Samsung LA40S81BX

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garvani

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#18431 10-Jan-2008 12:31

Has anyone got any opinions on this Samsung 40" LCD ? Im considering this as they have a fairly good deal going at noel leemings (bundling with a $600 dvd recorder/160gb hd recorder/upscaling dvd player for $2499 - http://www.noelleeming.co.nz/tvs-dvd.../prod9965.html ). I have a xbox 360 elite so will be hooking that up via hdmi, dvd recorder via hdmi, computer via vga, original xbox (with xbox media centre) via component.. tv will be o.t.a.. im waiting for freeview to announce when blenheim will be rolled out)
But i really need an idea on the screen itself. Have only found 1 review from some south african website which wasnt very helpful.. Any owners out there!?

davidcole

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#104003 10-Jan-2008 13:39

Not an owner, but seeing as you're using the two HDMI ports, have you considered the LA40R model which has 3 hdmi. Not sure if you can get your bundle with it though.

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garvani

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#104021 10-Jan-2008 14:39

That is a very nice lcd, and i can find heaps of good reviews on it. I hadnt considered it as there isnt the aformentioned offer with it (well at least not on the website). Its a little out of the price range as i was only looking at spending 2500.. I would still like to hear from anyone that has used the LA40S81BX. I will have to pay noel leemings a visit and see if they could offer the dvd player with the better specd screen.

garvani

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#104046 10-Jan-2008 17:39

Just went and had a quick look at the two lcds after work.. only had 10 mins before they were closing up so didnt get a good look, from what i could tell from the horrible skytv broadcast they had on all the tvs, the LA40RS81BX didnt have much over the la40s8 as i was expecting.. the PQ didnt look dramatically better but that could to be with the terrible source material (how in the HELL do they expect to sell lcs's with that crap, this wasnt your usual skytv feed, this was severally degraded material, you would expect a dvd feed at least!!) the aesthetics advantage of the R model wasn't great either, infact i think i prefer the S over the R.
On saturday i shall head over with laptop in tow and maybe even the 360 and see what the PQ difference is like.. i feel like a right twat asking to hook these things up but it has to be done!

davidcole

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#104048 10-Jan-2008 18:05

dont worry about it, I made the guy drag a 19" sammy across the floor so i could see it plugged in to the crappy sky feed rather than to the dvd via component that they had on display.....and then still didn't buy it.

RustyGonad

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#104161 11-Jan-2008 09:36

I have a good mate who bought one of these just before Xmas. He paid $2140 at a Silvia Park Retailer... I setup his HTPC on it so I've played with it a bit.

There is a contrast ratio difference between the S8 & the R8 but also agree this is difficult to spot in the store.

With Freeview via a good HTPC, it can tend to look at little washed out at times, in darker areas. This may be able to be calibrated out, I haven't spent the time in front of it trying, and he tends not to care, however I suspect its half to do with the contrast limitations of the panel, and half to do with all the Samsung image enhancement junk which is still in the factory state. This is certainly less prevalent using HD content. I will play around with it sometime soon to make it better, but its been too fine lately...

Blacks can also tend to look a little grey, but for that sort of money you won't get a much darker, unless you get a Plasma, but then you use more power, bla bla bla. Its the old LCD vs Plasma argument all over again...

Sharpness with the PC via HDMI is fantastic - its a great 40" monitor. This is one area it will eat the Plasma's for breakfast. Also had no problems getting the scaling (ie using the full screen via the HTPC) correct using an ATI video card.

One thing I will say is that on or off its a great looking TV. Its way to classy to have come out of Korea!!!

So if your fussy about black levels, and dark contrast details, you may want to think carefully before getting one of these. Theres a couple of Plasma (Panasonic spring to mind) for about the same money, which I think have a better picture, but won't look anywhere near as good sitting in your living room. IMHO everything else for the same money looks ugly in comparison.

One thing I would say is that if you play games alot, plug the 360 in before you buy to make sure your happy with the panel refresh rate. I think the 8ms refresh rate is common with both the S8 & R8 - haven't tried it yet so can't comment too much. There are a few internet warriors around who haven't been too pleased with this.

