Lcd & Flat Panel Televisions

Compare Prices and Read Reviews on Samsung LN-S4692D 46 in. HDTV LCD TV I Should be Watching my new Samsung Like I said above, I should be watching my Samsung LN-S4692D instead of writing this review. I purchased the set through Amazon and recei...

Compare Prices and Read Reviews on Samsung LN-S4692D 46 in. HDTV LCD TV LCD Screen went out - terrible service After purchasing this 46" LCD TV in November 2006 the picture was pretty good. The problem is with Samsung and their lack of customer servic...

Background Research

If you want LCD, then Samsung is the way to go; no ifs, ands, or buts here. Forget Sony as they use a Samsung LCD screen but jump up the price. Sure, Sharp is comparable, but I like the Samsung picture better. You can go round and round forever with the LCD vs. Plasma conundrum. All I read was confirmed when I saw that the LCD image is sharper and brighter whereas the Plasma image is better when watching a dark, somber show. It really is up to you, conditions in your TV room, and personal tastes.

Packaging

The box is not something that can be handled by one person, irrespective of their strength. It’s HUGE. One interesting and excellent idea by the packager was to provide little plastic latches that allow you to lift off the top of the box. So much better and safer than slicing through packaging tape, only to find you’ve hacked up your remote or manual.

Once the lid is lifted off, you see that the TV is sitting upright –nice and snug– in a styrafoam support system. The 40″ Samsung LCD TV lies flat on the ground out of the box, which makes it difficult to lift and rotate for use. Again, it will take two strong people to maneuver the 4692 TV onto a stand. And you’ll need at least 3 people to wall mount. I went for a stand, so it was easy for a friend and me to place the TV where I wanted it. The base doesn’t look real sturdy, but I’ve had no issues with stability or movement.

Hook-up is easy when using a TV stand, provided you’ve planned ahead and purchased the HDMI cables. Why HDMI? They make for a better viewing and sound experience as well as making setup and cable organization so much easier. No more figuring our which of the 6-7 cables goes where. Plus, Samsung is brilliant for using two HDMI ports: one for your DVD player and one for your cable box. If you plan on wall-mounting this TV, then be prepared to deal with most of the important outlets being on the back of the TV.

Once setup, you’ll love the look of the 4692. The black frame, trim configuration, and blue power button are…well, cool! This TV looks great even when it’s not on.

Sound

OK, the sound is not optimal on the 4692. But that’s not really why you buy one these things, is it? You’ll not get the supposed ’surround sound’ effect, no matter how much you fiddle with the functions. And it just sounds plain old ‘tinny’ to me. But I doubt few people would plunk down this kind of coin and not go for a sound system. We opted to purchase the matching Samsung HT-TQ85: DVD player and 5.1 theater, right out of the box. The sound is incredible with this matched system! You can hear and even feel the movement of the sound as a car races by, or a jet flies by on the TV screen. And listening to sports in 5.1 is awesome as it sounds like the crowd is right behind you.

And my 3 year old son just loves the little jingle that plays whenever the TV is turned on. Basically, it sounds like the TV is saying, “dee-dum-it.” Cute. But you can turn this function off, if you so desire.

Picture

Here’s where this TV really shines (literally). We originally went for the Samsung 4051 LCD TV. I mean, 40 inches of TV ought to be enough for anyone, right? Wrong! You just have to go with the 46 inch version as it really gives the home theater feel. The screen is big and beautiful. We started by watching one of the better HD TV stations (Discovery Channel). The detail was incredible; it’s almost three dimensional. Both my 3 year old son and our house cat reacted to the images as if the various creatures were really in the room. In fact, I had to intercept my cat before she jumped at some fish being shown swimming on the TV! She never even noticed the old TV, irrespective of the images. We then watched some of the HD talk shows (e.g., Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, etc.). I had no idea that celebrities have so many wrinkles, despite all the pancake makeup they wear! Although some people argue that LCD is not the best for fast-movement images, like sports shows, I’ve loved watching all kinds of sports shows on the 4692. Sure, there are sometimes momentary pixilations, but these seem more an issue with an out-of-focus camera than the TV itself. I love watching football and baseball. I can even see the football player’s faces on the field. It’s fantastic for sports!

And brightness, let’s talk incredible. We have a very bright TV room, as the sun streams in each morning. Despite all the sun, the picture was easily viewed from just about every angle and distance. No haze or distortion, what-so-ever. Even when we turned the TV to face the sun, the picture was great. There is just no way that a Plasma or projection LCD could deal as well as the 4692 with the sun we receive in our TV room.

We then tried the standard, non-HD channels. The difference is remarkable. Yes, it’s tough to go from a wide screen, HD source down to a regular cable channel. The images are not as clear, the sound suffers, and you lose screen size. Is it bad? No. Would it stop me from watching a favorite show? No. But you can bet I’ll be surfing for a HD signal for all my favorite shows.

Guess what? You’re done going to the movie theater! Harnessing the power of DVD up-conversion to 720p or 1080i is truly awesome when watching DVDs on the 4692. We don’t have a ‘true HD’ DVD player, but the HT-TQ85 is just fine for us. My wife and I feel like we’re at the movies, provided my son doesn’t come running in to demand that we watch “Barney” or “Elmo”! We’ve even started to catch little “faux pas” by the production staff due to the sharpness and clarity of the images.

It was at this point that we discovered the importance of the settings system. The preset image options are pretty straight forward: dynamic (bright sun), standard (bright, but not direct sun), movie (dark room as you watch your favorite DVD), and custom. It’s really important to take a few moments and fiddle with the settings if you’re settling in to watch a DVD. Some movies have dark settings (Underworld 2) and will be better appreciated with different settings from those for brightly lit moves. This extra work is particularly important when dealing with the oft-cited issue of contrast-black issues in flat panel LCD TVs. Be prepared to deal with slightly greenish color rather than true black pixels in your really dark, somber movies/shows. Yes, you can fiddle with the settings to compensate, but you’ll never really eliminate the problem. And yes, Plasmas do seem to do better with black images. However, the clarity of the LCD image on the 4692 far outweighs what amounts to only an initially nagging issue.

Ease of Use

Here’s one of the downfalls of the system: it’s tough to deal with all the programming requirements. This issue isn’t directly a result of the TV. In other words, you’ll deal with this issue anytime you have three separate units (TV, cable box, and sound system). Getting the remotes to “talk” to multiple units is a real pain: lots of codes and button pushing. Plus, I’ve had to keep the manuals real handy as we always seem to be checking for what used to be simple things but now are impossible to figure out. For example, it took me forever to figure out how to do captions when watching TV. Turns out I have to manually setup the cable box BEFORE turning on the system. Major pain if someone who needs this excellent service wanders into the room and wants to join me in watching the latest episode featuring Jack Bauer and company on 24.

I haven’t tried any of the “child locks” and such, but that part seems pretty straightforward.

In conclusion, this TV is worth every penny I paid for it. I’m done going to movie theaters with my wife, so I figure that the cost savings should pay for the TV in, say, about 25 years!

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