Samsung LN40B500 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV, Black
Sunday, November 29th, 2009 at
1:54 pm
- 40,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio
- 6ms Response Time
- Energy Star Compliant
- 1080P Full HD
- 2 HDMI
Product DescriptionSamsung 40-Inch LCD Widescreen HDTV. . . More >>
Samsung LN40B500 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV, Black
Tagged with: 1080p • 40Inch • Black • HDTV • LN40B500 • Samsung
Filed under: 26 Inch LCD HDTV
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Gosh, where do I start with this. I purcheased this 40 inch TV (Model LN40B500P3F) with the Samsung Blue Ray player (BD-P1600). What a nightmage. When you play an action flick, anything that moves, moves out of sync with the rest of the screen. But that was just the beginning of the issue. I made the genuine mistake of calling their customer service line (for shame Samsung, you hire people like this?), After giving all of my information to the customer support person, she sent me up to tier 2. There I got a snotty, mean person (and Samsung, my number is 7209331413, since no one gives their name, feel free to look up my record) After giving her all the exact same information that I had given the first person (and she still could not find my log), She went through the same menu items (she was looking for some kind of motion control option, but that does NOT exist on this TV, which tells you this is a common problem). Finally she told me that I needed to go to an electronics part store and buy a cleaner and clean the lense of the Blue ray disc player. WHAT?? I have had this unit for a few hours! Never mind that the appropriate cabling needed has to be purchased separately, it doe not come with the TV (you have to buy a HDMI-CEC cable separate, yeah, I know the box -implies- it has one in it, but it doesn’t). Do not buy Samsung products. I can’t believe that I paid hundreds of dollars for this (almost a grand when you add everything up) to get an inferior product and poor customer service. Obviously I am returning this product for a full refund.
Rating: 1 / 5
Insufficient number of connections. Bad picture quality. I was fooled by the black Friday price, its not worth even that 599 or whatever they are charging.
Rating: 1 / 5
The Samsung LN40B500 was marketed widely on Black Friday for $599. Several retailers, however, claimed that it was a $899 TV that was being offered at this “special” $599 price, an incredible $300 savings. So, I bought one and brought it home to replace my 32″ JVC LCD now destined for the bedroom. When I went to hook it up it was immediately obvious that my various electronic components (games, VCR, DVD player, etc. ) that were connected to the JVC would not connect to the Samsung because there simply weren’t enough connectors. (a bigger TV should have more connectors, right?) To my surprise, there were fewer connectors on the Samsung than I’ve ever seen on any LCD TV, especially one claiming to be a $900 set. There is only 1 video connector, and that is shared with the one and only component input. That means that if you are connecting an older set-top box and DVD player, you may be out-of-luck. And, forget it if you want to plug in a camcorder with S-video because there is no S-video input. To be clear, there’s only one video input, and that can be either composite (yellow plug) or component (RGB plugs), but not both. It seems that the manufacturer wanted to save a few pennies. Most sets have a couple of A/V inputs and one or two component inputs that are separate. There is no analog audio output, and no headphone jack (especially important for a hearing impaired person who doesn’t want to disturb others with loud volume. ) With no analog audio output, there was no way to connect my sub-woofer. If you want to connect video games, camcorders, VCRs, set top boxes, speakers, headphones–anything that doesn’t have an HDMI plug–then you’ll need to purchase an external selector box or home theater audio box that could run you an extra $60 to $500. The two HDMI connectors on the set are just adequate. Many retailers will try to sell you HDMI cables for $30 and up. (I usually buy them online for about $6 and they work just fine. ) With no way to connect all of my gear, I just connected my antenna cable and had the TV up and running in no time.
Out of the box, the picture quality of the LN40B500 was terrible. The whites were blown out, and flesh tones had a plastic, artificial appearance. The backlight setting was at max, so I reduced it, and also reduced the brightness. I changed the dynamic contrast setting to minimum, and played around with the noise reduction settings. After 15 minutes, I got the picture looking pretty good. Surprisingly, none of the presets came close to providing this level of picture quality. I suspect that the panel and electronics are similar to more expensive Samsung models, but are just not adjusted to provide the same picture quality as the higher end models. (After all, this is a Black Friday Special. )
The audio from the built in speakers was tolerable but somewhat tinny sounding. Again, with no way to hook up a sub-woofer, you’re stuck with this limited audio unless you purchase a more expensive home theater audio system.
