Thinking of buying Samsung 40" d6600 TV. Anything I need to know?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Thinking of buying Samsung 40" d6600 TV. Anything I need to know?

Hiamie

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#97523 16-Feb-2012 08:15

I am considering buying the 40" (maybe the 46" - I really struggle to decide, but space is tight!) Samsung D6600 TV. This is the one with the really thin bezel.

I will mainly be watching standard definition pictures from Sky TV, and DIVX from the computer plugged into the VGA port from up to 3.7 meters away.

Some specific questions follow...

If anyone owns one of these, can you tell me what you think about it, now you have tried it out for yourself.
I like the idea of such a thin surround, but maybe there is a disadvantage?

My current TV (32" Samsung series 6) resolution is 1920*1080 BUT the VGA input when using the computer wont take a signal above 1280*1024! Can the D6600 display a 1920*1080 resolution signal from a computer connected to the VGA input?

Having seen them on display in shops, I find the picture quality to be very good. My only concern is that the demo models all seem to display the very dark greys (IE detail in shadows) as black. I presume I will be able to just turn up the brightness a little to show more detail inside the shadows.

I know there is a huge difference between viewing demo models and actually having a set in your own home, showing normal standard TV pictures, hence the request for feedback from owners.

Dunnersfella

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#582202 16-Feb-2012 09:54

Remember - the store TV's will be on demo mode (Vivid, or whatever Samsung call it this week), which in turn will rob you of any detail within the black areas of the picture.
Careful calibration will help even things out. Sure, it won't go as black as a top end plasma, or indeed an LED with true micro dimming, but for the price point - it should be okay.

Sorry, I have no idea re: VGA resolution on the TV you're looking at. Can your laptop output 1080p via VGA?
What are you send to the TV screen via VGA? Is it as a desktop monitor replacement? Or as a way to watch movies? If it's a movie thing, you could always try the in-built DLNA functionality of the TV (the D6600 has built in wifi... but streaming 1080p over wifi will be dependent on good network speeds).

Do you have a laptop you can take in and connect via VGA? That should answer the trickiest of questions.

Hiamie

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#582220 16-Feb-2012 10:16

I suspect you are right in that the stores pump up the contrast so that the TV's all look more vivid than normal.

My laptop can't reach 1920*1080, so I can't test in store. A good idea though :)

I use my main PC (normally set to 1920*1080) to send a picture (DIVX movies / internet etc) to the TV using the VGA port (via an active VGA splitter), so anything displayed on the computer monitor is also displayed on the TV. Problem is currently I have to change the computer resolution to 1280*1024 in order for the TV to display any picture - I was hoping that the Samsung D6600 will be able to display the 1920*1080 picture via the VGA input so I don't have to change PC resolution everytime I want to play a movie etc.

I suspect that the Samsung D6600 can probably play DIVX movies via the USB input, so that will remain an option - can anyone confirm that the Samsung D6600 can play DIVX movies via USB?

stevenz

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#582222 16-Feb-2012 10:20

I've got the D6200 which is the same panel with different (not as good as the D6600) processing hardware. It happily copes with 1920x1080 input via VGA, but I feed it a DVI signal via an HDMI convertor as it's a tad sharper.

Even my ~3 year old 42" 5 series Samsung would accept 1920x1080 via a bit of trickery. There was a certain sequence of events that were required, but it _would_ do it.

In store TVs are almost always in "Dynamic" mode which blows things out badly. A brightly lit store will also make the blacks appear darker relative to the surrounding lighting, in a dimly lit room you would be able to see things just fine.

@KnightNZ

Hiamie

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#582246 16-Feb-2012 10:43

stevenz:

Even my ~3 year old 42" 5 series Samsung would accept 1920x1080 via a bit of trickery. There was a certain sequence of events that were required, but it _would_ do it.

What was the trick that made it work at 1920*1080 for you - can you remember?
My 32" series 6 (model LA32A650A which has a 1920*1080 resolution for TV)) simply says "mode not supported" unless I change the PC resolution down to 1280*1024!

