After relatively slow initial uptake, digital television is starting to make an impact in Australia. Changes to broadcast laws will soon enable commercial free to air broadcasters to offer more than one channel, and free-falling hardware prices make it easier than ever to access the superior image and sound quality offered by digital TV.
Samsung's LA32R71BDX 32-inch (81cm) LCD television offers a high-definition digital tuner, sleek design, and a clear image with a handy list of extra features.
Design
The sleek gloss black frame and base will help the unit blend into just about any chic living room, and a massive range of inputs mean that you shouldn't have any trouble at integrating it into an existing home entertainment setup.
The rear panel offers an enormous array of video connectors, including S-Video, VGA, HDMI, component, and composite, along with RCA and PC audio connectors.
Features
On paper, Samsung's top-of-the-line 32 inch LCD television is a screamer, boasting a massive 5000:1 dynamic contrast ratio coupled with a 500cd/m2 brightness rating and 12.8 billion colour palette. SRS TruSurround XT and teletext are both supported by default, and the rear of the screen includes a wall mount.
The LCD panel offers a 16:9 aspect ratio at a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, and the screen will dynamically resize content to fit, including scaling down 1080i high-definition images.
The on-screen menu is clearly laid out and relatively straightforward to navigate, and it doesn't take long to find the tuning and picture adjustment options. The tuning system is quick and painless, and it takes just a few minutes to set up the device to receive all local digital and analog broadcasts -- including EPGs. The TV doesn't feature an automatic brightness control, however presets are present for common colour settings (named Cool2, Cool1, Standard, Warm1, Warm2), which helps to speed adjustments for different light conditions.
Not surprisingly, the unit ships with an enormous remote control to access settings and adjustments.
Performance
During testing, the image quality proved to be outstanding, with the screen performing particularly well on contrast tests and in playing back DVDs featuring dark scenes. Rich, deep colours, plenty of detail and a wide 178-degree viewing angle help bring movies to life. The 8 millisecond refresh time means that fast-paced action sequences appear smooth and free from ghosting or jittering, and the screen even has a special gaming mode, optimised for high-definition consoles like the XBox 360.
The screen itself features two small 10 watt speakers, which offer surprisingly punchy sound, but can't match the sheer grunt offered by a dedicated surround sound system. If you take your movie watching seriously, you will want to invest in decent audio.
At just shy of AU$3000, the Samsung TV is a substantial investment, but a wide range of inputs, clear sound, and outstanding images help this 32 inch display shine. More to the point, given that it includes an HDMI input and a built-in high-definition digital tuner, it's even future-proofed.
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elliegold
20/02/2008, 05:18 PM
rating
2/10
I bought a Samsung LA32R81BD in late 2007. After less than 3 months the TV started to turn itself off, and after 2 weeks of doing this would not turn on. It was picked up for repair (under warranty of course) in December, and now over 10 weeks later I am still waiting. Samsung have been a nightmare to deal with, and are refusing to replace my TV. I have been left without a TV and no indication of when I am likely to have it repaired as the parts are out of stock and on order from Singapore.
Pros: Was good when it worked.
Cons: Broke very quickly, and customer service from Samsung is extremely poor. After 10 weeks I still do not have a resolution.
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Bri5125
20/02/2008, 04:18 PM
rating
6/10
What's the deal with the sound?
Pros: I love the TV, picture quality, style, weight, etc.
Cons: I bought the TV less than 2 years ago and now it seems that my TV has to "warm up" for about 5 minutes before any sounds comes out. If I hook it up to speakers it can get sound, but that's not what I paid for. Other TV's have lasted much longer than this before an issue. Anyone else experience this?
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JHS
04/08/2007, 03:08 PM
rating
3/10
Very disapointed
Pros: Looks good and easy to est up
Cons: TV sound is poor qulaity and matching to a quality AV receiver produced echos (delays) in most configuratuions when running TV and AV sound together.
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jamesg
07/07/2007, 05:49 PM
rating
9/10
I just bort the LA32R81BD model in black (wanted white, no longer available). And so far Im impressed. This is my first non CRT TV and Im running it thru a Windows Media Center PC (these rock btw!).
$1600 at Harvey Norman, Fyshwick.
I found this model to be the best bang for buck. Larger models were not proportionally better value which i found odd.
Pros: Pros: Looks nice on or off (great black glossy finish and cool blue power light effect)
Light, easy to move.
Swivel is good
Sound is fine (Im no audiophile tho)
Cons: Cons: In some respects not as good as a clear analogue TV signal on a CRT, but digital TV is the future anyway...
Not available in white (black is boring, everyone has it! So I bort a white TV stand)
Remote a little larger than it needed to be.
