The Samsung LE40C650
I bought this TV approximately a year ago to replace a 3 or 4 year
old Sharp that suddenly stopped working. Over the years i heard many good
things about Samsung TV's so I thought i would take the plunge.
I've worked in media in the past and I have a
collection of videos and photo's on external hard drives that I like viewing. I
also have a DLNA server but this doesn’t run all the time (and also I presume
it is more energy efficient to run an external hard drive than to stream from a
PC).
One of my main gripes about the TV is its HDMI PC
port. I bought the TV as I hoped it would end my misery of this PC/TV effect.
This is created by most TV's over scanning the input signal (to make it bigger
than the visible area to ensure there are no black edges). I liked the specification
of this TV as it had a HDMI input that could be set not to over scan (and thus
have a crystal clear 1080P desktop from my PC - rather than a slightly blurry
one). The picture quality was amazing but for some unknown reason the TV wouldn’t
decode the audio signal (which it does do on the other HDMI inputs, but which over
scan) meaning you have to use the 3.5mm jack to get the audio signal into the
TV which is a slight step backwards.
To sum up, amazing
TV, the Freeview HD is quick, the EPG is quick, the DLNA works (although I haven’t
thoroughly tested it), the USB playback works for a great variety of formats
and it is also very light compared to an older 42" sharp flat panel.