Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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131 of 136 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wish I had bought this one..., September 6, 2007
I researched the 81 and 71 series for as long as they had been announced (~ 6 months, since CES show). I got all hopped up about the "100k" contrast ratio on the 81 series due completely to the new "LED" backlighting. Well, at AVS forums, one guy bought both, and concluded that it only mattered when the screen was totally black (like the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen when watching a wide screen formatted movie, or a fade scene), and then only a little. The general conclusion seemed to point to the 71 series being the sleeper hit so far this year (dunno about the xbr5, but some reports put this one right with it), and that the 81 series wasn't worth the extra grand or more.
Too late for me, because I rushed into BB to pay up front for an 81 series tv as soon as the store had the sku in their system (4 weeks before they even showed up). Yeah, I got to use a 12% off good customer coupon, but in the end I could have had a 52" 71 series instead of a 46" 81 series (especially seeing how heavily discounted they are now on Amazon). The anti-motion options in the 81 are only available in "movie" mode, and are buried in the menus, and only has an on/off option, versus the 71's easy to navigate 3 level options for the anti-motion feature.
The reviews point to the colors and picture appearing just about the same between the 2 tv's when the screen or a large portion of it wasn't all black. Other than that....get this one. It is worth the premium over the 61 or 65 series. As long as you can live with a glossy / semi-glossy screen (versus the xbr4/5's matte screens), you won't be sorry. As for me, I'm wondering if I should bite the bullet and be one of those turkeys who uses the 30 day guarantee to return the TV and get a 71 series...it is a lot of money not to be totally satisfied with the purchase. Best of luck.
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69 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One Word - AWESOME !!!, October 10, 2007
I have literally waited years for an HDTV with all the right specs (120Hz, 1080p, high contrast, 3 HDMI (1.3) inputs, x.v.Color, etc.), but finally it's here, and the long wait has been well worth it. It is simply awesome.
I was very tempted with the Sony XBR4, but this one beats the Sony hands down on looks, contrast, clarity and especially price! The many features it has and the specifications it supports are probably hard to find in terms of signal input (such as hi-definition programming or discs that are available now), but I wanted to be relatively future-ready. Both the screen and the edge around it are highly reflective, so if this would bother you, or you have light coming from behind you as you are watching, this one may be too shiny for its own good. I was initially worried about the reflection, and I don't quite understand why the bezel around the screen itself has to be so shiny as well (maybe to match?). Having said that; the "glossy" screen makes this LCD TV look like a high-end plasma screen, and it is probably going to compete with the best plasma's out there. The contrast is simply incredible, and the light output was so bright that I had to tone down the brightness setting, and increase the energy saving mode.
And this is exactly where personal preference comes in. You may see this screen in a store where it is cranked way up for certain settings, and you may not like the contrast, brightness, or color. There are - of course - ample settings to play with and it is quite possible to "dial in" what you like best. So don't be disappointed in the store, and don't give up on this Samsung just yet - give it another chance by trying one out at home. Just as you need to select the proper viewing size, so that everything looks normal and not too stretched or squeezed, the color, contrast and saturation settings need to reflect a normal picture. And then there are settings (like the x.v.Color) that will do injustice to the image, if the input signal does not utilize this color-space.
There is a now (in-)famous blue Samsung light on the bottom of the screen that can be set to be on when the TV is on, or on when the TV is off, or always on, or always off. Using an HDMI connection, turning the TV off also turns our connected receiver off, and vice versa. You can name each input on the TV with a specific name-tag, such as DVD, game, and so on. The few "bad" things that I have noticed are blurry contours of fast-moving subjects (when you look close) or occasional slow frames / jumpy picture for a short time. These may be due to processing by the TV, may be due to incorrect settings, may occur already in the players or may actually be in the (compressed) signals itself. These problems have occurred watching blu-ray movies using a Sony PS3, and DVDs on the PS3 or on a Pioneer DVD player. Not a super big problem, but it is something I keep noticing and worrying about. Our one & only PS3 game so far looks fantastic, and I haven't noticed any movement issues while playing that. I was also very worried that standard DVD's and our home-made picture DVD's would look relatively bad, but they are still OK to watch and they look absolutely fantastic on this new TV as compared to our old one. With the TV set to 1080p, I do not see a clear difference in a DVD signal put out as 480p compared to the same DVD signal up-converted to 1080p by a pioneer DVD player or the PS3. If anything I would say the PS3 looks better. There is definitely a tremendous difference when you look at something on DVD (up-converted to 1080p) and then look at the exact same footage on a blu-ray disc (both played on the PS3). There is so much more detail that it puts a lot of the blogs and discussions (about seeing a real difference with 1080p or not - on a 40 inch screen) to shame. See the 2 images of Planet Earth footage I have also posted. The pictures were taken from about 9 feet away, using a tripod. The DVD was set to up-convert to 1080p. TV settings were exactly the same for both images.
We're not using the sound of the TV itself, so I cannot comment on that at all.
Pros: 3 HDMI (1.3) inputs, super clear panel, INCREDIBLE clarity and color; a great system with lots of hi-tech specifications.
Cons (all relatively minor):
Highly reflective screen (although this makes the picture quality awesome!).
Highly reflective edge. When the TV is off, the reflective screen is bad enough, but with the shiny edge it can look really bad.
No "name tag" for HD-DVD player or Blu-ray player in the menu list to assign to HDMI input (very minor point - I agree - and may be fixed by future updates?).
In short - look no further. This is the one you want.
This is a review of the Samsung 4071F.
The following products have also been mentioned and are also available from Amazon:
Sony Playstation 3 (PS3)
Planet Earth
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43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
four and a half stars really, November 12, 2007
i do very much like this set. i think it has the best picture of any lcd out right now and i do mean compared to the sony xbr4/5, toshiba regza cinema series and the sharp aqueous models. for the money it cannot be touched and in absolute terms only a pioneer kuro is going to give a better image.
if you are a moive watcher like i am then beware of using this set with bd and hd dvd players at 1080p/24. the resulting image is pretty, but frame drops and a slow-motion like effect aare very common. you will need to run at 1080i/p/60 to get a smooth image. the reason is that this set is actually 1080p/30 and the translation of the differeing frame rates is poorly implemented. many people do not know about this b/c they are using 60 field based sources and think everything is fine. i have tried the following on 3 different sets and the negative effects mentioned above happen every time. here's how to duplicate this issue:
set the TV however you want (amp on or off makes no difference)
set the hd dvd player or bd player to 1080p/24
use an hdmi cable
put in a movie that is 1080p/24 (pretty much all of them)
turn on the player and tv and play the movie.
you will see stutter, frame drops and slow motion on and off. sometimes it's REALLY, REALLY bad, other times it'll last for 2 seconds.
aside from this warning, i do recommend the set because it's got an excellent picture, is well built and should offer years of great use. i suspect samsung will fix the issues i mentioned above if enough people call them.
update: i called samsung and a level 3 (the highest level) tech said they know about the issue i described and are wokingon a firmwre fix. when it will arrive he coul not say, but he said it will arrive for sure.
a great set and one i recommend.
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