Customer Reviews

Samsung LNT4071F 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV

5 star:		(124)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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

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.

I did a month of research before buying this HDTV. I just received it yesterday. I rate it a 4.5 out of 5. I'm not disappointed. The number of ways to connect other components to it is incredible.. 3 HDMI, 2 Component, a VGA and even a USB input. It even has 2 coaxial style inputs for cable TV AND off air antenna. The picture quality is nice but there is some pixilation on fast action even with the 120Hz refresh rate (but better than a 60Hz LNT4061) . There is no perfect picture HDTV yet; at least that is true to the discerning eye. Analog TV still rules for fast moving action scenes and will be for years to come even after the analog broadcasts are shut down in 2009. I'm really a picky sort of person though and even with that, I think this TV is superior to the Sony, Toshiba, or Sharp. It all depends on what your particular eye sees so buy the TV that you find pleasing to your eye. For me, the other contenders were the Sharp Aquos R-Series 42" 120Hz (LC-42RX1W) and the Toshiba REGZA 42" 120Hz (42LX177). I really don't think I would have done wrong if I bought either of those either. I just happen to like the looks of the Samsung picture and the cabinet style the best. The Sony Bravio was nice too but I saw two at different stores that had LCD flaws so I decided not even to risk it (both had a line through the screen starting at the left side and then fading to the right that was only visible on certain TV pictures; it was as clear as can be at times and was very annoying)..

A few things worth noting about this Samsung. These are negatives but don't think that means I don't like this TV, it's just that it has so many positives, it's much easier just to list the negatives and I think these issues are worth mentioning:

1) Remote control needs to be pointed at the TV or it will not work. This surprised me as I thought all TVs (other than the no-name brands) had excellent remote control functionality. It will control other things like your cable box and such but I haven't checked that feature to see if the remote works better with other equipment. I verified this poor remote sensitivity at the store later and found that it's not just my unit. You have to aim it at the TV for the remote to work. This compared to my older Sony which I can point in the opposite direction and it will still work. Don't get me wrong, I've had worse in earlier AV equipment, it's just not up to par with modern AV equipment as far as sensitivity.

2) Only one tuner. For the picture-in-picture, it is only analog, not digital. That is, you need a second source for PIP and even when you have a second soruce, if you dicide to have the second source on the main screen and use the Samsung tuner as the PIP, it will only work with Analog TV (not HD or Digital). ALSO, you have to navigate through a menu to turn on the PIP each time, i.e., it's not just a click on the remote (like it is with the Sony). Not much thought was put into the Samsung PIP feature at all.

I will mention one outstanding feature that I think deserves it above all others since it's not a topic commonly discussed. It has a fabulous ATSC tuner. I have another HDTV that I installed in my motorhome two months ago. It's a smaller (15") Toshiba. It also is a 2007 model. I thought it had much better digital over-air reception than my older ATSC tuners but this Samsung even blows that away. The digital over-air reception has no freeze frames at all (so far) and I now get all networks in digital over-air here at home (Kirkland, WA). This compared to an older ATSC set-top box I have that would only pick up steady reception on a clear day with no wind and did not get all the network digital channels. I live amongst huge trees. Digital TV off-air is something I thought I'd never be able to receive reliably. With this TV, I get it, and get it reliably. It's windy today too and still not a blip on the TV like I would have with my other ATSC tuners. With that said, I have no idea how good the other ATSC TV- tuners are of the TVs I've listed as contenders in this same class. They may be just as good but they certainly can't be better at least from my perspective.

Edit 11-15-07

Now after having much more time to view this TV, I've seen many imperfections in the picture. I found that there is an annoying attribute with certain screen scenes that I can only explain as a triple shadow effect when the 120Hz motion is active. I was able to reproduce this at a scene of a movie over and over again by rewinding then playing again with and without 120Hz active. Before I was able to confirm this I thought it was the HD input but now I am positive it is the TV only when 120Hz is active but less so in the "Low" setting. I highly recommend that other owners confirm this issue. It is illusive and to some it may not be a bothersome problem. The best type of scene to clearly see this issue is a scene when a book is being open focused on the text of the page.For a fine example, watch Casanova HD; half way through the movie there is a Scene when Casanova is going through someone else's notebook while the other person is in the other room. Watch when scene pans to the front of the book and he opens it. As he opens it, there is a triple shadow of all the text in the notebook. If 120Hz is turned off, the shadow is gone and it's a perfect picture during this same scene. This happens in a lot of other instances of any HD video, but more subtle. I would now rate this HDTV a 3. It certainly does not deserve a 5. I cannot change the 5 star rating in this edit feature so I'll leave it as is.

