Samsung LN40A450 40-Inch 720p LCD HDTV
Product Description
39.9" screen (measured diagonally) * widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio * high-gloss black finish * built-in digital (ATSC) and analog (NTSC) tuners for over-the-air TV broadcasts (antenna required) * built-in QAM cable TV tuner receives unscrambled programs without a set-top box (cable service required) * 1366 x 768 pixels *
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #31640 in Consumer Electronics
- Color: Black
- Brand: Samsung
- Model: LN-40A450
- Dimensions: 25.20" h x 3.80" w x 39.00" l, 34.00 pounds
- Display size: 40
Features
- 720p HD Resolution
- Wide Color Enhancer
- 3 HDMI Inputs
- 6ms response time
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Product Description--March 24, 2008
A sleek design with hidden speakers keep Samsung's Series 4 large flatpanel HDTVs one of the best 720p HD options around. Upgrades over last year's models include a response rate a 6ms response rate that's faster than many more expensive 1080p models, for smooth motion even with fast-moving sports and action movies, and a a higher dynamic contrast ratio of up to 10,000:1 (up from 8,000:1 last year), and for deep blacks and crisp lines. Please note that this description applies to Series 4 models 32 inches or larger. Models 26 inches and smaller have slightly different specifications.
What's New?
- 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio: up from 8,000:1 on 2007 models (Learn more)
- 6ms response time: down from 8ms on 2007 models thanks to a new high-speed liquid crystal
Features Overview
- 178-degree viewing angle from all four axes with Super Patterned Vertical Alignment (Learn more)
- 3 HDMI 1.3 ports: Simplay compliant (Learn more about Connectivity)
- DNIe Digital Natural Image Engine improves the picture by enhancing the contrast, detail, and white balance (Learn more)
- Clear panel technology for deeper blacks and more vibrant colors (Learn more)
- Hidden speakers with SRS TruSurround XT audio (Learn more)
- Wide Color Enhancer technology and Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (CCFL) offer a wider color range (Learn more)
- Entertainment Modes: for sports, games, and movies
- V-Chip system allows blocking of rated TV and movie programs determined by the parent to contain objectionable content.
- Trilingual on-screen displays in English, Spanish or French.
- Variable sleep timer to turn the TV off in varying time intervals.
- Auto wall mount compatible: 3-dimensional operation via TV’s remote control; no external IR receiver required.
- Swivel stand included
- 1 year parts and 1 year labor warranty (90 days parts and labor for commercial use), with in-home service, backed by Samsung toll-free support
Series 5 Step Up Features
- Full 1080p HD
- up to 30,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio
- 5 ms response time
- USB 2.0 port: connect devices directly to your HDTV--view JPEG photos or MPEG movies or easily listen to your MP3 player through your HDTV's audio system or your home theater system
Series 6 Step Up Features
- 50,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio
- AutoMotion Plus 120Hz image interpolation for smoother motion
- 4ms response time
- Transparent and Opaque Color (TOC) bezel
- Ethernet port with Infolink free RSS feeds
- 4 HDMI 1.3 ports
- Compatible with Samsung's Home Digital Media Adapter for playback and navigation of Internet and stored PC multimedia
Series 7 Step-Up Features
- Internal flash memory (1GB) with pre-loaded interactive content such as cooking recipes, children's entertainment, HD artwork and more
- Integrated woofer for an enhanced audio experience
- DLNA-Compatible: for better interoperability with electronics, computers and mobile devices from many different manufacturers (Learn more)
What size TV should you get?
