Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best bang for your buck in 32" LCD TV land!, August 20, 2007
After doing exhaustive research (online, offline, magazines, etc.) for the better part of 1 1/2 years, I finally decided it was the right time to upgrade our main TV and purchase the LNT3242 32" LCD TV from Samsung.
This model is from 2007 but has recently come down in price several hundred dollars already, I'm assuming because there are always new models and new technologies right around the corner. I wouldn't blame you buying this TV directly from Amazon, but if you want to pick it up in person (and be able to return it in person if you run into any troubles out of the box) you could look at Circuit City who has recently been running a sale on it every few weeks the last month or so for $300 off the original price of $1099. You can do even better if you're a AAA member and go to AAA's website to get a coupon emailed to you for an additional 10% off the sale price. Which would bring your TV price to $720!!! (not including tax).
So, let's get right down to it. Even before I turned the TV on, I was impressed by the sleak all black frame and the sturdy yet lightweight construction. For typical living room viewing I think the 32" widescreen is a perfect size. I can't really understand the practical need for a 50-60" screen in your living room unless you don't see particularly well or have fold up seats and sell popcorn out of your kitchen. The picture on the Samsung rivals the Sony's without rivaling their cost. And it makes sense as the Samsung TV's are produced in the same factory as the Sony's. I guess you're paying a little more for those 4 little letters printed on the front as I guess you do for any designer label in the clothing world. With the contrast ratio at 7000:1 you can clearly see the upgraded contrast at work here vs. LCD's of a few years ago. This set also comes with 3, count 'em, 3 HDMI inputs. I would highly recommend purchasing a few of the cheaper (under $5!), and well rated HDMI cables for sale on Amazon to go with this new TV. Not only does it simplify your wiring connections, but the picture quality will blow you away. Both my digital cable signal and dvd player look as good as one could wish for.
The TV comes with 3 pre-set viewing settings (dynamic, standard, and movie). But you can tweak any of them to your liking. The dynamic setting looked great only on HD channels and the movie setting looks dimmer and yellowish, but did look great on a particular episode of LOST that I tried it out on. Even analog channels look excellent, as this is one area that I was worried about as the stores only ever have their looping HD feeds on their sets on the sales floor, and I had heard that sometimes analog channels can look worse on an LCD than a standard tube tv. I'm sure that the imperfections would be magnified on a larger set, but at 32" the picture still looks great. Also standard programming (non-HD) is not formatted to fit the widescreen picture, but the TV has several options to make the picture larger or fill the screen without stretching it out of proportion.
If you're a sports or nature fan, this is two areas that HD programming is already shining in its infancy. ESPN in HD makes everything look ridiculously beautiful. As does Discovery HD theater with a constant mix of terrific programming that will make your jaw drop and bring a tear to your eye. It's that pretty!
Enough rambling, in short, this is a wonderful TV that would look great in any setting, is now at a very attractive price point and I really don't have one single complaint about. One more thing, the audio issue
that others have noted in some reviews, I have not experienced. In fact, I don't have any kind of speaker system setup and I'm only hearing the audio out of the TV speakers and it has great natural surround sound built in to the system. Get this TV now and you won't be sorry, especially with football season just around the corner. One more note, the only differrence between this TV and the slightly newer and slightly more expensive Samsung LNT3251 that I could tell is the contrast ratio is 8000:1 where this is 7000:1 (I couldn't tell the difference) and the blue glowing light at the bottom of the screen on the LNT3251, which seemed like it would be more distracting than anything (you can turn it off however).
Once again, put this TV in your home and you won't be sorry. It will change the way you think about TV viewing.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best picture for the price, April 30, 2007
This is my first HDTV. I did a lot of research, both online and checking them out at the local Best Buy and other TV stores. Samsung LCDs always, to my eyes, have the best picture of their price. Sony looks about the same, but they're always hundreds of dollars more expensive. As far as this specific model goes, this is their low end 2007 32" LCD, but I never saw enough of a difference between Samsung's other 2007 models to warrant spending another few $100. Amazon offered an excellent price (which was short lived) so I jumped at it and ordered online. EGL was ok, but the delivery guy was cool, he brought the TV to my apartment and set up the stand, and I was all ready.
Its been an awesome 4 days of playing video games, watching DVDs and free over the air HD content by my little antenna. It all works and plays beautifully. The menus are easy to navigate and there's a help message on every option. The default settings aren't great, but with some tweaking you'll have a very robust picture; the first big thing is to turn off all sharpening, which just adds outlines to everything. The remote is rather long, but the important buttons are big and impossible to miss. VGA input looks good, with my Apple laptop automatically sizing the screen for 1:1 on the HDTV.
If you want the best picture for the best price, and a modern 2007 HDTV that isn't a couple years old, I highly recommend this set.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great TV, March 26, 2007
I got this TV 2 days ago. So far I love it. The picture quality is fantastic. Although I can't say it's as good as a Sony CRT HDTV I used to have. But then, I haven't seen any LCD that can compare. The unit itself is incredibly light at under 30lbs, compared to my old one at 150lbs...ouch. I'm still playing around with the settings but so far I'm impressed with the deep blacks and rich colors. There are three preset picture settings: dynamic, standard, and movie. Dynamic is a bit too bright and does show the graininess evident in most LCDs. I prefer the movie mode, which is the dimmest of the three, and eliminates the graininess. I'll keep watching with this preset until I calibrate it properly. I'm giving it 5 stars because of the entire package. It looks very slick with its piano black housing, has a nice range of features, 3 HDMI/2 component inputs, and I got a great deal at Circuit City for $999. I went in there to buy the older model LN-S3241D, which I did, but was later told they didn't have any in stock. So they gave me a deal on this new model. No complaints from me. Still have to play around with this some more, but out of the box I'm thoroughly impressed.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Saving...
