Customer Reviews

Samsung LN-S4695D 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Bought the TV a week back after months of agonizing over Sony XBR and Samsung, and I am glad of the choice I made. It's probably the best LCD tv I came across with eye-opening contrast. The picture is exceptionally clear, even for the SD programs. Obviously, I can't test 1080p, but its a probably a good thing to have for 'future-proofing'. ( I did see a Samsung demo of 1080p on this model...its quite impressive).The native resolution of 1920x1080 also works great for connecting to PC. Movie Picture mode produces great black levels comparable to Plasmas.

Advantages -
1. Great looking - elegant.
2. 1080p with 1980x1080 native resolution.
3. Great dynamic contrast ratio - 6000:1
4. Separate Game mode.
5. Great even for SD.
6. 8 ms response time
7. less expensive than XBR.

Disadvantages -
1. The only difference I could think of between Bravia XBR and this one is 2 HDMI inputs instead of 3 for BRAVIA. Not a big deal for me.

Overall - I love it.

Did tons of research and Samsung seemed the way to go. Even though all my purchases thru Amazon were great, I was a bit leary of buying this TV online due to the return policy. I decided to go for it since I would save close to 1000.00 which included free shipping and no tax. Amazon came thru again, and everything was perfect. The TV is very slick in design and the picture is beautiful.

Do not expect to see a picture like you do in the stores. Unless you have High Def channels available, your picture will not be as clear. It looks great from 10 feet away, but as you get closer the resolution is not as good. High Def channels make a HUGE difference.

I have been dragging my heels entering the HDTV era for years now. I sat by while my early adopter friends bought their first HD sets, waiting for HD to reach "prime time" status. Finally, the combination of 1) 1080p 2) HDMI 3) lower prices across the board are what ultimately drove towards me to getting my first HD set.

I researched models for months before buying. I first looked at the Sharp Aquos line which seemed great until I started reading of "banding" issues (a manufacturing flaw) which plagued nearly all Aquos models 40-inches and over. Being the obsessive type, I could not justify spending that much money on a set with problems out of the box. Next I looked at the Sony XBR2 and XBR3 series, which also seemed great. In the end, two things turned me off 1) The price was $500 - $1000 more than comparable Samsung or Sharp models and 2) Reports of "clouding" issues, where black screens have noticeable white blotches, another manufacturing flaw.

I spent hours upon hours reading threads at the excellent AVS Forums about the Samsung models and was surprised to see nary a complaint uttered. For those who don't know, AVS is a haven for hardcore home theater enthusiasts. These guys mull over every single pixel of a display. If there is something wrong with the set -- they will let you know. Post after post were overwhelming positive about the Samsung sets, both the LN-S and LN-T lines, even in threads about Sharp and Sony sets :) Comfortable I was not about to drop over two large on a lemon, I pulled the trigger.

I've had the set for three weeks now and I have zero regrets. The thing I worried the most about before receiving the set was the black levels. Apparently, LCD displays cannot render truly deep blacks that Plasma displays can. I worried for nothing. The blacks seem plenty black to me, even with all the lights off. There's also an "Energy Saver" mode available directly from the remote which toggles the backlight between four levels, so you can adjust the black levels even further.

The colors on this set just "pop" -- it's amazing. I've started watching "Sunrise Earth" on Discovery HD every morning while getting ready for work because it just looks so good. This is going to sound like total BS, but the first day I played Sunrise Earth on the new set there were ducks on onscreen and my dog ran across the room, sat down in front of the set, and started barking :)

The set has a DNIe mode which automatically tweaks the onscreen colors and sharpens the picture. This mode can provide some amazing images for most content, but I found it cause artifacts in DVDs and sports. I suggest anyone who dislikes what DNIe does to DVD content turn it off and get a Lucas Films DVD and use the included THX Optimizer to tweak the set yourself. The truth is that 90% of the people who buy this set won't care about such subtleties and don't have to touch a setting to get a great picture.