Learn More
Super Clear Panel
  | Samsung enhances the clarity of select LCD HDTVs by replacing the light-diffusing plastic face of traditional LCD HDTVs with a natural black panel with a clear anti-glare shield. Reduced reflection of external light creates a new dimension in image clarity, highlighting black and darkened areas, enabling vibrant, more compelling colors and a brighter, clearer picture. Black will never again appear grayish. Black details will show in vivid black even in dark scenes. The latest version of Samsung’s breakthrough super clear panel technology makes colors appear more vibrant and blacks even deeper than ever. Enhanced films reduce glare and optimize off-angle viewing. |
10,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio/500 nit Brightness
 | 10,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio will give you a superb picture, with whiter whites, blacker blacks and subtle gradations in between. As two of the most important determining factors in overall picture quality, contrast and brightness levels achieve new heights in this latest generation LCD panel. Samsung’s new LCD TV’s give the most stunning realistic picture quality ever. Note: models 26 inches or less have lower contrast ratios
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Digital Natural Image Engine
 | DNIe The Samsung Digital Natural Image engine. This exclusive Samsung technology dramatically improves the picture by enhancing the contrast, detail, white balance and reduces. |  |
Wide Color Enhancer/Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp
| The NTSC (National Television Systems Committee) has established the color standards all TVs in America try to meet. And typical LCD TVs only meet about 72% of this standard. Samsung LCD HDTVs use Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp back lights to give you 92% coverage of the NTSC standard, ensuring truer, more breathlessly vivid colors. Samsung’s exclusive Wide Color Enhancer technology delivers more brilliant colors, even in bright areas of the picture where blues and greens are washed out on conventional screens. The system displays wider color reproduction, showing you truer colors – the fresh green of spring foliage, the intense blue of the summer sky. | |||
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Connectivity
 | A wide variety of multimedia devices can be connected to the set through three Simplay compliant HDMI 1.3 inputs (2 rear, 1 side), and the handy HDMI-CEC feature lets you control all your CEC-enabled peripherals using just one remote. Connect HD digital devices like disc players, game consoles, and satellite dish components into the 2 rear connections and use the side-mounted input for cameras, camcorders, and laptops. HDMI is the best performing interface for displaying an HD source on an HDTV. Once connected, users can easily access device menus and manage and display content through the newly redesigned Wheel Key Remote control and the HDTV’s sophisticated content management interface. All Connections
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Super Patterned Vertical Alignment
 | Samsung’s Super Patterned Vertical Alignment (SPVA) panel provides a 178-degree viewing angle from all four axes |
Audio Features
TruSurround is a patented SRS technology that solves the problem of playing 5.1 multichannel content over two speakers. TruSurround delivers a compelling, virtual surround sound experience through any two-speaker playback system, including internal television speakers and headphones. It is fully compatible with all multichannel formats up to 5.1 channels. High-quality virtual surround sound can be experienced with just the two hidden, downward-firing side-mounted 2.2-channel dome speakers built into the TV.SRS TruSurround XT technology delivers an amazing, simulated 3D effect with clear dialog and powerful bass.
TruSurround XT audio also adds three audio enhancement technologies to produce an amazingly immersive sound experience.
- Dialog Clarity brings movie dialog into Focus during the playback of any surround-encoded material to make speech much clearer and crisper.
- TruBass creates incredible deep rich bass allowing a person to perceive significantly deeper, richer low bass tones that are far beyond the physical low frequency capabilities of the speaker itself.
- The SRS WOW feature widens the sound stage by processing standard two-channel stereo material as well as multi-channel encoded material for a dramatic improvement in the playback of any stereo audio over a two-speaker system.
Which Size HDTV is Right for My Room?
 | With standard-definition TVs, the rule used to be that viewers would feel comfortable watching a set from a distance of 3 to 6 times the screen size in inches. With HDTV, the resolution is so much better that you can sit closer to a larger TV without noticing the pixels. So with HDTVs, the rule tends to be you can sit anywhere from 1.5 to 3 times the screen size (in inches) for the best experience. If you know the size of the room you have already, where you want to sit, and where your new HDTV should go once you get it, you can figure out the size HDTV you should get.
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Customer Reviews
Great TV
I am updating this review after one month, as my knowledge about the product has increased. Basically I think it offers one of the best picture quality available at under $1K. The features that in my opinion set this TV appart are: outstanding HD picture and black levels, anti-glare coating, 3 HDMI inputs, great picture adjustment controls and swivel stand. On the minus side, the sound is tiny and the speakers are prone to vibration if you turn the bass higher. It's not a real concern for me, since I use external speakers anyway. Also, with some older material (not re-mastered) the picture may look a bit grainy. Perhaps not the best choice if you're viewing mostly SD programming.
Here is the original review, with a few minor adjustments:
Colours are deep, rich and accurate when fed a good quality signal through an HDMI or DVI connection. Even dark scenes are beautiful: deep black levels and excellent contrast are better than many plasma TVs. The screen backlight is uniform. There is no noticeable glare from the screen, although the glossy black bezel will show some reflections.
HD material looks excellent. Vibrant colours and outstanding detail give a perception of depths that is very pleasing, especially when watching HD sports channels. I found that component cables provided from my cable company did not work nearly as well. With HDMI/DVI the picture looks much better than it did in the store. I tried three different cables and I settled for a Monster 300 HDMI cable (rated 1080i) which in my opinion works well for this TV and is probably worth the extra few dollars as opposed to lesser brand names.
The Samsung A450 does a good job with high quality SD material and some channels look much better than a CRT of comparable size. There are no banding issues or artifacts that I notice, except to say that old SD material tends to look blurry on a 40 inch set vs the typical 27 inch CRT, which is to be expected. Feeding the signal through an upconverting DVD player seemed to help a bit in this regard. You can also use the upconvert setting on your cable box, but I found it more useful to set it on Auto-DVI.
The 720/1080i display is adequate for this size TV and in HD the picture looks as sharp as I'd ever want. In fact, I set up my cable box to 1080i, rather than the slightly sharper 720p. To my eyes, this resolution seems to give a more natural picture.
The design is quite attractive and the swivel stand is very handy if you put the TV on a stand, rather than hanging it on the wall. These TV's really have only a +- 30 degrees viewing angle before colours start to fade and while this model does better than others that I saw in the store, the swivel feature is a definite plus.
