Samsung LN-S4051D review: Samsung LN-S4051D

Intro
Judging from the latest prices, 2006 looks like the year that plasmas will have to compete against LCDs on something other than cost. The Samsung LN-S4051D is the typical challenger from the LCD camp, with its 40-inch screen and a price commensurate with that of 42-inch plasmas. While the two flat-panel technologies each have their strengths and weaknesses, in general, we've found that the best plasmas outperform the best LCDs, and that maxim holds true for the Samsung LN-S4051D. However, this relatively well-featured panel still has a lot going for it, including one of the most stylish exteriors on the market. The Samsung LN-S4051D is without a doubt one of the most elegant-looking televisions we've seen. Samsung dressed its LCD entirely in glossy black, surrounding the wide screen with a 1.5-inch frame on all sides. In a unique touch, the top and side edges are rounded off, and the slick fuselage extends around to the back of the panel--this is one set that will look good from behind, too. Below the screen, Samsung kept the distinctive V shape, and the bottom lip of the V, colored a lighter shade of bluish-black, opens up subtly to allow audio from the hidden speakers to emanate into the room.

The included manual swivel stand is likewise finished in glossy black, and its oval shape lends the whole set another dose of distinction. The LN-S4051D measures 39 by 28 by 12.8 inches (WHD) and weighs 50 pounds with the stand attached; its depth is 3.42 inches without the stand.

Samsung finally updated its remote, and the 2006 model is a big improvement on its predecessor. While still not backlit, the thinner, longer, black-topped clicker has a well-thought-out button arrangement, with plenty of differentiation among the keys. The thumb falls naturally to the cursor control for navigating menus, and directly below are a few favorite shortcut keys--picture, sound, and aspect-ratio modes, plus the freeze command--in different colors. The remote can operate four other devices. The internal menu system looks the same as ever. We found it intuitive to navigate and appreciated the ability to choose inputs, as well as the helpful information explaining various menu items. As with most LCD TVs, the 40-inch Samsung LN-S4051D has a native resolution of 1,366x768, which is enough pixels to deliver every detail of 720p HDTV sources. All sources, including HDTV, DVD, standard TV, and computers, are scaled to fit the native resolution.

Well equipped as LCDs go, the Samsung has most of the important convenience features. There's an ATSC tuner onboard, although you'll need to step up to the LN-S4096D if you want CableCard. The picture-in-picture function offers both inset and side-by-side options, and while you can watch a couple of sources from the A/V inputs simultaneously with a PC source, many other combinations are forbidden. Aspect-ratio controls include four modes with standard-def sources, including an adjustable zoom, and just two (side-bar 4:3 and full-screen 16:9) with HD sources.

Picture-affecting features start with the four preset picture modes: Dynamic, Standard, Movie, and Custom, all of which can be adjusted. Unfortunately, despite what the manual says, the adjustments can't be keyed to different inputs--Movie's settings are the same on both HDMI 1 and HDMI 2, for example--so you can set up a total of only four modes for different sources. The LN-S4051D still allows a good deal of adjustment but not as much as if it had true independent input memories. Samsung also touts its Game mode for this year. This separate picture mode--located, for whatever reason, in the setup as opposed to the picture menu--increases light output, obscures shadow detail, oversaturates colors, and adds edge enhancement. These effects might please the eyes of some gamers, but they don't help the picture look more realistic.

The company got rid of its strange custom color mode from last year, sticking instead with the basics: a solid five color-temperature presets, a setting called Film mode that engages 2:3 pull-down detection, and a noise-reduction feature that didn't seem to clean up much noise at all during our tests. The company's DNIe processing doesn't seem as obnoxious as it did last year; you still can't turn it off, and it does appear to introduce edge enhancement but not as much as we expected. Finally, there's a setting to reduce energy consumption that actually controls the intensity of the backlight, which has a big effect on black level performance. We found the "high" setting produced the deepest level of black.

