Samsung LE40C580 40-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p Allshare LCD TV with Freeview HD

 

 

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I purchased this TV at the same time as the Sony EX503 40 inch & my plan was to compare the two & decide which one to keep. The Sony had got all the rave reviews in What Hifi & TV & on other review websites, but there were only one or two reviews of this Samsung TV. I already owned a 32 inch Samsung I bought 4 or 5 years ago & I loved that TV for every second I owned it. I wanted to upgrade to a Freeview HD TV & a bigger screen at the same time. I tried out both TVs & I generally liked this one better. It's over a hundred pounds cheaper for a start. But apart from the price, I generally felt the picture was sharper & clearer on this Samsung. In particular the Freeview HD channels come out crystal clear. On the Sony I had to study the Freeview HD pictures much more to notice any difference to standard HD. Eventually I did & the Sony is a good TV. But with the Samsung the Freeview HD just seemed much clearer to watch. Also standard Freeview on the Samsung is good too & clear & not fuzzy at all. But on the Sony standard Freeview was quite fuzzy. I expected the sound on the Samsung to be really weak with no bass & distortion like the 32 inch model i had before. But Samsung definately have improved the sound on this TV. It's still not booming bass. But it is very clear audio & very good stereo. It has very light bass - much better than models from a few years ago. But the sound is still a bit light compared to the Sony which was much richer. But after watching this TV for a few weeks now i'm used to the sound & it sounds great to me now all the time. I can plug it into my hifi if i want & it sounds much more powerful & bassy on there.

Also I just preferred the design of the Samsung as it looks slim, sleeky & expensive. The Sony's design was OK & i'm sure i would have got used to it. But it did appear to be much bulkier at the back & was completely made of cheap looking plastic. Whereas the Samsung's screen looks convincingly like glass (even though it's plastic) & the rest of back is metal & the plastic is well designed & expensive looking.

This Samsung does not have an internet platform and you can't use it by itself to get onto BBC Iplayer, etc... But it has 2 USB ports where you can connect your digital camera or any media usb stick & it plays video files, mp3's, etc... Plus at the back it has an ethernet socket to connect it to the internet. But you can't get on the internet using the TV alone. You can connect it to your home internet connection and stream media from your laptop for instance but you can't surf the internet on it. The Sony had a proper internet connection & some brilliant applications like BBC Iplayer, Five on demand, You Tube, etc... and it was very impressive. But I thought on balance, that wasn't a huge necessity as my laptop has a HDMI so i can connect to TV & surf internet whenever i want. Plus all the manufacturers are developing internet on tv on an ongoing basis, such as Google's Android TV, etc...

I also played games on my PS3 on the Samsung & they played great with great sharp pictures & sound.

My only gripe was Blu ray playback which was just ok & not as sharp as on the Sony. I watched Blu Ray on both & the Sony Blu Ray playback seemed much clearer & sharper. The Samsung Blu Ray playback is good but not as good as the Sony.

So if your main use of the TV is to watch Blu Rays maybe the Sony's a better buy. But as I'll only watch the odd Blu Ray & would be watching Freeview HD more. So the Samsung was overall a better buy I felt.

So I summarised overall this TV was better value for what you get & overall quality wise compared to the Sony (apart from Blu Ray playback wise). So I kept the Samsung & returned the Sony for a refund. I thought I may regret doing so. But one month later i'm very happy I made the right decision & have no regrets.

I've owned this TV for 2 weeks now. I bought this screen to replace my aging but excellent Sony 32" V2500.

HD - Extraordinarily clear HD images (Sky HD box). From 10 feet the images are sharp, finely detailed and the colours are beautiful. Skins tones on the `Movie' setting are near perfect. Watching X-factor you can see wrinkles and blemishes on faces, even close up from 2 feet there is very little background noise.

SD - picture also excellent. Of course this is dependant on the channel. CBeebies looks a bit rough and noisy though, but it always has. Channel Five looks clear and detailed. It's all about the bitrate.

