Samsung: Fantastic performance, but QC future releases | Samsung LNT4071F 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV ...

Samsung LNT4071F HDTV | Samsung LNT4071F 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV

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	• Samsung LNT4071F 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV Samsung Samsung average customer review:based on 136 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great TV with even greater potential with firmware update.

This is a review of the 4071 which I bought at Amazon, and I will have a separate section at the end which addresses my experience with Amazon.

Why I chose the 4071:

I wanted something for my bedroom and since my viewing distance was close, I wanted an 1080p set as I CAN tell the difference between 1080p and 720p at that distance. I didn't consider Plasma because of burn-in and size. It basically boiled down to the SONY 40" W3000 and the 4071. I originally bought the SONY as I am a BIG SONY fan when it comes to video. The SONY in retrospect had a slightly sharper picture, but I was more impressed with the 4071 overall even compared to the XBR4, especially the blacks. Blacks look black on this set as opposed to dark grey. I originally went with the Sony because it was cheaper, but when the set I bought had dead pixels and Amazon had a similarly low price plus a Harmony remote, I went with the SAMSUNG.

When I was shopping for HDTVs, I would go to many stores to look at sets. One thing I would do is look at the picture quality of the sets without paying attention to the models or manufacturers. After seeing hundreds of sets, I noticed that I kept preferring the Samsung sets, especially the 71 series. One thing in particular which caught my eye was one of the Pirates movies on a 4071. It was stunning. It somehow had a more 3D look to it compared to all the other sets. ALMOST as if you were looking out a window. It is like the ONE girl who stands out from across the dance floor. I would later find out that the reason the set looked so good was largely due to Auto Motion Plus or AMP (More on that later). So, I took my family to look at HDTVs, and everyone felt that the 4071 looked better than the other sets, including the XBR4. Even my spouse who does not care much for these things was impressed.

Now about the Auto Motion Plus. AMP is Samsung's take on the 120Hz technology which doubles the screen rate of conventional TVs. You may have noticed at some stores, they have a demo of AMP with one half the screen with it turned ON and the other half turned OFF. I would stand there and watch this demo and I really didn't understand what was so great about it. I didn't notice much of a difference between the two sides. Well it turns out, that the reason I didn't see a big difference is because on older sets with older firmware, the AMP effect is not totally turned off EVEN WHEN SET TO OFF. So, what I was actually seeing was a comparison of AMP On to Amp Off but ACTUALLY ON LOW.

Now AMP has its share of fans and critics. Some think that it looks like a Soap Opera. This is because people are used to film at 24 frames per second. Now if you ask me, I prefer the Soap Opera effect as I feel the closer to real life, the better; and real life has infinite frames per second. Now AMP is not perfect. Most notably, it has what's popularly known as the Triple Ball Effect (TBE) and stuttering. TBE is an artifact that is seen when an object such as a ball, travels across the screen at high speed. The ball looks like three balls instead of one, due to the nature of the way AMP processes the image. Honestly, I rarely see this and when I do, it doesn't bother me much. Now stutter on the other hand bothers me very much. Stutter is when the picture pauses or jerks, in succession. When I first got my TV, this happened very rarely and only when AMP was turned on to Low, Medium or High. It did not happen when set to Off (AMP was still on, albeit at a level lower than low). TBE happened on all settings. Now, Samsung came out with a new firmware update (v1013.1) which was supposed to fix TBE (at least on OFF and LOW) so I installed it. With the new firmware, the AMP is really off when off and therefore exhibits no TBE or Stutter. So everything should be fine right? No. What happened was that the picture quality got dramatically worse with AMP off. That picture that so impressed me when I bought the set was gone. It turns out that AMP actually makes a VERY noticeable difference in picture quality. Remember that split screen demo I mentioned before? Well I ran it again, and now the side with AMP ON looked FAR superior to the side with AMP OFF. So, I turned the AMP on LOW to watch TV and Blurays. Now, the stuttering was worse than before! So I called Samsung to ask for the old firmware so that I could switch back. However, they DO NOT have the older firmware for downloading. So I'm stuck with either watching with AMP OFF (which still looks pretty darn good) or AMP LOW, (which looks AMAZING but hiccups every once in a while depending on the source material.

THE GOOD NEWS is that SAMSUNG is aware of these problems and is working to fix them in a future update. The other thing is, NOT ALL SETS EXHIBIT THESE PROBLEMS. Some sets seem to stutter more than others, while some don't stutter at all.

Other things I like about the set:

I like the touch sensitive power switch located by the blue light. By the way. the light can be selectively turned on or off (On always, Off always, On when set is on, On when set is off). I also like the touch sensitive buttons on the right side (Very Sexy and matches the touch sensitive feature of my PS3).

PQ with standard definition is good. The PQ with SD is much better than the SONY I had. SD on the Sony was close to unwatchable. I was not able to compare SD to an XBR though.

Other things I DON'T like about the set:

The remote that comes with it is not great. You have to point it towards the bottom right corner of the set in order for it to work. The good news; the issue is with the remote, not the sensor, as my Harmony universal remote (which came with the TV) has no problems. Also, the layout of the buttons is not great. For example, the Favorite Channel button is mixed in at the bottom with a whole bunch of other buttons. Also, the "back lit" remote only has 5 back lit buttons. The ch +,- vol +,- and TV for some reason. The Sony remote was way better although not perfect either.