UPDATE: January 11, 2010

Just a few weeks past two years of ownership and just in time to increase my spending for Christmas 09 - my Samsung stops working. No picture, no sound, just a clicking from the circuit board that NEVER STOPS; had to unplug the unit to silence it. Sudden stoppage, too, with perhaps 3 seconds of warning via frazzled picture before the end.

Sumsung's consumer web site and hot line personnel weren't of much use for the repair since I didn't buy the extended warranty. They both directed me to a repair facility 2 hours away which refused to travel to my town to work on it and discouraged carry-ins. If you don't have a warranty and you're not living in a top 50 metro area you're going to have to use local talent to fix one of these.

The good news is that a local repair shop sent a tech out who fixed the TV in less than an hour. The problem: capacitor failure. According to the tech, most LCD and many plasma TVs were built with what his company considers substandard capacitors. When they replace them his company uses higher quality parts than OEM and he assured me they rarely had recalls for "cap" problems on the same TVs. Six capacitors and some soldering later, I'm back in business.

The BETTER news is that even after two years of developments in TV technology, I STILL receive raves on the picture and sound quality of this TV. Even the repair tech was impressed and he sees all brands and types in his work!

OK, so it cost me $275 for in-house repair. I'm not happy about that - but I'm still happy with the viewing experience from this TV, and I still haven't seen anything in the stores that make me want to dump it for something better.

Samsung LNT4071F 40" 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
After waiting for years for that elusive HDTV with the most compelling mix of features, quality and price - here it is, at last! Some of the other reviewers pointed out a number of flaws with this unit, from the shiny screen and case to the ditzy remote to the 120Hz hijinks, etc. They're absolutely right, I admit: it's not perfect. But if you wait for the perfect set you'll spend many more months searching for it - months that you could have spent enjoying yourself watching THIS unit.

The picture quality is better than many plasma sets I've seen in friends' homes and in store displays. The contrast level is incredible for an LCD, displaying shadows that look like shadows, while still retaining the details in the dark areas. The range of video controls gives you quite a depth of control over the picture quality, and the unit even remembers the last video setting for each input, separately, so that you don't have to readjust when you change from cable to DVD to air antenna to PC to satellite to USB, etc. down the list of more inputs than most people will have reason to use. The unit has excellent audio for a TV, especially after you take time to tweak the many available sound options. The screen even physically swivels 20 degrees in either direction for optimum placement!

I've had mine for two weeks, and I'm still amazed at the quality of the total package: picture, sound, connectivity options, menu setup, physical appearance. I've spent several hours, yes, tweaking the video settings to my personal preference, but the Samsung setup menu is easy to follow and provides a huge number of options as I noted earlier.

And that's what I believe to be the source of many of the complaints - people are used to the mature technology of analog TV, with everything standardized to a comfort level of bland conformity and very forgiving of all but the most extreme signal errors. Digital TV's high res displays showcase the flaws from all the odd inputs and off kilter signals that were masked on analog sets. Until all input sources provide a consistent, high quality video signal calibrated for digital displays, the better digital sets will have to offer many adjustment possibilities, and digital set owners will have to frequently interact with their sets to adjust out those flaws. You have to work for that great picture!

Maybe a few years after the 2009 move to all digital is complete most content providers will take more effort to deliver an industry standard, consistent and quality signal. Until then, buy this set and have one of the best pictures you can finagle from an LCD.

I saw one of these at an electronics store and was impressed with how far the technology had come, as I'd been visiting the store and looking at the latest 40" 1080p Samsung LCDs for over a year. This was the third model they put in that display slot in the time I had been keeping track.

The TV was for my bedroom so I had been thinking a smaller 37" model would be more suitable, but I had never actually seen a 37" 1080p TV in a store. As it turned out 40" was just about right, although a little bit wider than I would have hoped due to the built in speakers. Maybe my eyesight isn't what it used to be, but sitting about six feet from this set I find that a 40" diagonal isn't too big.