User menus are friendly and provide a vast array of options for picture adjustment. You can store three custom settings for each input (for viewing in bright/normal/dark room). The factory setting are quite good for standard cable TV viewing, but I found that different sources do require adjustment and you will be happy with all the controls that this set provides. One adjustment that CNET recommends is Picture:Picture options: Film mode: auto (rather than off), which should engage the 3:2 pull down for optimum viewing of film based material.
With a picture so sharp and clear, some lower quality material shot in low light (such as concerts and movies) may appear a bit grainy. While the digital noise reduction is largely ineffective, reducing sharpness all the way to zero (if necessary) effectivelly cleans the picture with minimal loss of detail. This is also recommended by CNET for the movie setting. However, some TV's fair better in this regard (for example the PN50A450, which I also own, has excellent noise reduction and even with the larger size, SD channels look better. However, the HD material is sharper and the blacks are deeper on the LN40A450). If you plan to use cable TV, the SA 4250HD box gives a better SD picture than the older 3250, so I would recommend it.
DNIe seems more of an experimental technology at this point. I found it more useful on the larger plasma, and I almost never use it in this LCF. It is mostly useful for sports, giving exceptional sharp and bright picture but at the expense of colour accuracy (especially for the green colour). A little fiddling with the green/red balance (about 10% towards red) will produce a more natural effect. For the standard/movie settings, where colour accuracy is the main consideration and sharpness not as important, DNIe is disabled. All in all, with so many adjustment options, in the quest for that perfect picture, you will, at first, find yourself reaching for the remote control more often than you really want, which is why having three custom setting per input is so useful - a feature that most TV's in this price range lack.
Set-up is easy. The set is quite light (40 pounds) and can be handled by just one person. Once plugged in, it will find all available channels and external sources. You can customize the names for each source, which makes it easier to identify them.
Motion blur doesn't seem to be a problem with this set, at least so far. There was only one instance that I noticed and re-booting the STB eliminated the problem. However, plasma TV's still seem to have the edge here (at least on paper), but I decided to go with LCD, since I like the extra brightness and colour definition that it offers and black levels and contrast are excellent and comparable to the Panasonic TH42PX80 for example. Since I looked at this Panasonic set in detail, I can add that the colour accuracy on the Samsung is better. This is even more important since the Panasonic lacks some of the picture adjustment options. In the trade-off however, you give up a couple of inches of screen size and perhaps a higher quality cabinet.
Great picture, but tuner, board does not work
I bought this tv on May 8, 2008.When i brought it home and searched for channels, it was not able to auto program any. I exchanged it for a new one. Amazingly, had the same problem. Called up Samsung and was told they could not fix it over the phone and had a nearby repair shop come out and work on it. The repair shop came out to my place (one thing I have found out is Samsung customer support is top notch, wish there TV's would work.) Repair man told me he was replacing at least one main board a day, and said it was a widespread issue. Said many people do not notice due to the fact they are using a cable box. Replaced my main board, still had the same problem. Just recently tried to use a dvd player through the s-video jack, and that doesn't work either.
This is a very condensed version of the actual situation, this has been going on for about three weeks. Unfortunately i will have to take it back and fully return it. Note that i am able to pull up channels by typing in there numbers but not able to "surf" using the up/down arrows. And from what I have seen the TV picture is amazing, and the tv's look and aesthetics awesome for this price point. I REALLY do not want to return it.
I am writing this review so that others know that they may want to wait a couple of weeks (longer?, not sure on how quickly these things are fixed)until this widespread issue is resolved, or they may want to buy it from a local store so they can easily take it back. If you plan on using a cable box though, you will be just fine.
Highly disappointed, but the video channels I did type in were great, and I think the price is so reasonable, I am amazing myself at the fact I may reconsider and repurchase this tv at a later date. So much for being an early adopter for a new product line!
Was a good value before 650's dropped in price
So I got this tv around April and at the time it was a great value. It is difficult to impossible to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at 40inch size when sittle more than a couple feet from the tv so why spend that extra cheese when you can't notice a difference in resolution? The colors are accurate and the black level is surprisingly good for an LCD. The anti glare screen is decent but not great, however the screen is plenty bright enough to make up for this weakness. Motion blur can occur like with any LCD, but I must say that unless I am being super critical of what ever fast moving content I am watching I don't notice it. Frankly I think 120hz is retarded when it comes to all the processing it does and I would rather have a slightly less crisp screen in a fast moving scene than some soap opera effect artifact injected 120hz over processed mess. But hey thats me.
Oh yeah I use mine with PS3 and 360 and suffer from no gaming lag what so ever. It is a solid TV all in all and a great size for the bedroom/office.
Hope that helps you guys out there in internet land.
By the way the sound quality is very flat and lacking in the low range. But I have a 2.1 system hooked up so its all good.
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