Samsung is in a good position having captured the number one market share position for digital TVs in the USA in 2006. Samsung markets the four most important digital TV technologies - LCD, Rear Projection, Plasma, and Flat Tube.

The Samsung LN-T5265F is a 52 inch, 1080p format (1920(H) x 1080(V) pixels) LCD flat panel television. It has a slim, black bezel, twin hidden side speakers and is suitable to wall mount. It’s swivel stand allows +/-15° of movement providing set-up flexibility. Its made even easier by the wide viewing angle of 178º(H) / 178º(V) (courtesy of Samsung’s S-PVA display technology.).

A separate set-top box is not required as the LN-T5265F comes with a built-in digital ATSC high definition TV tuner. ATSC refers to the Advanced Television Systems Committee which sets the sensitivity specification for digital televisions and is the result of a collaboration of broadcasters, consumer electronics manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturers and other ATSC member’s recommendations.

Important elements of picture quality are color, contrast ratio and resolution. Aiming to be the best LCD TV, the Samsung LN-T5265F LCD high definition television scores well in all three areas.

Contrast Ratio

Samsungs LN-T5265F display is based on its S-PVA (super patterned vertical alignment) technology which delivers a dynamic contrast ratio (contrast levels are adjusted on a scene by scene basis) of an enormous 15000:1. The LN-T5265F has This contrast ratio is well ahead of all of the competition including the 7,000:1 ratio achieved by the Sony BRAVIA LCD TV range and Panasonic and JVC having 3000:1 and 1,000:1 ratios respectively. Samsung don’t state if they use the more conservative ANSI test or the Full On/Full Off for contrast ratio measurement but, the contrast ratios are satisfactory in either case. If you are pondering whether such a high contrast ratio, while commendable, will make a difference to your viewing pleasure it might be worth reading PTek’s guide to contrast ratio.

CCFL Backlight

To achieve a wider color gamut for more natural colors, Samsung, like most manufacturers, uses a CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) backlight. Most manufacturers use CCFL technology as for a comparatively low price it has a 50,000 hour average lifetime, reasonably low power consumption, high brightness efficiency and good color uniformity.

The main emerging challenger to CCFL is Light-Emitting-Diode (LED) technology which offers better power consumption, a even wider color gamut, and a mercury-free source of light (CCFLs use a small amount of mercury). CCFL manufacturers have narrowed the color gamut gap but, LEDs can provide 100+% of the NTSC (National Television Systems Committee) color standard compared to 92% coverage in the case of the LN-T5265F. Only higher costs and heat-generation issues seem to be holding back greater LED backlight adoption..

1080p High Definition

The Samsung LN-T5265F LCD television’s 1080p format has the highest resolution of the six Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC) formats for digital broadcasting considered to be HD. 1080p has twelve times the level of detail provided by conventional standard definition TV.

Many consumers are choosing 1080p not just for the stunning viewing experience when viewing high definition programming but, to future proof themselves against the rapidly improving television specifications. Unfortunately for them, the news is that a higher resolution format, 1440p, has already popped its head above the consumer electronics horizon. It is already part of the new HDMI 1.3 specification and will probably enter the general public’s consciousness sometime in 2009.

As well as greater image detail, high definition formats also have a couple of other advantages:

1. there is greater scope to provide image shading and
2. the pixels for larger screens do not become obtrusively large requiring an unacceptably large viewing distance.

The second advantage is the reason why manufacturers, who are constantly pushing display sizes upward, are also calling for even higher resolution formats to be added to standards.

Video Processing

Conversion of all incoming video signals to the native resolution of a particular display requires the incorporation of a video-processing chip. A secondary but, equally important, task of the video processor is the enhancement of images to remove any artifacts which may have come from resolution conversion or video transmission. As a consequence of its vital role, the video processing chip can have a dramatic effect on picture quality. It is even more important with larger displays as they will naturally magnify and image defects which may be present in lower resolution video sources. The Samsung N-T5265’s 10 bit video processor is in line with a number of other LCD TV product offerings. The best way to judge performance is to view the television displaying a range of different format video sources.

Consumer Electronics Control (CES)

One not often seen feature (its optional to implement) of the LN-T5265F is the HMDI-CEC feature which allows you to control all your CEC-enabled peripherals using just one remote. HMDI-CEC allows up to ten AV devices to discover and communicate with one another through HDMI cabling across a system. HMDI-CEC was updated with version 1.3 of HDMI with the addition of timer and audio commands.