Cheers,

garvani

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#104163 11-Jan-2008 10:01

Thanks for taking the time out to write that! very helpful! Would you be able to post any links you have of people complaining about the panel? as i cant seem to find much on it at all. I will be using it a fair bit for xbox360 so a decent refresh rate is needed but in saying that 8ms should be fine for me as my old 17" lcd comp monitor is a 16ms model so its probably going to be a decent improvement! lol Good to know that the pc image is sharp, i cant remember if i saw a vga connector on the back, can you confirm this? as my laptop dosnt have hdmi out ill have to connect via vga. As for black levels im not too fussed, but will go and check it out over the weekend.

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RustyGonad

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#104230 11-Jan-2008 14:05

Google "samsung lcd xbox slow", and you'll find a few like this http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=168763

While they ususally relate to the US panels the response time for the Samsung panel's hasn't changed much lately - so you can get the picture.

Take it with a grain of salt though - you need to form your own opinion based on what you see. Internet assasins will always knock the product - but you don't get many of the facts ie what image processing was turned on, what cable was used, what resolution was used etc etc etc. I love it how people with >500ms reaction times, blame a 8ms panel response, for their sucking badly on the Xbox...

The Samsung's come with alot of "marketing" images enhancement features which are all turned on by default. Many of these are designed at "enhancing" or reducing noise on poor sources. IMHO the majority of these are not needed when you supply a clean source, such as a good HTPC, or an Xbox 360 ie little point in trying to clean up an already clean source. However they all add overhead ie latency. People often mistake this with actual panel performance. I'm not saying people can't see it, or that LCD latency doesn't exist - just that the facts often get very confused.

When you plug the 360 in at the shop, make sure you turn off all the image processing such as Movie Plus, DNie bla bla bla, as I would suggest this is how you should run it at home.

Case in point - on my old Samsung DLP (RIP), with audio running through my Denon amp, factory default with everything turned on (all the DNie bla bla) I would get somewhere around 100ms of Latency between audio and video. This is a very subjective measurement, but i needed to add around 100ms of latency to the audio before lip syncing looked right. With everything off I added nothing. And it also looked better with everything off too. Obviously when you run audio through the TV you don't get to see this stuff or measure its effect.

And yes its got VGA in...

hashbrown

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#104663 14-Jan-2008 07:35

RustyGonad: Google "samsung lcd xbox slow", and you'll find a few like this http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=168763

Another reason to go with the R8 series which has a game mode which claims faster response times. I have the 32" R8 and gaming seems fine, although I'm not what you'd call a hardcore gamer.

The Samsung's come with alot of "marketing" images enhancement features which are all turned on by default. Many of these are designed at "enhancing" or reducing noise on poor sources. IMHO the majority of these are not needed when you supply a clean source, such as a good HTPC, or an Xbox 360 ie little point in trying to clean up an already clean source.

Couldn't agree more. Edge enhancement is another one to turn off if you're gaming. It makes jaggies stick out like the dogs proverbial.

If you're still looking for reviews, try using different overseas model numbers. e.g. LA40S81BDX for the Aussie model.

garvani

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#104673 14-Jan-2008 08:45

On Saturday i went down to my local noel leemings and came back with the Samsung LA40S81BX.. It handled the laptop and xbox awesomely.. Im very happy with it.. I spent Saturday night setting it up, and then watched a movie via xbox media centre (which now displays in glorious 720p). I wasnt expecting much from my movies as they are all 700mb xvids, but i was pleasntly surprised at the quality.. I had a few 720p sample videos which look great, im aquiring some 720p movies at the moment. Xbox360 plays great, i cant see any ghosting, tbh i don't see much difference playing in normal mode vs game mode, but ive left it on game mode, which it remembers for hdmi1 but dosnt initialize on hdmi2 (clever..) I havnt played with the free dvd recorder yet, ill save that for next weekend.. the only thing that annoys me about the tv is that its a dust magnet!