Overall five stars. Great picture, great price. Two HDMI ports and 1080p make it future proof. The Samsung LN-S and LN-T lines are, at the moment, the best bang for the buck in the LCD market.

Compared this to the Sony Bravia XBR2 and Sharp LC46D62U. The Sony was expensive and I heard about some clouding issues, with Sharp it was banding. Overall the Samsung appeared to have more consistently good ratings so I ordered the set. I also wanted the PC input and the Sony and Sharp did not feature this.

When it arrived I had it out of the box within minutes and ready to view. The menu system is very intuitive as were the cable hookups. I declined the expensive Monster cables and used less costly HMDI cables from Radio Shack. Comments:

High Definition: Everything I had expected, fantastic.
DVD via HMDI: Even better than I could imagine, with this quality who needs BLU-RAY or HD-DVD?
Standard Definition: About as good as you can expect with this resolution quality.
Sound: Fills a room with real presence, crystal clear, amazing that this comes from two speakers.
Dead Pixels: None
Image Problems: None that I could see, no clouding, banding, nothing.


One aspect of large sets that I dislike is the elephant in a ballroom appearance. The Samsung is elegantly designed and has none of that overwhelming aspect.

Very happy with this purchase and if Samsung keeps the commitment to quality I will buy from them again and again.

I've had this TV for about 4 months now and I love it. Like most people I was trying to decide between the Sony XBR, Sharp Aquos, and this Samsung. I went with the Samsung because while the Sony picture was slightly better when compared side by side at the store it was not $1,000 better. Also I really like the piano black case and stand. It's very elegant and sleek. I'm not a gamer so I have no experience with that.

I have HD through Comcast and honestly compared to my friend's Sony XBR that's running HD DirecTV, mine is noticably better. I assume it's the signal not the TV.

One really great feature that I like is that you can switch the input source by just pressing one button. This allows me to use my Cable Box remote to switch the inputs on this set. Consequently it's one less remote I need to have out.

Sound quality is decent, not amazing but when I watch movies I use my receiver anyways. I can notice some "clouds" on a dark screeen but it's no where near as bad as my friend's XBR. Also during fast moving action scenes I can see some pixelation. Kind of annoying but it's rare and appears to be inherrent with the current LCD technology. If I had to do it again, I would buy this TV again except perhaps a larger size.

I purchased this TV as many did after comparing to the Sony XBR2. Thought it looked a little better than the older XBR model in side by side comparison, but not quite as good as the XBR2 series. There are several factors including price, looks and features that led me to purchase this TV over the Sony. Read on.

After comparing sisde by side the Sony XBR, Sony XBR2 and this Samsung set, I was a little concerened about the blacks being crushed while watching this TV in the store, turned out the store setting was goofy. I found you have many adjustments for picture settings you can save and modify to your satisfaction. Also the local SD picture was terrible in the store. I knew that this would comprise at least 80% of what I would watch until DirecTV comes out with their promised 100 channels of HD programming later this year. The set was hooked up to a DirecTV receiver in the store but of course was wired with about 500ft of cable and splitters and signal boosters to get the signal to the TVs on display. After having it delivered and installed with 12ft HDMI cable to the wall mounted set and a DirectV HR20-700 HD DVR hooked up, the local SD channels looked much better than in the store. It really gets down to what receiver you use, the settings that are set, what quality of signal the cable/satillite provider sends you and what the local channel signal sends as well as how each and every picture you see is recorded. With all the formats out there in recording technology, most of what is being bradcast is at least acceptable. Some though look terrible and will give you a headache if you watch say a poor 480i image scaled up to 1020i. You just have to know when to hit that channel button. Nothing will make a bad picture look better, especially blowing it up over twice the size. Eventually all video will be gathered in high quality HD. Hopefully within the next 5 years cable and satillite companies will actually bradcast in 1020P or higher, but don't hold your breath. This factor is the most misunderstood thing that the average person is confused about when watching an HD TV, thinking that everything that shows up on that screen should look pristine, bit the fact is garbage in, blah, blah!

