Samsung LE19B541C4 19-inch Widescreen HD Ready LCD TV with Freeview

After painting our bedroom off-white this weekend I decided it was time to ditch the 14 CRT in favour of an upgrade to freeview and LCD. I neglected to discuss this with my wife, apart from showing her a picture, at which she said "nice" which I interpreted as "why don't you buy that for the bedroom". Alas I was wrong, so I needed this TV to sell itself. Her first question was "Can we use it as an alarm" (the old 14" had a 'wake-up' function). She dived into the manual whilst I set it up. Of course the manual came up with no mention of this feature, so I was in the dog box. Breaking into a sweat, I navigated through the menu's and behold! hidden in the "Clock" menu there was a facility to set a switch-on time, not only that, it allowed you to specify which days of the week you wanted it to do it (Mon-Fri) and also has an auto switch-off time! Perfect. It even allows you to save 2 additional schedules if you wanted it to come on-off more than once or at a different time on the weekend etc. Anyway, this feature saved my bacon!

Enough of my domestic issues, how does it perform? (Marks out of 5)
Setup - *****(5) Installed and tuned in less than 5 mins.
Looks - *****(5)
Picture - *****(5)
Features - *****(5)
Sound - ****(4) - Not as wholesome as old CRT, more tinny!
Menus - ****(4) - Good, but not perfect
Navigation - ****(4) - Not always intuitive
Remote - ****(4) - Feels a bit cheap
EPG Guide - ****(4) - Slow navigation
Manual - ***(3) - Lightweight in terms of content.

I thought I'd expend on my thoughts above for those who haven't yet drifted into a coma.

Sound - Not as wholesome as old CRT, more tinny! This can be tweaked by playing with the Equaliser on the sounds menu. I need to spend more time on this feature alongside the sounds profile setting "Movie", "Voice", "Music" etc.

Remote - ****(4) - Feels a bit cheap and not clearly labelled, but you get used to it. Slow to respond at times, but this is probably more to do with the software on the TV.

EPG Guide - ****(4) - Slow navigation moving backwards and forwards. There are 2 modes, "Now-Next" which shows just the current and next progs on each channel, and "Full EPG" which gives the lot. I haven't found a way to display a channel at a time, but it may be there.

Navigation - ****(4) - Not always intuitive. Generally very good, but frustrating things like setting up favourite channels niggle. This smacks of an afterthought feature that has been wedged in, but not properly integrated into the EPG or channel selection. I'll spend more time exploring this and may report back with a more favourable response, but the fact that it's not obvious means I mark it down.

Manual - ***(3) - Lightweight in terms of content.
I tend not to bother with manuals as products like this should be designed in such a way that you don't need them. Having said that my wife took a look for the alarm feature and couldn't find it.

The big question: Would I recommend it?
Yes, no hesitation, it's not perfect, but I doubt there is a Tv out there that would get 5 stars on every feature.

The even bigger question: What does my wife think?
Quietly pleased with the TV although I should have consulted her first :)

We go digital very shortly so we wanted a new TV with Freeview for our bedroom. The white "box" was the first attraction but the features and picture quality were the clincher! Excellent picture/colour quality from any angle and simple logical controls on the remote. After buying this I regret buying a Sony for the lounge and will replace with a bigger brother from Samsung when the time comes.
And yes it looks great on the white dressing table rather than an ugly black box!

On your first viewing of this highly attractive Samsung you will be pleasantly surprised at how good it looks in that piano white casing.

It looks far more expensive than the standard black cabinet that most televisions appear to come in.

The picture quality for a television not costing the earth is quite something and im sure the High definition picture will be equally impressive.

This may be only a humble 19" screen but the layout of the remote control is very straight forward.The menu system that alters both picture and sound quality is very easy to understand,so easy infact that the instruction manual is not really needed.

Im running mine off a small set top ariel and some of the pictures are trully worthy of a tv costing considerably more.

It has all the right connections on the back including scart,HDMi,video in and out plugs aswell as the humble ariel socket for those still using the soon to be axed annologue signal.

Really it has the right amount of connections for a television in this price bracket.

Its the ideal performer to connect up to a decent surround sound system and it has all the connections waiting to take whatever you can throw at it.

The speakers may be small but certainly provide decent enough sound and theres also a facility to change the sound quality like a simple surround sound.

This tv is a clear winner in this price bracket and if you donot believe me have a look at one on display.Im sure you will be pleasantly surprised at its great looks and it would be the perfect match for a bedroom or kitchen but it was the white casing that sold it for me with the superb picture that added bonus.

This tv was purchased by my mother who wanted a straightforward digital ready tv come the October 21st switch off.I have a large 32" Sony without the built in digibox and that set is simply a nuisance and as i currently have no Sky dish it never gets used.

I was so impressed with this little Samsung 19" that i am buying one for myself as i have just also purchased a Grundig Freestat HD box and want to take advantage of HD tv without forking out a fortune to Sky on an annual basis.

You may think im mad to go from a 32" to a 19" but this little Samsung is so compact and easy to display that i think its the ideal set for a bedroom.