This review is from: Samsung LN-T4681F 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with LED Backlight (Electronics)
This TV has a great picture right out of the box. Pretty easy setup. Quality I have come to expect from Samsung and the reason I bought this set. Plenty of inputs. Sound is also nice, but I use a Home Theater so I don't really rely on the TV's speakers. Very well-designed and looks gtreat on the wall. The stand which comes with the TV is also nice and could rotate a little more, but is nice and stable. The glare issue is not a big deal and I for one am glad Samsung is keeping this panel in the new generation LED sets. This has much less glare than a standard glass tube TV screen. In some settings you might be concerned about the glare, but the screen is wonderful and necessary for the overall picture quality. I used to watch TV with my glasses off because the fine grain stood out too much. Now I have my glasses back on because the picture is so sharp. The blacks are black, you can't get blacker than this. The detail amazing and I have not even watched a HD movie yet. I was eyeing the LN-T4665F for a long time, and decided to wait for this one to come out. Very glad I did. Very highly recommended.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Samsung LN-T4681F 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with LED Backlight (Electronics)
Great TV with LED backlighting technology. Beautifully designed and executed by Samsung. I applaud their efforts. It's a little surprise to me that off-angle viewing is so inferior to other Samsung LCD series, which used the old fluorescent backlighting. I recently bought two Samsung 7-series sets (52" and 40"), and they look terrific at most viewing angles. For this 81F set, the picture is stunning at direct straight-on viewing, but contrast quickly degrades as viewing angle increases. If you have a viewing room or intend to set up the TV to have a narrow viewing angle, than shop no further--this TV is for you. But if you have a wide room, consider the other Samsung series. Overall, it's an excellent TV.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Samsung LN-T4681F 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with LED Backlight (Electronics)
When you see numbers like 5000:1 contrast, etc, it's hard to put a meaning to it, but when you compare this set against a CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) you discover why LED backlights are the wave of the future.
First we had NTSC with it's inability to produce deep reds due to the severe limitations on its color gamut, now we have ATSC with a digital RGB signal that is a hundred times better than NTSC when it comes to color. The final piece of the puzzle is viewing it on a system with red, green, and blue produced by LEDs instead of phosphor chemicals in a lamp tube. The bold, rich color of HDTV comes alive with this LCD TV making the others seem washed out in comparison.
Sure, the contrast ratio is great, but it also will outlast 2.5 CCFL based LCD TVs because of the reliability of LED backlighting. If you are in a commercial institution such as a restaurant where the set will run 12 hours a day or more, that can add up to some substantial savings.
The LCD display with LED backlight makes for a clearer, sharper, and more defined picture than ever before with no spillover light around the edges. Combined with the picture quality and life extention, this is a true bargain for someone looking at a modern 46" 1080x1920 Progressive display.
Simply put, this set is pure eye candy.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Samsung LN-T4681F 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with LED Backlight (Electronics)
I have owned this set for about six weeks now, and I love it. The picture is exquisite, and far outpaces the three-year-old Sony VEGA set it replaced (the old set only did 720p, for one thing...).
Good stuff:
This TV is a real conversation starter. It's enormous, and very glossy (both on the screen and the bezel). The gloss makes fingerprints very obvious, and seems to attract dust...so you'll want to do some routine cleaning if you want to keep it looking nice. People sit down in my living room and just stare at the set, even if it's turned off. Some have compared it to the monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey." That's...good, right?
The picture is stunning. The reviews here are right: the LED backlighting really makes things look great, and makes rich black really pop.
I recommend turning off the power-on LED (the little blue bar under the display) using the onscreen menus. When it's on, you can actually see the reflection of the power light on the bezel around the screen, and I found that distracting. Fortunately it's an easy thing to turn off -- and when it's off, the set has ZERO lights aside from the picture when turned on. This is a great feature, as I don't want any little points of light distracting me from the picture! On my old set, there was a little "power on" light that always bugged me.
Tuning between inputs is fast, and makes switching from one input to another no big deal. (On my old set, it took several seconds for each switch, so going through the list felt laborious....)
Be sure to go through the onscreen menus and enable the optional features, particularly the dynamic LED backlighting (some of these features require you to change the picture mode to MOVIE, which I've done on every input...). The default VIVID setting is garish, but it's very easy to switch (and of course the setting is saved, on a per input basis, so it's a one time setup).
Bad stuff:
The three HDMI ports are adequate for me (HD TiVo, AppleTV, and Samsung Blu-ray player), though I wish there were more, and I wish they were all on the back rather than one on the side. As it is I'm using the side port for a Blu-ray player, and having the cable sticking out the side isn't exactly ideal. I still haven't found a decent right-angle adapter.
The speakers aren't great. I guess they're fine for a TV set, but they're nothing to write home about.
The remote is adequate but not great. I wish the backlight extended to more of the buttons. The remote is also rather long. Note that if you have a Samsung Blu-ray player, you can use the Blu-ray remote instead to control most/all of the TV functions...but the Blu-ray remote (at least the one with the BD-1500 series player) isn't backlit. Oh well.