I wish it had a zoom feature. The inexpensive Vizio has a zoom. The Samsung should too.

The set is an amazing DUST MAGNET. There's a reason the set comes with its own cleaning cloth. With it's glossy screen and finish, it attracts dust like pigpen. It gets a little better after a few days but be prepared to clean your TV a lot.

The set does not accept Dolby Digital through it's HDMI input and therefore does not pass it through to the receiver, although it does output Dolby Digital for HDTV.

Despite the issues with TBE and Stuttering, The picture quality MORE THAN makes up for it. Also, these problems will be fixed (hopefully) soon.
Even without AMP, the set is a great set. IMHO, AMP just makes it really shine (when it works). To be fair, I can watch an entire movie without stuttering, and the next movie may stutter several times. I suspect it is source dependent.

Now, AMAZON's DELIVERY:

Delivery is handled through their white glove service. From what I can tell, service varies greatly depending on the local contractor you end up getting. My experience was not great. As someone else mentioned, it is imperative that you track your shipment on the MOVER'S website and then CALL them to confirm. I called and was able to get the TV delivered the day it arrived at my local hub. Then they called a week later to schedule a delivery for the set. I said sure if you have another one, deliver it. ;) So, without getting into the details, the guys are late and I had to pick up my kid from school. I had everything set up, and all I had to do was plug in a few cables which were already connected on the other end. It took me literally 45 seconds. I turned it on and wanted to check for screen defects. The guy rushes me for a signature and says, as long as the TV turns on, that's all they are responsible for. I wasn't comfortable signing, but since I was already late, I just singed and left. Luckily there was nothing wrong with the TV. Other people seem to have better experience with the delivery, but I wasn't impressed.

In conclusion, the set is great, and will become even better with updated firmware. EVEN WITH the current issues, I would still buy the set over again. I was wary about buying the set from Amazon considering the potential issues if the set had problems, but for the price, I couldn't resist.

I highly recommend the Samsung LNT-4071. A brick and mortar purchase may be better if you can find a competitive price though.

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Samsung: Fantastic performance, but QC future releases

This Samsung model truly deserves its five-star rating, even though the first one I received was a bummer. The first time the TV was powered up on January 29. a vertical red line appeared to the left of center on the screen, and this annoying red line was perpetual. When the COX cable technician arrived that same day to upgrade my digital receiver to a digital HDTV receiver, he told me the red line was definitely a factory defect. I immediately contacted Amazon.com by phone, and was assured that the defective TV would be replaced by a new one as quickly as possible. Amazon.com really deserves five stars for their prompt action on the replacement. At the time the LNT-4071 was out of stock, but Amazon.com worked miracles and by February 13, CEVA/Eagle brought a replacement TV and took away the defective one. Their delivery men commented that they seldom have to return a Samsung television set. I commend CEVA/Eagle for their courtesy in contacting me prior to delivery on arrangements. While their first delivery person seemed a bit unsteady in handling the large package, CEVA/Eagle sent two men the second time, both of whom were courteous, helpful and professional. A word to Samsung would be that while this terrific HDTV deserves the five stars, they should really improve their quality control and never let such a defective model be released and delivered to a customer.

When I first decided to upgrade to a large flat-screen television with high definition, I researched various brands for months before selecting this model. I looked at Sony and Vizio and others in a store, and I read many reviews from customers on Amazon.com online. The Samsung LNT-4071 was the right size, the right price, and from what I'd seen and read, had the best picture and the most happy customers.. So you can understand why I nearly passed out when my newly delivered television came up defective. Not only did it have the everlasting red horizontal red line, it emitted an unpleasant smell like burnt carbon whenever I walked near the TV. I didn't realize the smell was a problem until my second delivery TV was up and running with no nasty odor.

Now I can appreciate all the great things other reviewers said about the exquisite clarity of the picture, the true-to-life colors, and the ease-of-use of the user's manual for adjusting the detailed setting controlling picture mode, contrast, color, brightness, and so forth. Some reviewers complained about the reflective screen and border areas, but my room does not provide enough direct lighting to cause such reflections. Besides, I believe the glossy screen is partially responsible for the amazing precision in picture quality. Because I'm connected to cable, I use the COX remote control, which allows me to switch from the television to the DVD player to the VCR by just clicking buttons. I might add that the sound is stereo quality and simple to adjust.

Kudos to Amazon.com for their immediate response to my disappointment over my first defective HDTV. Thanks to Samsung for providing such great television enjoyment, which outperforms the highly touted, more expensive Sony Bravia. My advice to Samsung is to check your quality control division closely before sending out any more defective models.

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Samsung LNT4071F HDTV

Great TV. Very satisfied with the overall quality after using it for about a month. The pictures are bright and vivid. The high contrast ratio enhances picture sharpness. The PIP is a not user friendly.

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Samsung

Exceptional product. Deliever very good. Driver knowledgeable about how to unpack and set up unit. Would recommend everyone step up to this model.

The LNT4065F is a better value

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.

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