Dunnersfella

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#582248 16-Feb-2012 10:45

Samsung TV's will have very few issues playing movie codecs - while they won't play ALL of them, they will certainly play a big chunk of what you need.

bfginger

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#582449 16-Feb-2012 16:42

I will mainly be watching standard definition pictures from Sky TV, and DIVX from the computer plugged into the VGA port from up to 3.7 meters away.

SD isn't going to look too good on a 40" TV. Do use the YPbPr connector and not composite.

My current TV (32" Samsung series 6) resolution is 1920*1080 BUT the VGA input when using the computer wont take a signal above 1280*1024! Can the D6600 display a 1920*1080 resolution signal from a computer connected to the VGA input?

The industry is hostile towards VGA and wants to phase it out. They have intentionally discouraged the use of 1080p over VGA and YPbPr as interests want you to buy an HDMI laptop to get 1080p. Some Chinese televisions do support 1080p over VGA so it can be done. The UA40D6600 quick-start manual lists support for 1680x1050, 1360x768 and 1920x1080 from PC but the 1080p might be only from HDMI/DVI.

New televisions with VGA that don't support 1080p should still support 768p. Some may support higher 4:3 or 16:10 resolutions which can be stretched to full screen which should do for video playback with aspect ratio correction. VLC can do that.

My laptop can't reach 1920*1080, so I can't test in store. A good idea though :)

It probably can with a third party tool like Powerstrip. It's usually a GUI limitation and not an equipment limitation.

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stevenz

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#582468 16-Feb-2012 17:09

Hiamie:
stevenz:

Even my ~3 year old 42" 5 series Samsung would accept 1920x1080 via a bit of trickery. There was a certain sequence of events that were required, but it _would_ do it.

What was the trick that made it work at 1920*1080 for you - can you remember?
My 32" series 6 (model LA32A650A which has a 1920*1080 resolution for TV)) simply says "mode not supported" unless I change the PC resolution down to 1280*1024!

Without the TV in front of me, I really couldn't say. The particular model I had actually said in the manual somewhere that it wouldn't accept higher than 1280x1024 via VGA, it would accept 1920x1080 if the signal was at 59Hz instead of 60Hz or something picky like that though - I think PowerStrip was involved in the process. I thought I was pretty clever at the time. At one stage I stuffed it up and getting it working a 2nd time involved a fair bit of profanity. Sorry I'm not really any help there.

If you can run the output to 1280x720 then unless you're running 1080p source media, it'd look much the same anyway.

@KnightNZ

EvilSteve

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#582518 16-Feb-2012 19:14

I have never tried VGA into it but i have the 46" d6600, its a beauty of a tv with wifi, bluetooth, smart apps etc. when i cant find the remote i fire up the app on my android phone and flick chanels that way.

The HDMI-CEC (i think its called) is handy, i turn the ps3 on and the tv switches on and changes to the correct channel and turns the home theatre on too (i suspect most TVs do this these days)

The tv wobbles a bit during the earthquakes so i recommend fastening it - you would be stupid not to these days really.

Tv also plays almost every format i have thrown at it including a 2gig hd copy of transformers, i think it was .MKV but dont quote me.

Also plays files easily through my ps3mediaserver and my router's built in DLNA.

Dunnersfella

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#582619 16-Feb-2012 23:23

If 3D is a concern, it may pay to test its Full HD playback of 3D images - as per the thread on Geekzone.
Should be an easy test, take the downloaded images into the store and run them on the set prior to buying.

Hiamie

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#582635 17-Feb-2012 06:55

Thanks everyone for your feedback. It seems that the move to 60" D6600 will be a step forward to my current arrangement.

Now, I've got an even bigger problem... convincing the wife that we *need* to upgrade!
(Her only requirements in a TV is that the picture is coloured, and that it moves!)

Hiamie

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#583114 18-Feb-2012 10:25

UPDATE: OK, Yesterday, I went out and purchased a new 40" Samsung D6600. And, I am happy with it. Yes, it displays the PC using the VGA port at 1920*1080. The picture quality is better than my 3 year old LCD 32" series 6 TV. There are heaps of settings to make the picture just the way I like it.

So I am happy :).

Thanks again to everyone that replied to my questions, you all helped me make the right decision!