The glossy screen definitely shows light sources in the room: windows, lamps, etc. In many cases you'll want to move stuff around (or simply turn off/block out any light sources) if you're watching anything serious. But I guess that's true of any movie viewing experience.
Anyway, overall I'm extremely satisfied with this purchase. My other candidate was a Sony XBR4 set, but I'm glad I went with the Samsung...it's cheaper, has a better picture, and uses less energy due to the LED backlight. The Sony's design is arguably a little better, and it doesn't have the extreme gloss factor. But for my money, this is the set to get.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Samsung LN-T4681F 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with LED Backlight (Electronics)
I have had my Samsung LNT4681F for over 2 weeks now and I could not be any happier. The colors that are produced on the screen are amazing, when my wife saw it she said "WOW!" I had a rear projection TV before and my wife and I love to watch movies. Whenever we rented some DVD's I would always steer clear of the ones in widescreen. I could stand the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Very noticable, and if I did happen to watch a widescreen DVD I would change the screen ratio to stretch the picture and remove the black bars. With the Samsung LNT4681F there is no need to do any of this because it produces TRUE Blacks. I can quite easily watch a DVD in wide screen now and not for a minute do I even notice the black bars. I would highly recommend this TV to anyone.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Samsung LN-T4681F 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with LED Backlight (Electronics)
If you look at the new Sony XBR8 you will find all the features of the Samsung LN-T4681F imitated for three times the current price of the Samsung. Sony has not only copied the LED back lighting but they also elected to copy the bezel design of the Samsung LN-T4681F.
If you really want the true blacks that an LED back lit set provide the LN-T4681F is an incredible bargain at the current clearance price. While I have only had mine for a month everyone that has seen it has been stunned by the image quality. The ISF certified technician that did the final color calibration after burn-in commented that the 81F was the first LCD set to approach the image quality and black levels of the Pioneer Kuro plasma sets.
The icing on the cake is that the LED back lighting uses considerably less electricity than cold cathode LCD sets and much less than a Pioneer Kuro plasma and the LED's should outlast the TV itself as well.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Samsung LN-T4681F 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with LED Backlight (Electronics)
I am in love with this TV. It has the best picture than ANY HDTV I have ever seen; LCD, Plasma, or otherwise. It's like you are looking through a window at the action in an adjacent room. Just unbelievable. I have absolutely no complaints. And the sleek glossy black styling looks great in your room also.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Samsung LN-T4681F 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with LED Backlight (Electronics)
I kind of kept my head out of the HDTV market for awhile. I figure the longer you wait, the better technology that you'll get for a lower price.
I unsuspectedly walked into a store and was looking at a few sets. After talking to the salesmen a bit. I compared this set to a few others including a Sony.
The picture quality is stunning. The black levels are drastically improved over the models I've viewed just a year or two ago. High speed motion doesn't seem to show artifacts. The initial release of this set in January, was pretty expensive, but the prices for this set has dropped. The only other strange thing I can note is it doesn't seem to be currently available at Amazon, and Crutchfield had a very good price on this set, but now don't seem to carry it any longer.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Samsung LN-T4681F 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with LED Backlight (Electronics)
Had this TV for over a year. Still like new. Picture and sound is crystal clear. Color is amazing. I watch sports, play 360 and PS3 games, everything looks so good. I don't have one complaint. Buy it now!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Samsung LN-T4681F 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with LED Backlight (Electronics)
I finally took the plunge for an HD set. At the time that I last set up my home theater - HD had _just_ come on market. Some early CRT-based HD sets were available, but the specification wasn't quite there, and certainly content availability was very low. The sets were _very_ expensive as well. So I simply opted for a high-end Standard Def. set from Sony.
Things were fine for a long time.
Then the LCD sets came on the market. Vendors wanted more money for what was, to my eyes, an inferior picture. CRT based sets were quickly discontinued - not necessarily because LCD technology was superior (it certainly wasn't) - but because such sets take much less floor space on a show room floor. The poor color representation, and pixelization, and motion blur of LCD sets turned me off, and Plasma wasn't much better. I just couldn't see spending more money for a worse picture, even if the set had physical advantages in terms of space, and power savings.
Well, fast forward to today. After looking over several Samsung models - I ended up purchasing this set. It's by no means the current "best available" at this point - but considering the price and quality it's quite good. The black levels on this set are amazing (none of that dark gray = black). The color representation is excellent. And, so far, judder and motion blur seem acceptably low.
Hi-definition sportscasts look amazing. NHL and NBA (currently in-season) look fantastic - the gleam of the ice or the court, or the reflections off the glass barriers is really something to see.
The X-Box 360 looks fantastic in 1080p - and video games don't seem to have any real lag between the control and updates of on-screen action.
The 3:2 pulldown, movie mode (24 fps) looks quite alright so far. Several DVDs (don't have the Blu-Ray yet) look almost Hi-Def when up-sampled (several guests have been amazed that it wasn't actually a Hi-Def source).
All in all, pleasantly happy with this set, and looking forward to several years of viewing pleasure.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
(
Saving...