Motion - relatively smooth and good detail is retained on slow horizontally and vertically panning images. Some diagonal shift is noticed on slow panning shots when watching The Apprentice but nothing that is too distracting.

Viewing angle - excellent. Perfectly watchable from the side and little drop off in colour. The S-PVA (Samsung's SQ01 according to the sticker on the side) panel is good in this regard. You have to go to a really acute angle to see a marked black colourisation.

Black levels - really good for an LCD although not totally black (like plasma). Fine detail can be picked out from shadows. Very little greying, S-PVA panels are great in this regard.

Backlight - absolutely no backlight buzz. I had two 37" Samsung's recently but returned both due to buzzing - the 37 inch iterations are AUO panels as Samsung do not manufacture 37" screens.

Screen imperfections - Minimal banding, a little colour change when watching football but not off putting. Some very subtle dithering when watching pale coloured wall pans in Grand Designs but only if I look for it.

Minimal black / grey ghosting. All S-PVA panels black ghost to some degree (leaves a black trail behind moving object) but it's not overly noticeable through HDMI.

USB / Media Player through Media Tools - playing TV shows downloaded off the net works very well through my 4GB Sandisk Cruzer USB Stick. Remote functions are basic but good with media playback. Picture looks surprisingly good for such highly compressed files.

Size & build quality - slender design, only 9cm deep. Will look great mounted on a wall bracket. Build quality is excellent throughout, plastics feels sturdy. The rear of the screen is metal, a nice touch and helps dissipate heat from the CCFL backlight. Stand is large and heavy and the screen is rock solid stable.

Menus - nicely laid out menus. Graphically similar to Sony's Crossbar. Plenty of options for calibrating the screen, including White Balance for calibration purists.

Remote - Well laid out and importantly HDMI and AV sources are easily changed. The remote has a rather spongy, rubbery cheap feel to the keys but it is responsive and user friendly.

Aesthetics - The entire screen is framed by an acrylic transparent edge, looks classy and elegant. Shiny black plastic is a static dust collector however; a lint cloth is supplied for cleaning! The vertical part of the stand is a see through clear acrylic, makes it somewhat hard to hide cables behind it.

Sound - Sound is perfectly acceptable, although lacks bass for films. Sound for everyday content is clear and crisp. Certainly it sounds much better than the two LED screens I've have had recently.

24p support - Unfortunately this screen has a bug in playing back Blu-Rays correctly. It does not display 24p properly. Some telecine judder is noticeable. This is due to 24 frames not being divisible by 60 so a 2:3 dropdown is used. Most people will not notice this but the micro stutter is there is you look closely. From what I understand from the AVForums this will not be fixed by Samsung as the Valencia LSI doesn't support this feature. If Blu-Ray is your primary use I would look at getting the Samsung LE40C650 or the LE40C530 instead.

Overall - Samsung have manufactured a very classy LCD TV. It does many things very well and has only one major flaw (24p). At £422 it is an absolute bargain. After trying and returning 7 screens recently (from various sources) I'm relieved and happy I've finally found one that is good enough to keep. That is the best recommendation I can give.

Also, thank you to Amazon for their excellent service and their no nonsense returns policy, it has made buying a screen much easier and has been relatively hassle free.

Points to note - I haven't tried the Freeview HD tuner, or gaming on this screen, so I can't comment on these in detail. I understand (from reviews) that the input lag is great for gaming on this screen. However I won't be using these two features.

For info these are the picture settings I'm using for interlaced sources (Sky HD and Blu- Ray)...

Picture Mode: Standard (Game Mode: Disabled)
Backlight: 3
Contrast: 100
Brightness: 45
Sharpness: 0
Color: 38
Tint: G57/R43
Eco: Enable No Signal Power Off


Advanced Settings:
Black Tone: Off
Dynamic Contrast: Off
Shadow Detail: -2
Gamma: 0 or +1
RGB Only: Off
Color Space: Auto
White Balance: See Below
Flesh Tone: -5
Edge Enhancement: On


Picture Options:
Color Tone: WARM 2
Size: Screen Fit
Digital Noise Filter: Off
MPEG Noise Filter: Off
HDMI Black Level (RGB Only): Low (16-235) / Normal (0-255)
Film Mode: Auto 1/Auto 2
Auto Protection Time: 2 Hours

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Grayscale:
Red Offset: 24
Green Offset: 25
Blue Offset: 27
Red Gain: 27
Green Gain: 22
Blue Gain: 30

I bought this TV to upgrade from a 42" Toshiba Rear Projector which was showing its age and not HD. I went straight for the Samsung panels because I've used them in the past and they've always been well designed and reliable, but also good value, especially from Amazon. This one is no exception.

