The propaganda
Although the Blu-ray enabled PS3 may be stealing the headlines at the moment, lets not forget that Sony isn't the only company in the Blu-ray player market; Samsung has its own player, the BD-P1000, which provided early adopters with their first taste of the capabilities of the HD format. However, for some reason Samsung had neglected to bring a TV set to take advantage of Blu-ray's Full HD capabilities. The LE-40F71B addresses that issue by offering 1080p resolution along with the many other impressive technical features that hold Samsung flat panel TVs in good stead in the HDTV market.
The LE-40F71B does come packed with goodies too; imaging is handed by Samsung's Digital Natural Image engine (DNIe), which is designed to improve black levels - a key issue at the 40" mark where competing plasmas tend to have the edge - sharpness, colour saturations and motion. It also offers a impressive array of connectivity options including twin HDMI slots, component video input, two Scarts and a PC input.
Then there's a couple of multiformat memory card readers and a USB port to let you view JPEG photos. Interestingly, the USB is PictBridge-enabled, so you can send your photos on to a printer sans computer. There is one thing lacking though; namely an integrated digital tuner, which seems a pretty curious shortcoming.
The good
HDTV set design seems to be roughly dividing into to two camps: those that offer a beautifully natural blend of subtle colours for incredible realism, and those that favour the bold, bright, in-your-face colour that blows you away in a dazzling assault on the senses. Mostly the distinction boils down to personal preference and what type of viewing material you prefer, but clearly the Samsung LE-40F71B falls into the latter category. It's not necessarily a bad thing - far from it - it just takes a bit of getting used to.
Unsurprisingly, colour intensity is one thing that LE-40F71B does well, offering an almost overwhelming barrage of vivid imagery, mainly thanks to Samsung's Wide Colour Gamut technology. One thing you'll definitely be doing is spending time tweaking those factory defaults to get the level of intensity down to something less dazzling. However, once you've reigned it in, you do get to enjoy a colour-rich experience almost unlike any other set we've tried. This particularly enjoyable if you're using for less natural viewing material, particularly those from next-gen games consoles like the Xbox 360 or PS3.
Another pleasant discovery is that, in spite of the colour intensity, the level of video noise is well suppressed. You'll very rarely find your viewing experience encumbered by either MPEG noise or dot crawl. Images also benefit from an impressive level of sharpness too.
The bad
In the end, we learned to love the LE-40F71B's intense colour, but while it looks great for HD sources, the downside is that SD sources suffer badly. The set struggles to maintain colour integrity in changing lighting conditions. This is particularly noticeable when observing facial tones, which can occasionally change colour as though the actors are some bizarre sort of human-chameleon hybrids. Fortunately the problem is fairly limited, mostly making itself known when the signal source is less than perfect.
The 1080p resolution is certainly the TV's main selling point but there is one issue that will potentially upset A/V purists: 1080p sources delivered via the HDMI or component jacks aren't mapped 1:1 to the TV's pixels, instead they overscan by about 3%, with no option to change the setting. What the hell? To an average consumer this is probably going to make little to no difference to their viewing, but it just seems like real waste that the set won't display a 1080p image in its full unadulterated state (or at least as unadulterated as it can be after the DNIe has worked its magic). Just to further muddy the waters, the VGA input does offer 1:1 pixel mapping... Bizarre.
The final gripe is that the integrated speakers aren't up to much. They do benefit the overall aesthetic of the TV, it's minimalist surround and the glossy, piano-black finish, but as they are tucked away out of sight underneath the screen they lack the power to deliver the 'oomph' that the vivid on-screen images demand. You can clearly make out the main dialogue but the bass is nonexistent and the frequency range ain't all that wonderful either. Best to pop in a surround system quick sharp.
Geek Sheet
Resolution :1920 x 1080p
Brightness: 500cd/m2
Contrast ratio: 6000:1
Inputs: 2 x HDMI, Composite video, component video, S-Video, 3 x SCART, D-Sub PC input
'Wiselink' 9-in-2 memory card reader
USB port with PictBridge support
DNIe processing
XWCG system
Smooth Motion Driver
Other features: 10-bit greyscale processing; wide viewing angle; game mode; Picture-in-Picture
Overview
The Samsung LE-40F71B's poor sound performance and lack of digital tuner are the main disincentives to buying this HDTV. The price certainly isn't though; you can pick one of these for roughly between £1,000 and £1,300, you can even get one for less than a grand if you look carefully. The Full HD resolution is a seriously appealing, even in spite of the annoying overscanning issue, and it is backed up really well by the set's stunning colour intensity. Give yourself a few days to acclimatise yourself to it and you'll never look back.
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Related sites: Samsung
