» Samsung LN-T4065F 40 inch LCD 1080p HDTV with built-in HD Tuner – Review

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Editor's HDTV Pick

HP 47 inch MediaSmart 1080p LCD HDTV "Out of the box" digital media platform. Enjoy videos, pictures and music from home network + digital media delivered over your broadband Internet connection + 3 x HDMI

The LN-T4065F is a new 40 inch, 1080p high definition format (1920(H) x 1080(V) pixels) LCD wide screen TV Samsung. One standout feature of the LN-T4065F is the implementation of the new HDMI standard 1.3 on three HDMI interfaces. Samsung have also implemented the optional HDMI-CEC component of HDMI which allows global control all CEC-enabled peripherals.

The LN-T4065F screen is surrounded by a thin, black bezel with twin 10W hidden speakers mounted either side. As many customers now require, the LN-T4065F is suitable for wall mounting and has holes in the rear to VESA standards. The swivel stands +/-15° range of movement provides set-up flexibility. The wide viewing angle of 178º(H) / 178º(V) provided by Samsung’s S-PVA display technology makes it even easier.

As the LN-T4065F comes with a digital ATSC HDTV tuner a separate set-top box is not required. ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee), a collaboration of broadcasters, consumer electronics manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturers and other ATSC member’s, publishes sensitivity specifications for televisions.

Dynamic Contrast Ratio

The dynamic contrast ratio for the Samsung LN-T4065F is an impressive 15,000:1. Dynamic contrast refers to the fact that adjustments on a scene by scene basis. This dynamic contrast ratio is well ahead of all of the competition including the 7,000:1 ratio for Sony BRAVIA LCDs and 3000:1 and 1,000:1 for Panasonic and JVC.

Consumers should be careful not to base television choice on just the highest dynamic contrast ration which seems to be a competition point between manufacturers. It’s much like the mega-pixel count with cameras at the moment. Read PTek’s technology guide on contrast ratio for more information.

CCFL Backlighting

The wider the color gamut (range of colors capable of reproduction) a television has, the more natural images will appear. For a wide color gamut, Samsung uses a CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) backlight. CCFL backlighting is also used for its relatively low price, long 50,000 hour life , low power consumption and brightness efficiency.

Looking to the future, Light-Emitting-Diode (LED) technology looks to be the next backlighting of choice with better power consumption, an even wider color gamut, and mercury-free construction. While CCFL backlight manufacturers have reduced the color gamut gap LEDs can provide 100+% of the NTSC (National Television Systems Committee) color standard compared to only 92% for CCFL. Higher costs and excessive heat-generation problems seem to be holding back greater LED backlight use at present.

High Definition

The 1080p high definition format used by the Samsung LN-T4065F is the highest resolution of the six high definition Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC) formats. The 1080p format has twelve times the level of detail provided by conventional standard definition TV.

For those wondering if there are any advantages to high definition, apart from the obvious improved detail, - there are. High definition provides:

1. greater image shading and
2. acceptable pixels sizes on larger screen sizes (pushing out the recommended viewing distance)

Acceptable pixel sizes on larger screen sizes is the reason why manufacturers are able to constantly push display sizes upward. It won’t be long before they are pushing for higher resolutions.

Video Processor

Consumers often underextimate the affect of a televisions video processing chip has on its display quality.

A video processor performs two essential tasks; 1) conversion of all incoming video signals to a displays native resolution and 2) removal of any artifacts which may have been created during resolution conversion or video transmission. The magnification of image defects on larger displays makes video processor performance even more critical. The Samsung N-T4065’s 10 bit video processor comparable with numerous other LCD TV products offered. Video processor performance can be judged by viewing a television displaying video sources with resolutions different to the natural resolution of the set.

Display Response Time

A fast response time is necessary for fast action scenes to be free of motion artifacts. The quoted response time for the LN-T4065 is 8ms which matches Sony and Panasonic LCD televisions but falls short of the blisteringly fast 4ms of the Sharp AQUOS.

Response times can be measured in different ways so care should be taken in comparing display response times. Two common measurement methods are “rise-and-fall” and “gray-to-gray”. VESA (the Video Electronics Standards Association) has a technical specification for rise-and-fall but, not for gray-to-gray. Rise-and-fall is measured as the time taken for a pixel to change from black to white (rise) and back to black again (fall). Gray-to-gray is the time to change from one shade of gray to another.

Consumers should make sure they are comparing measurements to the same standards. Putting on a action movie scenes is a great practical test.

HDMI-CEC

HDMI-CEC (consumer electronics control) is an optional feature of HDMI which allows global control all CEC-enabled peripherals using a single remote. Using HDMI-CEC up to ten devices can discover and communicate with one another through HDMI cabled network.

Utilizing HDMI-CEC, individual AV devices can control each other. As an example; closing the DVD tray could trigger the DVD player to switch the TV on, select the correct video source on the TV and set the appropriate video and audio modes for playback.

SRS TruSurround XT

SRS Lab’s TruSurround XT a surround sound field using only two speakers. It can produce twin channel stereo output from mono, stereo or multi-channel input signals. For more information on how SRS labs manages its surround sound from two speaker feat visit SRS Labs website.

Useful Picture Controls

Useful picture control features of the Samsung LN-T4065F incude:

• Picture-in-Picture
• V-Chip System
• Tri-lingual on-screen displays (English, Spanish and French)
• Variable sleep timer
• Auto volume leveler (maintains same audio volume across channels

AV Connections

The Samsung LN-T4065F has three HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) which are the latest HDMI version 1.3. For a full connection list see the detailed specification at the end of this review.

Comparing the Samsung LN-T4065F LCD TV

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-T4065F 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)
• no CableCARD slot as with the LN-SXX96D series
• no clock on/off timer
• no auto channel search

Further Reading

PTek has reviewed a similar size 1080p LCD TV from the LN-SXX96D series – the 40 inch LN-S4096D. 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 XBR2 40 Inch KDL-40XBR2 LCD HDTV , Sony Bravia XBR3 40 Inch KDL-40XBR3 LCD HDTV and the Sharp AQUOS 42 inch 1080p LC-42D62U LCD TV .

Specification for Samsung LN-T4065F LCD TV