Samsung UE40D6100 40-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p 3D 200Hz LED SMART Internet TV with Freeview HD

Let me start by saying I was obsessive in my search for a new TV and compared a great many brands and models in various stores and gave several assistants headaches, I'm sure. Well after all, spending a fair old wedge on a TV is a considered decision at the best of times, but even more so in these times of austerity. Who knows when I'll be able to upgrade again.

The Samsung UE40D6100 stood out from all the TV's we saw in its class and price bracket. For a while we were looking at an equivalent Sony model, and as a 2D performer it was fine. However, it fell flat on its backside when it came to 3D, with noticeable crosstalk and ghosting artefacts that were quite off-putting. You don't need to be an expert market analyst to notice that Sony has been haemorrhaging money from its Playstation arm of the business for a while now, and to me it is clearly cutting costs elsewhere to patch up the leak. All my previous TV's for many years have been Sony, and this is the first time I've had to jump ship. No such issues with the 3D performance of the Samsung, at least no more than is to be expected from Active 3D technology as a whole, but I have yet to see any annoyingly obvious crosstalk or ghosting on this set when the 3D source itself is decent. One or two of the videos on the Samsung Explore 3D app were no great shakes, but that was the source material and not the set. On my Alice in Wonderland 3D Blu-ray, when 3D is allowed to get down and show you its funky stuff, the set performed more than admirably. Of course the set's 200hz refresh rate helps in this department. We also found the 2D performance to be better than the Sony (and other brands) in this price bracket. I should add there seems to be some ongoing debate in the AV community about whether or not the Samsung series 6 is offering full HD when in 3D mode, with some claiming the resolution is lowered in 3D mode, and these people have been having a tit-for-tat with Samsung over the issue, but all I can say is it looks good and does not ghost and crosstalk like many other sets we saw, including the Sony in the same price bracket. Just do yourself a favour and go in store and let your eyes be the judge. It is a big purchase, so be your own judge. My words are just a guide.

This is a series 6 Samsung, so it is definitely not low end. I'd say it was on the first rung of the ladder on the high end side of Samsung, and the features prove that out. Feature wise, it is very close to the series 7 sets... only series 8 breaks away from it by any significant length. The only major and noticeable difference on series 7 is the in-built Wifi - this set requires a proprietary Samsung Wifi dongle, but if like me you're connecting via Ethernet then that is no great loss. The other feature lacking from series 7 is there is no 2D to 3D converter here, meaning this set will only play native 3D source material and will not convert 2D to 3D. But as there is a qualitative difference between native 3D and converted 2D to 3D, this is not something I was concerned about. Besides, there is plenty of real 3D stuff around...including games, Sky channels and 3D Blu-ray to make the converter a non-issue for me. This set is also a Smart TV, so there's a great many online features and applications, such as the really helpful 'Explore 3D' app, which is a selection of free 3D videos... ranging from 3 minute movie trailers to entire 45 minute documentaries. This gave us a chance to use the glasses we bought while I waited for my first 3D Blu-ray titles to arrive. There is also a host of social networking apps, including Facebook and Twitter, as well as Youtube, Google maps, the obligatory BBC iPlayer... amongst a growing list of other things.

The picture is brilliant for an LED. The people that speak the 'What Home Cinema' gobbledygook tech language would no doubt pick holes, but then they'll do that for ALL LCD/LED panels... those guys only entertain plasma technology it seems. The rest of us mere mortals can only go off our eyes, and mine are extremely pleased with what they see here. My last telly was a plain Sony Bravia LCD and I couldn't believe the advances that have been made by implementing LED lighting into LCD technology (there's no such thing as an LED panel by the way, they're plain old LCD panels with LED lights behind them instead of the old style bulb lighting). This has led to vastly superior colours and contrast performance, and while blacks and contrast can never rival a plasma, LED/LCD's of this generation have certainly narrowed the gap. I'm well impressed.

Sound was a lot better than I imagined it would be. Panels are forever getting thinner, and that means smaller and shallower speaker diaphragms, but I was impressed with the sound after I tinkered with the settings. Of course the true cinema buff will want external speakers of some kind.

As regards connections, there are four HDMI ports, two USB ports, one RGB enabled SCART adapter socket (for use with the supplied adapter... as the panels are so thin these days, they have to use an intermediary adapter to accommodate bulky old SCART), one component adapter socket (for use with the included component adapter), one PC/DVI input, a SPDIF digital optical audio output and an Ethernet network socket and a headphone socket. As regards the two USB ports, one of them apparently supports a feature than allows you to record from the TV's tuner on to a USB storage device, in the manner of a PVR. I have yet to try this feature, but it is certainly intriguing and something I will definitely look into.

We've had the set for two weeks now and the only surprises we've had as we have dug further into its rich list of features have been good ones. Therefore I am awarding this TV five shiny and well deserved stars. Thanks for reading.