When I first saw this model at the store, and read about its new 120Hz refresh, I knew it was finally time to stop window shopping and buy my first 1080p television. So I went online and found it at Amazon for about $500 less than what the store was charging, and I ordered.

One of the first things that impressed me about the set was how well it handled regular low-definition television broadcasts. Looking closely at the screen I've never see any of those squarish scaling artifacts that I've sometimes seen with other LCD TVs displaying an image at less than the native resolution. So when I watch regular low-def TV channels I see only the image that was intended, and I see it as clearly as possible.

Where this set really shines, however, is at 1080p, so shortly after buying it I got myself a Playstation 3, an HDMI cable, and a couple of blu-ray disks. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and the BBC documentary Galapagos both look fantastic in 1080p. This is beyond what was possible with any television I've ever owned before, including the 1366x768 Sony LCD I bought just a few years ago.

The audio on this TV is perfectly good as far as my ears can tell, but I'm more of a visually oriented person, so I can imagine that some people might want to pair it with a set of 5.1 speakers for the ultimate high-definition theater.

The remote is fine, and probably has more functions than I'll ever use. Basically I just programmed the TV and customized its display mode when I first set it up, and I don't expect to mess with it too much in the future. I find the favorite channel button useful for quickly returning to the channel that allows me to watch using my VCR and its tuner after channel surfing.

The picture size button lets me choose zoom and aspect ratio. I rarely have to touch this button as I keep it on 4:3 for regular TV and 16:9 when watching blu-rays or DVDs through the HDMI. Occasionally a TV channel will show a program letter-boxed and then I sometimes zoom the picture to fill the screen, but that's the only time I've used it thus far. I've seen other TVs that have a mode that expands a 4:3 picture to fill a 16:9 screen by stretching the edges of the picture so that the center does not become distorted. I haven't found anything that fancy on this model, but I'm perfectly happy with the 4:3 mode for regular TV.

As far as the 120Hz refresh that sold me on this product? As far as I can tell it does exactly what it's supposed to and makes movement real smooth. But I figure the human eye can barely distinguish events that occur within 1/60th of a second, so I imagine that the visual difference between a 60Hz refresh and a 120Hz refresh is actually fairly subtle.

To sum up, this is by far the best and most capable television I've ever had. I suspect that just about anyone who wants to watch either regular or high-definition content will be satisfied with it.

I looked at a lot of LCD TV's and generally was not happy with the "blocks" that appeared when watching sports or when fast movements showed on the screen. I checked out some of the 120Hz sets, and the picture of the Samsung and Sony XBR seemed the best. The kicker was when I saw the Samsung advertised for $1699 at Fry's, after seeing it for $2699 at Best Buy. Well, 2 hours later, with ad, Best Buy price matched and gave me 2 years no interest financing. That was just too good to pass up.

My prior TV was not able to show HDTV (no tuner). I plugged in the coax to the TV (I have no box from the cable company), and now have all the networks and PBS channels avail in either 720P or 1080i - my god what a difference. I was watching the Ken Burns World War 2 program in 720P and couldn't take my eyes away. In fact, I'm watching PBS much more now just because of this TV.

Have a upconverting Denon DVD hooked to this device and the picture looks great. It does 720P or 1080i upconvert, but 720P looks better to me. I tried setting the 120HZ AutoMotion at the different levels while playing movies, and it gives the movie a bit of a video game effect, esp. those with lots of special effects. High is too much, but at low its actually pretty nice. With sports, it seems low works fine.

ORIGINAL: Just my opinion, but I think the LNT4065F is a better value right now (as of 02/2008) until "true" 120hz LCD HDTVs are widely available in the US. This TV has a beautiful picture but why pay the extra money for 120hz when it cannot due 5:5 pulldown of 24p sources and can cause the Triple Ball Effect. The 120hz is a useless feature unless you have a true 120hz source input. Sources that are not 120hz (such as 1080p24 or 1080p60, ALL Blu-Ray/HD-DVD MOVIES) can be "distorted" by the interpolated frames causing the appearance of ghosting/shadowing (Casanova HD notebook scene). Because there are NO US LCD HDTVs that currently support 5:5 pulldown (and I have checked extensively), I am buying the LNT4065F for now and will buy a new model 52" or 57" once the 120hz and LED dimming have been perfected in a year, moving the 40" to the bedroom.

