 Excellent specification and value - don't overlook Samsung! |
| Review Date: July 16, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Fingers McGraw, |
The number of LCD, plasma and now LED televisions available now is mind-boggling for anyone looking for a new television. In fact, if, like me, you had specific requirements (40", 1080P, at least 4 HDMI + component) it can take a while to narrow the field down. Luckily, I found the Samsung LE40B550 and I have to say I'm delighted with it.
First, connectivity. Not all televisions are made equal in this area. The LE40B550 has a wealth of inputs - 4 HDMI (1 side mounted) + component + 2 SCART + VGA (D-SUB) + AV ports (composite + L/R audio). Not only that, but one HDMI port and the D-SUB port also have a 3.5mm audio input, for use with a computer. Finally, there's an optical out, for transferring sound from your equipment on to an amplifier / receiver and a USB port for playing photos and music. This really is a well connected set and if you think 4 HDMI ports is too many, think again ... dvd player, 360, HD camcorder, PS3, blu-ray player, media PC, popcorn hour, freesat PVR ... all of these are HDMI equipped.
Second, image and sound quality. Again, the Samsung delivers in spades. The freeview picture is incredibly clean and detailed looking (much more so than I had expected) and when you plug in an HD source, it certainly impresses with excellent levels of detail and rich vibrant colours. As with most television sets, some of the more aggressive picture processing options (edge enhancement, noise reduction, sharpness etc) need to be toned down or disabled, particularly on standard definition sources (the bits you might plug into the SCART socket). I plugged my media pc in to watch BBC iPlayer and at 720P resolution, full screen, I was impressed with the results (so thumbs up BBC and samsung) - so the television also seems to do an excellent job of up-scaling sources from 720P to 1080P, which is an important factor if your games console, camcorder or other source is set to that resolution. Sound output is excellent from the discreetly hidden downward firing speakers - speech is handled well and it sounds neither boomy nor tinny.
Third, quality of build and design. Everything seems well thought out. Even the big box it comes in has a bit of magic up its sleeve. Pop out the little black plastic tabs and lift the top off to reveal the TV. Fitting the stand was easy - it's a manageable one man job. Put the stand onto a stable flat surface and lower the TV onto it. It's safe enough for you to add the 4 securing screws without worrying it's going to drop on the floor! When installed it's a nice, straightforward looking TV. All in all, it's a good looking set, which seems to be well finished, with no rough edges or anything that makes you think "if only they'd ..."
One final thing. If (when) you buy this set, I'm sure you will want to disable the start-up / shut-down "melody". You can do this by disabling it under "general settings"! |
Top Value and Quality!
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| Review Date: February 15, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Mr. S. Peach, Leicestershire, England |
If like me you have been looking for a new bigger TV and don't want to pay out the Earth for one, then this is the one! I saw the front cover of What Hi-Fi magazine for March 2010 and saw 'Hot 40" TV's for any budget' and thought this will solve my problem. I opened it up to find 40" and 42" TV's going head to head ranging from £550 to £1800. To cut to the chase they gave two winners, which I haven't seen them do before, one was to the £1800 Philips and the otyher to the cheapest, the Samsung LE40B550, so I came on Amazon and ordered it immediately.
It really is a thing of beauty to look at and looks far more expensive than the price suggests. Setting it up with the 'Home' auto set gives a good picture to start off, but seems too bright. I suggest tuning to the settings below which I got of a TV calibration website and it really improves your enjoyment with far more natural colours. You need to tune seperately for your DVD player too and for any other attached devices, but it's a piece of cake. So here it is;
Picture Mode : Movie
Picture Settings
Backlight : 4
Contrast : 95
Brightness : 46
Sharpness : 0
Color : 45
Tint : G50/R50
Advanced Settings
Black Tone : Off
Dynamic Contrast : Off
Gamma : -2
Color Space : Auto
White Balance : Factory Default
Fleshtone : 0
Edge Enhancement : Off
Picture Options
Color Tone : Warm 2
Size : 16:9
Digital NR : Off
HDMI Black Level : Low
Film Mode : Auto 1
Blue Only Mode : Off
I hope this helps you get the best from it!!
