You would be forgiven for forgetting it as of late, however there was as soon as a time the place the very best implementation of Samsung’s personal LCD panels was to be present in rivals’ TVs. Though the Korean large’s SPVA (Tremendous Patterned Vertical Alignment) panels have loved their place as the very best LCD panels when it comes to distinction for a very long time, it was solely extra lately that Samsung discovered the right way to construct a terrific TV round them.
These days, although, Samsung LCD TV homeowners are now not compelled to have obnoxious picture enhancement features locked on always, nor are they caught with having the backlight lamps behind the panel pumping out mild at eye-burning ranges. The truth is, a lot of the firm’s shows, just like the LE40B651 right here, are a minefield of picture processing choices and tweaks which let you get the very best (or worst!) out of them. The entire bundle is topped off with 4 HDMI inputs (considered one of them side-mounted), Ethernet/LAN connectivity, an analogue VGA enter, 1 RGB SCART terminal, one other commonplace SCART, and USB inputs, and is obtainable for simply over £800 from retailers resembling Amazon. As we speak, we’re going to check out how all of those come collectively when this 40 1080p LCD has been configured to the very best of its talents.
The LE40B651 hasn’t actually put a foot incorrect for a TV costing £1,100. And in lots of ways in which continues with its image efficiency. Significantly startling is the set’s black stage response. Samsung’s Extremely Clear panel design, that includes a polariser that displays room mild to allow the replica of deeper blacks, seems to have been improved significantly, enabling the set to resolve even the darkest of movie scenes with a credibility that rivals many good plasma screens.
There’s hardly a hint of the dreaded gray misting impact, however loads of the shadow detailing data that helps to offer darkish scenes depth and life. Solely LED-based LCD screens can ship deeper black ranges nonetheless. What’s extra, the set’s black ranges maintain up higher than they do on most LCD TVs when seen from an angle.
What makes the black ranges all of the extra exceptional is the truth that the comparatively inky black ranges are maintained even for those who flip the set’s dynamic distinction characteristic off, in order that you do not have to fret in regards to the image’s brightness ranges ‘leaping’ in response to altering mild ranges in your supply pictures.
Black ranges as intense as these of the LE40B651 usually sit aspect by aspect with wealthy, vibrant colors. And so it proves right here, as the plush animated colourscape of Wall-E on Blu-ray merely explodes off the display screen.
After all, although, even fairly dodgy TVs can look good with beautiful animated fare like Wall-E. However the LE40B651 additionally delivers a wealthy however credible palette with commonplace HD video just like the demanding casino-based scenes in On line casino Royale. Pores and skin tones look refined and credible, with out diminishing the stylised lighting results or the wealthy colors of the playing cards.
Commonplace-def nonetheless has the potential to impress when accomplished appropriately, and the LE40B651 has the mandatory choices to make for spectacular SD video. The aforementioned scaling algorithm in use right here seems good, though relying on the content material, you would possibly wish to give the Sharpness management a mild nudge to the correct.
Utilizing an out of doors scaler (on this case, the HQV processing in my very own Onkyo TX-SR876 AV receiver) did not essentially make pictures look higher, simply completely different. That is a fairly spectacular factor to have the ability to say a few TV’s built-in scaling.
After all, what I actually wished to check out was some 1080p content material. Join a Blu-ray participant, hit TOOLS on the distant, and alter the “Image Dimension” choice to “Display screen Match” to allow pixel-by-pixel mapping, and luxuriate in. Simply ensure that, after calibrating, you see to the “100hz Movement Plus” possibility, which is applied with higher management than on nearly another TV I’ve reviewed.