EDIT:
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?s=16c247b3358694cd91564fb2ee82c5b8&p=654062&postcount=380
Just read forum.blu-ray.com and after a professional review, it has been determined that the statement in the product manual "disabling the Auto Motion feature results in 60hz" is incorrect; this HDTV always functions at a native 120hz. This HDTV CAN perform accurate 5:5 pulldown of 24p content IF AND ONLY IF Auto Motion Plus is set to off. I now amend my review to state that this HDTV can be worth the extra money for the videophile film purist if you leave the Auto Motion Plus feature off (at all times).
Please note: this is NOT necessarily the case for the 81F series (LNT5281F) as the internal circuitry differs and there are conflicting reports.

I've owned a 4071 since November, and I'm very happy with it overall. It's generally a beautiful display, but a few small quirks keep it from being perfect:
1. On small objects moving horizontally, you'll occasionally get a "triple ball" effect, where ghost images of, say, the football or baseball you're watching will appear ahead of and behind the object. This occurs even when the 120Hz feature is turned off on my set.
2. Shadow detail is lacking in extremely dark scenes. As long as there's a bright object or two on screen, you're fine, but if the entire frame is dim, it's very hard to achieve an appealing picture. Things get muddy. I've seen this result using a variety of sources, including a DVD player using component inputs, Comcast HD cable on component and later using HDMI, a Mac Mini connected to the PC input, and an XBox 360 using HDMI.

Apart from those issues, I'm very happy with the display. colors are bright and vibrant. Contrast is very good. Menus are sensible and very easy to navigate. The 120Hz option is nice for live sporting events, but not something you'll want to use on movies, as it lends them a distracting, artificially smooth look.

I've had my eye on the Sony 40" XBR4 since January. The prices have been all over place and lately have been much higher than when I first started shopping around online. I went to Best Buy to check to do a visual comparison of the XBR4 vs 4071. I was impressed with the image quality of the 4071, so I placed my order here on Amazon. A couple of days later, I noticed that I had not taken advantage of the free Samsung Upconverting DVD player, so I called customer service and after a 15-min conversation, a free DVD player was on its way to me. I hope to purchase a blu-ray player in June!

Both products arrived within two weeks. The CEVA delivery guys were very friendly and set up my TV and attached directly to the cable. Within a few minutes, I had lots and lots of channels, many of them HD. I was very happy with the picture quality. I went out and rented a few videos and the DVD player worked great. Well, I had a dinner party this past Monday night. I decided to put an MP3 CD into the DVD player (which I'd done before and it worked great). The music had been playing for about 3 hours and one of my guests wanted to see the picture quality of the TV, so I picked up the TV remote and pressed the "source" button. The TV channel displayed for a few minutes and then the TV went black.

We went through the troubleshooting procedures in the instruction book with no luck. After my guests left, I unplugged everything and I tried to get the TV to come back on. There was power to the TV because the blue light was glowing, but all I got was a clicking sound and red flashing lights on the lower right indicator panel. I did some research on the web and I think there is a problem with the power panel. I called Amazon the next afternoon. They directed me back to Samsung. The Samsung person told me that because I purchased the TV online, they would not service it and she directed me back to Amazon. So, I called Amazon and the agent apologized for the problem and said customer service was backed up and someone would call me the next morning. Well, yesterday no one called me, however, when I checked my email this morning Amazon had already shipped me a new TV.

On the one hand, I'm thrilled that the problem is being resolved. On the other hand, I'm wondering about the power panel problem along with the Samsung DVD player. I had pressed the "source" button several times before the night of the dinner party and had no problem switching back and forth. Once my new TV arrives, I will update this review and hopefully give it 5 stars.

COMMENTS ABOUT THE TV: I like the favorites button on the remote but wish it could be more prominent. It's buried at the bottom of the remote with a bunch of other buttons. Sometimes the commercials seem louder than the programs even though I've turned the "volume control" on.

NOTE: Be sure to read about Amazon's Post-Order Price Guarantee in the HELP area. I check the price of this TV on a daily basis. To date, Amazon has issued 3 price guarantee refunds. I still have 8 days left -- unless they now honor the new ship date for the replacement TV. Requests must be made within 30 days of the item's shipment date. Overall, my customer service experience with Amazon has been excellent!