Samsung doesn’t publish the power consumption specification of the LN40B500 on their website, nor is it published in the user manual provided with the set. For the record, my set was listed at 180W (plate on rear) but I suspect that reducing the LCD backlight and brightness levels will lower consumption significantly.
In summary, this is not what I would expect to see priced at $899 or $799 or even $699. At a full retail price of $599 it’s competitive with models from Vizio and others that have more features and connectors. But this Black Friday Price not really very special. The TV can produce a decent picture if you are willing to make the menu settings. I could only recommend this unit if you have basically nothing to hook up except a cable box. Don’t expect to find high end performance or features on this model.
Rating: 2 / 5
I’m not trying to do a full review but I just wanted to post some info that was important to me or things I could not find anyplace else.
Just some background before the review. . . I bought a Samsung 46inch “LN26A650″ (6 series) this summer. The only real spec difference between that and the current shipping 46inch 6 series model is the advertised contrat ratio. Also the 6 series used the same actual LCD panel as the series 7 so the picture quality is the same. With this said I should be able to give a good comparision between this unit and the upper middle of the Samsung units.
The primary reason for my purchase is to put a TV / Monitor in my home office to retire a 24inch LCD monitor. I know 40 inches is overkill for me but I wanted to try it and see if I could live with size difference of the panel and quality difference between my existing 6 series and this new 5 series.
THE LIGHT REVIEW
Build and outside looks are nice
Menu / Controls / Remote look the same between models.
Unit is real light at around 39 pounds
Takes the standard 200×200 Vesa mount (for wall mounting)
1-PC Monitor, 1-Component, 2 – HDMI inputs along with the standard SD connections
Warrantee – 1 year parts / labor
Blue Ray (side by side test using same Blue Ray player, cable and movie)
Sadly there is a noticeable difference. My older 6 series has better color, better contrast, less pixilation and less blur with action than this 5 series unit.
PC – Monitor
Adain a noticeable difference in picture quality between the 2 sets. Its about on par with the differences in Blue Ray not horrible by any means its just the same.
TV – Have not hooked this up yet but I suspect with non sports over the air, cable, sat HD viewing this unit will SHINE. I’m not sure how sports will look because that may bring in some of the same problems I had witht he blue ray movie.
Conclusion
* If you looking for a name brand, nice aesthetically looking unit for a low price this should be a good unit for you.
* If this is for a second or 3rd room and not the primary viewed TV this may also be fine for you.
* If you’re a previous owner of a better flat panel or you have high expectation of picture quality for a bargain price then you may be disappointed. Its not a bad deal by any means but I think you are getting close to what you pay for.
I hope this helps you choose.
Rating: 3 / 5
Picked this up in a “pre”-black friday sale. I returned a Samsung Plasma and exchanged it for this LCD LN40B500. I originally bought a Samsung plasma because the salesman sold me on the “better contrast, blacks, and refresh rates of plasmas. ” Yeah whatever, got it home and absolutely hated the picture quality compared to my previous 720P Samsung LCD. When I saw this TV in a pre-black friday ad for $597 decided to give it a try. Boy am I glad I did. The picture is absolutely amazing. I have watched many types of programs on it so far; movies, cartoons, sports, standard def, high def 1080i, upconverting DVD. All have been more than satisfying and select 1080i channels on FIOS have been absolutely breathtaking visually. Even though this is a 60 HZ model, I’m noticing no motion blur even in sporting events (this can be quite annoying in some “budget” LCD models) No worries, this set can easily handle quick pans and motion without even a hiccup, at least to my untrained eyes. (120 HZ models definitely look different, but to my eyes, different in a bad kind of artificial appearing way). The audio is more than adequate for a reasonably sized room, with a little tweaking of the audio settings I have been watching TV without even firing up the Home Theater Receiver quite often. The picture quality is absolutely stellar, I do recommend getting into the Picture Adjustment Menu though and adjusting the “cell lighting” to setting 5 or 6, as this is more than enough to light the screen, and substantially improves the image and contrast. At this price point, they have cut back on the inputs (2 HDMI) and no inputs on the side, but that wasn’t a deal breaker for me, I ran my FIOS through HDMI 1, DVD HDMI 2, and Wii through Component. Hopefully Christmas will bring a BluRay player to see what the 1080P will do on this set. I can’t imagine the picture looking any better than it already does. The cost to value ratio on this set is out of the ballpark. (Paid twice this much for a 32 inch 720P Samsung 3 years ago). As long as your cool with the limitted number of inputs and a 40 inch screen size, I wouldn’t pass up this deal!
Rating: 5 / 5