Samsung LE32B541P7 32-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p Crystal LCD TV with Freeview
Posted by Notcot on Apr 9, 2010 in Home Cinema & Video |
Product Description
Samsung LE32B541P7W 32 inch LCD Television 1920 x 1080 HDMI VGA SCART
- 1920 x 1080 Resolution
- HDMI connectivity
- Built-in speakers
- -
Samsung LE32B541P7 32-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p Crystal LCD TV with Freeview
Excellent TV, particularly when viewing HD programmes. So nice to have it encased in this beautiful white surround meaning that we don’t have a big black monstrosity dominating our light and contemporary living room! Had a problem with the swivel stand – it didn’t swivel and then realised that the spec. given on the Amazon page did not match the model we had received. We were expecting 4 HDMI ports and 2 SCARTS, but had 3 & 1 respectively (Amazon have since revised the HDMI figure, but not the SCARTS) Also the shape of the TV and stand did not match the picture. It is actually flat bottomed rather than curved as on the image and the stand base is rectangular rather than oval. Also the model is not a “Crystal” one (I checked all this out with Samsung themselves) Because of all of the above we ended up returning this set to Amazon who agreed to a full refund) All was not lost though – because we loved the TV so much and because it didn’t dominate our room, we ordered the 40″ white model Samsung LE40B541P7 40-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p Crystal LCD TV with Freeview to replace it! (Warning – same non-matching spec issues, but at least were were aware of these prior to ordering this time)
Rating: 4 / 5
It’s white – a straight up plus. The screen and sound are excellent (a little over colour-saturated for my taste, but that’s just personal preference and a 10 second customisation). The number of external device connections looks to be very useful and I’ll definetly use them once I get round to it.
Sounds like 5 starts so far and it would have been, but then we actually try to use the TV, mainly via Electronic Programming Guide (EPG), and it all falls down.
If you are like me and browse channels based on what’s on, what’s about to come one and when current shows started and how long they still have to go, then you need to use the EPG, and this one simply hasn’t been thought through.
The EPG allows no option to reduce the number of channels shown: you need to wade through every freeview channel, hundereds of them, and you can only scroll through them one channel at a time – with a nasty lag per channel, whihc makes this fairly unbearable.
While one can set up a fav channels list on this TV, this list is only used for browsing what is on NOW and has no idea of when started/how long to go. To me, the fav channel list is thus next to useless, but you have to ask: if they support this list, why not show just the favorites on the EPG if desired? The list also supports page up/down so you don’t need to scroll through every channel one at a time – another feature missing from the EPG where it is even more important given the huge number of channels you are forced to wade through.
It’s so bad this review nearly went down to 2 stars, but then the TV itself *is* good, so 3 it is. Hopefully Samsung might redesign the EPG at some point but I suspect not.
As a bonus irritation, there’s a “warning” pop-up message box that appears 5 mins before a scheduled channel change which scuppers any attempt to use this for chaning channels when recording programs if you are out. Whoever designed that was a genius.
Given how long freeview has been about, it’s very odd that Samsung have not sorted out such obvious issues years before now (my old sony freeview box has none of these problems).
Rating: 3 / 5
Excellent T.V and white surround frame is so much easier on the eye and blends the T.V into the background of the room so well rather than that awful “gravestone like ” black! The picture quality is excellent.A pity manufacturers generally don’t emulate Samsung in producing more white surrounds.
Rating: 5 / 5
TV is excellent. Picture quality is great and the white surround fits in perfect in a modern looking room.
Only gripe is that Amazon have the specification and pictures slightly wrong which can mislead.
The white picture shown by Amazon is actually the following TV ‘Samsung LE32B450C4 32 inch Widescreen HD Ready LCD TV with Freeview’ which is a much lower spec TV. Though I like the look of it!
Look at the alternative pics which are in black for how the TV will look.
It is not a CRYSTAL model… neither the packaging or documentation refer to anything related to crystal.
There is no USB interface. Which was a little disappointing, as that sounded a nice feature to have.
Other than that the specs seem about right.
Rating: 4 / 5
I bought this tv for my parents who wanted a white surround rather than the 99.9% other choice of dull black.
The delivery was fast and efficient. Easy to set up with a plug and play menu. The picture quality is brilliant, the best I have seen so far on lcd.
My parents and I would recommend this set to anyone who wants superb quality, fantastic defined 1080i picture and white surround all at a very competative price with super free fast delivery !
Rating: 5 / 5