Just few points, which would help me, when I was buying TV

- Yes, 200Hz makes the picture looking great and its must have.
- It comes with SCART converter, so you CAN use SCART devices
- Don`t listen to people, who say, that sound is bad. Yes, you can`t make a disco with this TV, but it`s OK for day to day watching TV. Later you will buy bigger basic speakers for about 20GBP (or home cinema). Sound is equal to the size of speakers.
- It has LAN connector, so you dont need to buy WiFi (I doubt the data speed)
- Price/Quality ratio is amazing
- Copy HD movie and some short films of different formats onto memory stick, go to shop and test few TVs. This one was playing all of them.
- Samsung is well known for amazing picture
- No buzzing noise, when you mute the sound you dont hear anything.
- Black colour is very very dark, nearly 100% black
- Remote control is easy to use (believe me, that is important)

I wasn`t expecting that much from this TV.

One thing again... 200Hz will give you amazing and and superb picture. Go to SONY shop, where they play HD movies on TVs and check the difference. Currys feed their TVs just with low quality signal so you won`t see the difference.

I'd been looking for a new TV for a while and was glad to see the release of the new 2011 (D) Models, especially the 6000 series. I was cautious to start with as there are few reviews and very few forum comments about these TVs, but having looked at the specifications, which I won't bore you with here, and the general good feedback of the quality of the Samsung range I was confident enough to take a gamble with this TV. I can honestly say that I've very happy that I've chosen the correct one for me.

I placed the order with Amazon on the Thursday night, which unfortunately meant that I missed the cut off time for me to receive it Friday, however it arrived prompt on the Saturday morning as promised.

The TV is very easy to set-up and is surprisingly light after having a very old and heavy CRT. The stand is good quality and very sturdy. The set-up process takes you through a number of screens which are very easy to follow and takes just a few minutes. It will auto-tune your Free-view channels which takes a further 5 minutes, but once this is done you're ready to start using it.

The quality of the panel is excellent and the picture looks crystal clear, this, along with the 200Hz refresh makes the picture look very smooth. I've seen many people complain that LED bleeding or clouding can be present in some models but I've not seen any evidence here. As this is classed as a high end model I was not expecting these issues anyway.

I was concerned that there may be too much image processing which sometimes results in a very artificial picture, but even when up scaling from SD the picture seems very polished. For those very fast action scenes you can very rarely see some evidence that the images are being processed but it's very difficult to notice and you really have to look very hard to spot it. In no way is the enjoyment or viewing experience affected, and by changing the settings you can eliminate this entirely.

There are numerous features and enhancements to allow you to customise the picture and after spending just a short time playing with the settings there appears to be the ability to customise everything to your own taste. The `standard' picture and sound settings I find are quite balanced and provide a near perfect setting for me.

I was surprised at the quality of the sound. As my previous TV was a CRT (with some very good speakers) I was expecting to be looking for a home entertainment system to make up for the lose in quality, but I'm very happy that I can save my money. There are a number of modes to suit your preferences, and the `Movie' mode is particularly impressive. Again this can be customised to your own tastes.

One of the reasons I chose this TV was due to the SMART TV, and although it's still in its infancy, it looks like it has a lot of potential. There are some very good applications, especially video applications and a whole host of games (which I've not tried). There are only a limited number of popular applications at the moment but the ones they do have are of good quality and are easy to use. The only problem I've experienced is the ability to type in text when searching. It works in a similar way to a mobile phone, but the remote doesn't have the letters printed on the buttons so you have to keep looking at the screen. I believe that there is a remote keyboard which can be used but I will not be purchasing one.

The ability to play videos from a USB drive or an external HDD is very impressive and I've not had any compatibility issues with any of the files, but I know that I've not tried them all. The quality is excellent although it does depend on the source file of course. The files run very smoothly and I've not seen any juddering or buffering.

The All-share feature is very good, however the software needs some work. I found that it would take some time to add all your photos and videos and on the first attempt it crashed. It took a while to find out what was happening as it doesn't have a progress bar, or indicate if is still working. After turning off the service and switching it back on, it finished what it was doing and the TV picked it up straight away. You do have to make sure that you go to the sharing tab and give permission for the TV to access your files. This could have been clearer. Its worth noting that this is an issue with the PC software not the TV.

The TV does not come with 3D glasses or a HDMI cable so they will have to be purchased separately. It does have a converter so you can use a SCART cable with this model.

In summary the quality of this TV is excellent and I would recommend it to anyone. Apart from the ability to type in the search boxes I'm struggling to find any faults, but that in itself is not a major issue. I haven't tested the 3D as don't have the glasses. When looking at the various, similarly priced models in the shops, this model did stand out from the rest, but I would always advise you see the TV before making a purchase.