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Awesome!!!
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| Review Date: October 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: IronMonger, UK |
I bought this tv to replace my old 32" Samsung, with the intention of using it mainly for gaming with the 360/PS3 and watching Blu Ray. I'm happy to say that this tv delivers in both areas. One of my main concerns when choosing an HD LCD TV was input lag. I personally have not found any noticeable lag when playing games on this tv, and the clarity & quality of the picture is amazing - much improved over the 4 year old Samsung I previously had. SD TV picture looks about as good as SD TV is ever going to look on an LCD, so no complaints there.
The menus & settings are easy to navigate and the connectivity on the back of the tv is pretty decent with 4 HDMI sockets. Sound wise I don't think the built in speakers are too bad, certainly an improvement over my old tv, but obviously you're going to need an additional sound set up for the best results.
Overall I'm really happy with the tv, especially considering the price! |
Awsome value superb TV
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| Review Date: January 8, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Mr. I. Mountain, Lincolnshire UK |
Samsung LE40B550A5 40 inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p Crystal LCD TV with Freeview
Without doubt one of the best bargain TV's out there at the moment (Jan 2010).
This set is rightly winning plaudits from many reviewers for its fantastic features from very high performance panel (the same one used on series 6 Samsung displays) with excellent dark blacks, few if any of LCD's traditional weaknesses and all of its strengths remain with this model. It has much of the specificatioon of much more expensive models (such as the series 6 LE40B650) at a truly bargain price.
Read the reviews on HDTVTest or AV forums if you want the glorious detail of just how good this TV is technically and how great it is that Samsung treat us all to a full range of adjustment of just about every setting for each and every input up to and including full colour calibration to very close to industry reference standards.
My example is now on my wall taking Starndard Def (SD) & High Def (HD 720p and 1080i/p) from a Humax Freesat+ HD TV box and a Samsung top end BluRay player (The HDMI-CEC Anynet integration of the BluRay player so I can drive it all with the one remote is almost good enough to make me want to rush out and buy a Samsung Surroung Amp as well!)
This set may not benefit from Samsungs latest 1 billion dollar upscaling chippery having the older DNIE system, but SD signals are still upscaled brilliantly and the final version on DNIE clearly benefited from the research Samsung put in to developing its sucessor. I replaced a previous 720P Samsung 40 inch set (LE40R74BDX) with early DNIE with this TV andn the improved upscaling performance makes the improvement from 720p to 1080 apparent on Freesat SD signals and even on Freeview (built in) SD signals which can be very compressed and short of resolution to start with.
Get on to the HD BluRay 1080 signal however for a visual feast.
I particularly enjoy this sets perfect performance with the bluray player set to 1080p 24 frames per second (fps which matches the frame rate of film in a cinema) which definately gives you a more filmic experience. Couple this with truly impressive black performance, contrast and colour gamut and you are in for a very big treat. Black performance a la plasma without the dimming trickery used on LED edge lit models or the overpriced local dimming models and the compromises that can result. The Latest Potter movie in all is dark splendor was beutifully and faultlessly rendered by this TV.
And did I mention the price!
Finally if you want smaller and even cheaper I can also recommend the LE32B450 4 series which I bought from Amazon at the same time (£309 if you can believe that). Its only 720P not 1080 but this is less noticeable anyway at the samller screen size and I would have to agree with a review I read that this set shows that you dont have to spend much at all to get a very impressive picture these days. I also highly recomend it.
If you are dithering about buying one, dont. It may not be as thin as an LED edge lit LCD (but I dont look at the side of my TV) and may not have the stumling Internet integration of the 6 series (LE40B650) or its 100Hz but it is awsome performance for the money (£534 at Jan 2010). You will not regret buying this set. I know I dont.