Back to the TV review. The sound on my set is very good. I've heard about some with rattles or thin sounding sets but don't have that problem. I set a custom setting with the equalizer and saved a slight bass expanded setting for general viewing when I don't want to pop on the surround sound amps. Sounds good to me with the SRS turned on for most viewing. My room is fairly small 13x20 so people with larger rooms and need to crank it up more may not agree.

It took a couple of phone calls to DiecTV to get the DTV receiver to hold the 1020i resolution setting, but once that was done everything comes up great with a TV setting of 1020i with vertical side bars for 4x3 and full screen with 16x9 programming. Full screen 1080i (modified) DirecTV broadcast looks great.

Over all this is a really good TV and should last a long time with the LCD technology over plasma and DLP TVs. The remote design and not quite so snappy function was the only really I didn't give this TV 5 stars. I'm trying a Harmony 880 for the wife with this setup and once I get my older Home Theater Master MX850 remote programmed I think I will have a great setup that should work as expected with really fantastic picture.

Bottom line is if you got an extra $1000 right now to spend on the Sony XBR2 set, it does a little better job with lower quality bradcast signals and makes them look pretty good, but for my money the Samsung LN-S4695D is the only other TV to compete with it right now and on a good HD signal or upconverted DVD player looks fantastic!!!

PS: If you're at one of the big box stores, ask to see the "FUTURE" and watch the Sony full 1080p hard drive demo program. They had it hooked to the Sony XBR2 at the store. W O W ! ! Can't wait to be able to get that signal on my TV daily!!

I have been patiently shopping for, pricing, and comparing LCD TV's for over a year. After many trips to the "big box" stores, I was firmly convinced that the Samsung LN-4695D was the best looking (picture). The high end Sony Bravia was equally good looking, but it lacks many of the features (PIP) that the Samsung's possess and the SONY is $1000 more. Also, the LCD panels for both televisions are from the same manufacturer.
I was always a little put off by the contrast ratio 6000:1 on the Samsung. It was a lot less than the comparable models from Sharp and Mitsubishi. After seeing all three side by side, there was no comparison. The Samsung's blacks were blacker, the colors were brighter and more detailed.
It wasn't until i got it home that I was truly amazed at the performance of this TV. It looks great, especially when watching sports in HD. Like most LCD TV's, the performance falls off a little on standard TV and DVD, but with the Samsung, it wasn't bad. I highly recommend this TV.

A similar sized 1080p Sony LCD TV may offer a slightly better picture but the price of the Samsung was instrumental in my purchasing decision. The HD channels from BrightHouse offer great color and clarity. An additonal surprise was how great the old B&W movies on Turner Classic looked.
The Amazon price was about $1000 less than my local Circuit City store at the time of my purchase in November 2006. Amazon offered free delivery and no tax. They also honored their price guarantee when their price dropped $88. I use Amazon with confidence for most of my online purchases.

My wife and I reviewed the 40" and read it had problems. We decided get the 46" (1080p,lcd) samsung instead. We couldn't be happier. It is the perfect size, and looks amazing. Some people said it had the "screen door effect", we don't see any of that.(If you do, then adjust the color and contrast) The TV does get warm though, but that's the only complaint. We liked it so much we bought two of them. They were delivered in 10 days and with no problems. We save a ton of money compared to the department stores, even with the "monster cables". Thank you J.R., Electronic Expo, all those who wrote their opinions on the TV's, and Amazon.

This was my first purchase of a major electronic product from Amazon. The experience was positive. I did my homework in researching product characteristics and competition prices and found Amazon to offer the best deal on this HD TV. Delivery was prompt, although initially it was difficult to track the item due to misinformation about which carrier was actually shipping the television. Now that I've installed the set and have watched it for a couple of weeks the "wow" factor has kind of worn off, but the clarity, resolution and overall operation of the Samsung LCD continues to be great.