Around back, you'll find there's been a connectivity trade-off. While we welcome the pair of HDMI inputs, we couldn't help but notice that there's only one component-video input. We appreciated the dedicated VGA input for PCs (1,360x768 is the recommended resolution), which is joined by a single A/V input with S-Video. An additional A/V input with S-Video can be found on the side of the television.

The set also includes a mysterious back-panel jack labeled MP3 link that goes unmentioned in the manual. The menu has an iPod option that we assume has something to do with this jack, presumably to allow you to connect an iPod and listen to songs and control the player via the TV. Samsung couldn't give us more info bythe time of this writing, and we couldn't test the feature since it appears to require a proprietary cable, but we'll update this section when we know more. Overall, the Samsung LN-S4051D turned in a good but not great performance in our tests, exhibiting accurate color and all the detail that we expected but suffering in darker scenes, especially in transitions between light and shadow.

Watching the opening sequence of the Alien DVD, we noticed some good and bad points. Detail in the shadowed hull of the ship as it passes overhead was decent for an LCD, but the depth of black in space wasn't as good as that of the Sony KDL-32S2000, for example. Once we set the energy saver function to "High," however, black levels improved significantly, and the black of space was as deep as any LCD we've seen. The Samsung did exhibit more false-contouring artifacts than the Sony or the Sharp LC-37D40U that we had on hand for comparison. For example, the rings around the first planet had distinct lines instead of smoothly blending into the background, and later, as the explorers approach the alien ship, the lights created visible concentric rings as the light faded toward darkness. We also saw a flaw in the screen that didn't help these dark scenes look good; the lower-right corner was brighter than other areas, which was obvious in the lightening of the letterbox bar in that area.

In the Samsung's favor, its initial color temperature in Movie/Warm2 mode came quite close to the standard, resulting in accurate skin tones and nicely neutral whites and grays. During the Seabiscuit DVD we appreciated the neutral color in the faces of the people watching the fabled horse as he races around the track, and Chris Cooper's well-lit close-up thankfully didn't show any signs of contouring. The color of the grass was nice and lush while not seeming oversaturated, and the red stripes along the track didn't look too orangish, testaments to the Samsung's unusually accurate primary colors. We also noticed that the screen--even when seen from extreme off-angles to the sides, above, and below--maintained its brightness and color accuracy unusually well for an LCD.

Turning to high-def material, we fired up Serenity on Toshiba's HD-A1 HD-DVD player, and the Samsung rendered the increased detail well. On the hull of the Firefly ship, for example, we could see the rivets and scuffs in the metal, even as it receded away from the (virtual) camera, and the fine lines in the slats of wood during one of River's dream sequences came across nicely. Unfortunately we still noticed those tell-tale contours in the shadows of the bulkhead as she emerges from her vision, which were not visible in the other sets we had on hand to compare.

Since the Samsung competes directly against plasmas, we also looked at a few Serenity scenes on the Panasonic TH-42PX60U to get an idea of how their HD pictures stacked up. In general, we found the plasma much more satisfying, with slightly deeper blacks and deeper color saturation overall. Even with the HD-DVD, we couldn't really tell the difference in detail between the higher-native-resolution Samsung and the somewhat lower-resoultion plasma. In the LCD's favor, its matte-finish screen did reflect less ambient room light than the plasma's glass, but that's not an issue if you turn off the lights.

We also put the Samsung through the paces of the HQV video-processing test disc to see how it handled standard-def material. The LN-S4051D's 2:3 pull-down processing engaged quickly, which eliminated the obvious lines in the bleachers as the race car passed by. We would have preferred to have the Film mode default be On; if you leave the Samsung in its default Off setting, the lines will appear. We did see jagged edges in the moving lines and along the stripes of the waving American flag, however, which could translate to less than smooth lines on some standard-def TV material. Also, the noisy scenes of night skies and sunsets didn't improve when we turned on the set's noise reduction; other sets, such as the Sony, do a better job of cleaning up lower-quality material.