Ian. |
A most superb television
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| Review Date: October 15, 2009 |
| Reviewer: P. Rangeley, |
I wanted a good looking reliable full hd tv to replace my old model. I visited lots of sites to check prices and features. i found the Samsung LE40b55oa5 40" full HD crystal tv on Amazon with the features I wanted and at a great price.
delivery was very quick. The tv is great looking,easy to programme and install and the picture and sound quality are excelent. I have mine linked to a HD satelite box and a samsung dvd player with surround sound. Fantastic picture and sound quality.
A most superb television. |
Beautiful Bargain
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| Review Date: March 29, 2010 |
| Reviewer: A. Wilkes, UK |
| Had to replace a broken tv on a budget and really wanted a larger screen. When this arrived I was delighted. Picture gorgeous and sound good too for me. HD on V+ Box beautiful. Wonders of the Solar System looks amazing! Sufficient connections for most people. Good looking tv: even the stand is good looking. Delighted with purchase. |
Samsung 40
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| Review Date: July 30, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Andrew Cowell, Bristol, England |
I have been looking at TV's for a few months and as the prices continued to drop, finding the right one at the right price at the right time was always gouing to be hit and miss. As well as Amazon, I looked at the main retail outlets inc. J Lewis who I usually favour. Amazon have the top names and good prices so eventually I chose the Samsung 40.
I wanted a TV large enough for my lounge but not too imposing, with all the features that let me and the kids watch films, dvd's and sport. The Samsung has it.
I also purchased a stand which matches well.
Amazon delivered when they said they would, setting up was simple (once I remembered where all the wires came from on the old TV) and within half an hour of unpacking we weere sat down watching.
And it's brilliant - great picture and sound, easy to use and looks fab.
Happy us!! |
Great Buy
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| Review Date: June 7, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Mr. M. Coburn, United Kingdom |
| Purchased this after realising I was never going to afford the old Bravia's. Am very pleased with the whole package, sound is great and picture is sharp. Now, if I can just talk the other half into picking up a decent dolby surround sound system I'll be happy!! |
Great 40" Full HD LCD TV
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| Review Date: August 20, 2009 |
| Reviewer: AmBrit, Norwich, UK |
For a 40" LCD with the bells and whistles of this Samsung model you can't go wrong buying this TV. The picture is fantastic and the set looks great turned off as well. For the price I paid via Amazon, I am a very happy customer. The TV was delivered within a few days of ordering it.
The only change I would make is buying a 42" model. I had a Sony Vega 36" flat screen before buying the 40" Samsung and thought the extra 4" presented a nice increase in picture size. Given the more rectangular design of the new flat panel TVs, the 40" Samsung doesn't seem that much bigger than the 36" Sony, even though the new TV is in a smaller room. Saw a 42" flat panel at a friends the other day and liked the size much better. If you can afford it, go 42". |
easy to set up
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| Review Date: April 1, 2010 |
| Reviewer: R. Tate, |
| Purchased this product to complete a redec of my lounge. Had it up and running within minutes simple to install and tune in. Great picture quality through my cable box and terrestial ariel. Because of the various connection sockets can be a pain to have to keep selecting the appropriate input device when swapping between DVD,Cable etc. but I imagine this will be the same for all TV's of this type. Bit of a dust magnet comes with a small anti static wipe which gets a lot of use. All in all a good product at a good price. |
Samsung LE40B550A5 40"
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| Review Date: March 30, 2010 |
| Reviewer: A. Kaczorowski, UK |
| Fantastic. It is hard to find TV witch perform so good for so little. 1080p is just amazing. My Xbox 360 running in full HD makes me want to play all my games again. Superb connectivity. 4 HDMI inputs are more than plenty and pc connection is all you will ever need. Picture quality is amazing. Contrast is good and black levels are great for LCD. Glossy black finish makes it look stunning. TV comes with glass stand and microfiber cloth for cleaning. Best buy. If you are looking for TV this is the best option. |
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