing short of stunning! The level of detail and vibrance of colour is phenomenal. I had expected MPEG artefacts and ghosting to be annoyingly intrusive, but on most DVDs they were not present at all. And trust me, I’m a stickler for detail!
The picture quality from the Sky+ box was not so good, featuring the MPEG artefacts and ghosting which I’d expected, but I really can’t blame the TV for this.
However, one area where I really CAN blame the TV is the appalling sound quality. The low volume is something of a blessing in that you can’t hear just how flat the sound it. Dramatic, rich movie scores sound as if they’ve been played through a 60’s transistor radio. No amount of fiddling with the settings can bring the audio up to spec. Fortunately, there are phono and optical outputs on the TV – do your ears a favour, and plug in a decent amp and speakers.
So in short, the picture quality is superb (although only tested using SD sources), the sound is shockingly bad and you need to put some thought about what you plug into it.
I can’t wait to get a Blu ray player and test the 1080p screen to it’s full potential!
Rating: 4 / 5
I bought this TV a couple of months ago now, primarily for Blu-Ray movie watching, and the picture quality is absolutely breathtaking.
Colours are rich and life-like and the detail levels are sublime. The standard refresh rate (50Hz I think) means that some fast panning shots can become a little hard to pin down visually- ‘blurry’ would be far too strong a word. But 100Hz screens cost an extra few hundred pounds, and it’s rarely a concern, and I’m pretty obsessive over quality.
I’ve seen criticism over the speaker quality, and any movie fan should have a seperate AV receiver for audio anyway, but the speakers in this TV aren’t bad at all, and the faux surround effect is very good when watching the built in Freeview.
I’d recommend using a medium settings on the ‘black level’ and ‘dynamic contrast’, and keep the brightness in the 40-45 range. I found the perfect settings with a THX set-up found on the Terminator 2 Skynet edition Blu-Ray (which is also recommended).
This is an excellent TV, and after a lot of research, I settled on it as the best in the sub £600 range at the time. Recommended!
Rating: 5 / 5
The most annoying thing is the TV menu for changing channels etc. Big Black box appears in top left corner with channel number (10 x 20cm), this disappears after a few seconds which is ok. However, if you select alternative input (AV, SCART, DVD), you have to select input, then press OK, to ‘ok’ it only then will Big black box disappear. Most other TV just take a few seconds and accept input automatically, not this TV though. Also, cannot see how to delete unwanted channels. To go from TV to TEXT is complex, and its not possible to just exit TEXT by pressing a few times, you have to search for a different button called TV. I tried to update the TV software, but, no improvement.
Also the remote control is HUGE, and badly balanced, so that it keeps falling on the floor(weird shape).
So good price, but honesly the way it functions is suprisingly clunky.
Rating: 3 / 5