Apart from using one remote, HMDI-CEC also allows individual CEC enabled AV devices to command and control each other without user intervention. As and example; closing the DVD tray could trigger the DVD player to command the TV to switch on, select the DVD player HDMI cable as the video source and set the appropriate video and audio modes for playback.

Sound

The Samsung LN-T5265F has SRS Lab’s patented SRS TruSurround XT surround sound technology. TruSurround XT is a multi-channel virtualization technology which aims to produce a surround sound effect using only two speakers. It will handle up to seven (6.1) audio channels.

TruSurround XT combines three patented sound processing techniques from SRS Labs:

• Dialog Clarity: Improves intelligibility of dialog
• TruSurround: TruSurround creates multichannel signals in a way that takes advantage of the human hearing system and create a surround sound field. It carries Dolby certification.
• TruBass: TruBass enhances bass performance utilizing proprietary psychoacoustic techniques. Perception of fundamental low frequency tones is restored by dynamically augmenting harmonics.

TruSurround will produce a two channel stereo output from mono, stereo, or multichannel input signals. It is compatible with signals that been decoded by a Dolby Pro Logic or Pro Logic II decoder and signals that have been encoded to stereo with a matrix encoder (e.g. SRS Circle Surround or Dolby Pro Logic).

For more information on the equipment supplied by SRS Labs can be found on their web site.

Response Time

The response time for the big screen LN-T5265F is quoted as 8ms which falls in line with those quoted for Sony and Panasonic LCD televisions. However, the Sharp AQUOS leads the pack with a fast 4ms response time.

However, one must be careful comparing display response times as there are different ways reporting and measuring them. The most common methods are “rise-and-fall” and “gray-to-gray”. The display industry association, VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association), has a technical specification for rise-and-fall but, not for gray-to-gray. Rise-and-fall is the time taken for a pixel to change from black to white (rise) and back to black again (fall) while gray-to-gray is the time to change from one shade of gray to another. There are numerous arguments abounding about which is more relevant to assessing a displays performance and for the moment it is simply worth being aware that like is being compared with like.

Response time is important if you are interested in using your TV for gaming. So of interest will be the LN-T5265F’s Game Mode which allows you to optimize your TV for gaming with one button push. Game mode enhances dark areas, sharpens the picture, speeds up the image processing response and enhances the game sound effects.

Useful Functionalities

The Samsung LN-T5265F LCD TV has a number of useful features including:

• Picture-in-Picture (PIP): for simultaneous viewing
• V-Chip System: allows parents to block objectionable content
• Multi-lingual on-screen displays: English, Spanish and French
• Variable sleep timer: turns your TV off after a set time
• Auto volume leveler: keeps the same audio volume across channel changes

Connections

The Samsung LN-T5265F has a good range of connections including three HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface), PC (RGB) input and USB1.1. It should be noted that the HDMI is the latest HDMI version 1.3. Following are some of the changes brought in by HDMI 1.3

• Deeper Color
• Improved Audio
• New Mini Connector
• Auto Synchronization Support

A full connection list is provided in the specification at the end of this review.

Samsung provides mounting holes at the back of its LCD TVs which are based on VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) standards.

Warranty

Samsungs LCD, high definition televisions are backed by a 12 month parts and labor warranty. It’s important to note that the warranty is only 90 days for commercial use.

Comparison Samsung LN-T5265F LCD TV vs

Other LCD, 1080p high definition TVs produced by Samsung include the LN-SXX96D series. The major differences between the LN-TXX65F series of which the LN-T5265F reviewed here belongs to and the LN-SXX96D series incude:

• three (3) HDMI connections as opposed to 2
• HDMI is the latest version 1.3
• Consumer Electronics Control (CES) is available
• 15,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio as compared to 4000:1 for LN-SXX96D series
• hidden twin side speakers rather than bottom speakers
• not digital cable ready (DCR) tuner and no CableCARD slot as with the LN-SXX96D series
• no cock on/off timer
• no auto channel search

Further Reading

PTek has reviewed a similar size 1080p LCD TV from the LN-SXX96D series – the 52 inch LN-S5296D. Larger name brand competitors with the Samsung LCD TV range include Sharp’s AQUOS range and Sony’s BRAVIA range.

Other similar size LCD televisions which have been reviewed are the Sony Bravia XBR 52 Inch KDL-52XBR2 LCD HDTV and the Sharp AQUOS 57 inch 1080p LC-57D90U LCD TV .

Presentation Technology Reviews recently looked at newcomer NuVision’s 47 inch 1080p LCD television.

Specification Samsung LN-T5265F LCD TV