40" TVs seem to offer the best 'bang for your buck' at the moment and this 1080P full HD has all the additional bells and whistles you could want in this section of the market, and a few you wouldn't expect!

It's a beautiful looking TV, with a glass type surround and base and just a thin piano black border. The base swivels very smoothly and is a welcome addition for connecting cables if nothing else! The TV even has touch sensitive buttons on the bottom right of the surround, rather than hidden hard buttons. For those who have bought the XBox 360 Kinect camera I can also tell you that there's plenty of space on the base of the TV for it to sit - in fact it blends perfectly into the look of the TV!

Lots of connectivity on the back, of particular note to me was 3 HDMI connections on the rear (XBox, BluRay, Sky HD) as some lesser models only have 2. There's also a fourth HDMI on the side.

The picture is glorious! I literally changed none of the defaults and was completely happy with it out of the box. Both Sky and the XBox looked incredible. In a different league than my rear projector TV that I actually thought was quite good.

Sound is also surprisingly good for an LCD TV - even in quite a bit lounge it was capable of filling the room happily at 1/3 volume level saving me having to switch on the home cinema for normal TV.

But what makes this TV for me is the media sharing, via a network or simply a USB stick. It'll play practially any format of movie, including DivX .avi and hi-def .mkv files and it plays them back WELL. I really didn't expect the built-in media player to be anything like as good as it is.

I can't comment on the freeview bit as i'm only using the TV with Sky.

10/10 - cracking product for a cracking price. You won't regret it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars "Perfect" for TV and DVI PC monitor
I had been impressed with Samsung LCD monitors, and spent time in TV shops looking for precise image definition. The Samsung stood out as a likely dual-role TV and monitor. Read more

Published 27 days ago by bobulation

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfection
I bought this TV in May 2011.

I have absolutely NO issues whatsoever.

The tv is a great size, it has full hd capabilities, freeview hd, a fantastic epg with... Read more

Published 1 month ago by M. S. Parkinson

2.0 out of 5 stars Good picture but poor sound and reliability.
I bought this tv just over a year ago and I will admit the quality of picture is good but the sound quality really lets it down. Read more

Published 3 months ago by John

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
I hate it when the review score is about the seller and not the product so I'll just quickly say that Amazon Warehouse delivered a cracking deal - happy with the price and the... Read more

Published 4 months ago by D. Beggs

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
I ordered this TV from Amazon Warehouse and I was rather disappointed with the presentation of it, the manual and other pieces were missing and the screen was covered in grubby... Read more

Published 4 months ago by madmax31

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Buy
Bought "As New" from amazon market, It WAS just like new and an excellent value for money as roughly the same number of pounds alistair cook got in runs against india in the 3rd... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Dugg

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant TV!
Have not had any problems with this. Use it to connect up my X-Box through HDMI, my laptop through HDMI, my DVD player through SCART and TV through coax. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Keaned

5.0 out of 5 stars Great TV and a great Price
I bought this TV through a Warehouse deal from Amazon for £250 because it had 'Minor cosmetic damage to the front'. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Mr. J. D. Skinner

4.0 out of 5 stars samsung 42"
quite happy with it but dont know what to buy so as to record direct using handset.
would not work off my old aerial so had to buy new aerial
the picture is breaking... Read more

Published 6 months ago by banksie

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent value
Arrived next day and as new condition. As such it is good value. Visually it is not brilliant when viewed from 1m away but at normal distance it is nice and bright. Read more

Published 6 months ago by jazzy

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