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daniel
08/05/2007, 02:47 PM
rating
10/10
Tv's to me serve two main purposes, one the picture is amazing, two it looks amazing turned off. This does both better than expected. After years of CRT tv's this was worth the wait. Simple fuctions, all connections you could need, and that picture cant be faulted. PS2 games are given an extra dimention, and dvd's have been given a crisp bright picture. In a smallish apartment living room its sits pride in place leaving the leviathan that was my old crt tv bowing its head in shame.
Pros: Picture quality, design, connections, remote (which can be used to work dvd players etc..) game mode, jealous friends!!
Cons: Not buying one sooner,
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Eagle 1
24/04/2007, 12:56 AM
rating
9/10
Bought on the weekend from harvey norman for $2k inc extended 3 yr (6yrs all up) factory warranty and on 12mth interest free terms
I think from what else I've seen this has got to be one of the best value for money LCD's going around with factory 3 yrs warranty
Pros: looks great in black
picture quality is one of the best I've seen under $2k
how about the swivel stand
plently of connections
pc works a treat
glad i didn't buy a universal remote this ones great
xbox gamming is excellent providing you spend the extra dosh on decent cables and that goes for other sources cables are everything
excellent samsung tech support (assisting in best connections set up)
Cons: can't make you a coffee
I'm glad samsung didn't spend to much funds on the speakers as just about everyone will use surround
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Hash
18/04/2007, 12:07 AM
rating
8/10
$1600 from Good Guys.
Picture is brilliant. Don't know why every one goes on about poor sound; turn on the internal mute + turn up the volume on your Dolby Digital Amp!!! -connect via optical!! Happy with it so fa r. Tuner does not seem to want to pick up SBS (need to watch TopGear) -First unit had no problems with SBS reception (had a couple of dead pixels) + PC Tuner does not have any problems with SBS. Will phone Samsung, their service support is very good.
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damian
10/04/2007, 06:05 PM
rating
8/10
After taking my panasonic TX60a back due to no pc support (yeah i know i should have checked but i thought dvi to hdmi would work perfectly,it worked but not good enough to justify $1400)
I purchased the samsung. As a tv i find it to be on par or a little better than the panasonic,pc looks shmick, my only complaints are that the sound is bested by $30 cd players and samsung really should have used better ones and my other complaint is that unfortunately my one is faulty it has six stuck pixels and the backlight seems to make the picture shimmy when it goes from dark to light
scenes but that said, samsung have been very helpful (unlike panasonic customer care which really sux) and have told me to take it back for a replacement set (retravision had none so i have to wait 2 weeks) if this is the service i should expect from samsung im happy to wait and if your looking for a new tv ,then the support for that new tv should be looked into samsung have a 3 year in home warranty on that tv but panasonic have a 12 month return to base warranty on their equivilent set
(imagine how much it costs to send a 32 inch tv back to base) another point is how long will it take to fix? panasonic have taken 5 and a half months with my
dvd recorder(dmre-30) it came back scratched and with no remote which they denied having but mysteriously found 2 weeks later and if it had not been covered by warranty it would have cost $1185 (even though i paid $1500 the current model at the time retailed for $480 but do you think they would give me a new one? no way, they made me wait . so hopefully samsung are a lot better, and my samsung experience will be much more enjoyable even with the shakey start and unless i get another dodgy one im sure ill be extremely happy with the tv and thoroughly recommend this panel.
Pros: both the Black and white ones look very nice (i went with black)
nice picture good blacks and colours
well featured
3 year in home warranty
good customer service(so far)
optimized for gameing consoles
pc input (exellent for multi media pc`s)
makes a cool nintendo type sound when you turn it on or off (can disable if it annoys)
Cons: ive heard better sound from $30 cd players
its that bad that if you intend on using the onboard speakers id recommend looking at a different panel ( my pano actually had sort of decent sound)
even though it looks very sexy in piano black you can never actually touch it as it shows every bit of dirt and finger smudges
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pada
26/03/2007, 12:38 PM
rating
9/10
$1670 at Good Guys with Samsung 3 year warranty 22/03/2007- (including full refund for 1 year old AKAI 76 cm wide screen crt). Because of the refund I was a captive customer and could not shop around -but in the circumstances I think I got a fair price as RRP is $2999 on Samsungs site..
Pros: excellent picture. easy to use. plenty of connection types. Looks good. Black glossy frame blends in well with picture especially in 4:3 and subtitle mode. For a fairly large TV no space is wasted. Fits in 80.5 cm cabinet.
Sound is fine to me
Cons: No SCART input.
Tuner is not as good as my Digitec STB- it failed to find digital channels for 7,9,10 initially and though it eventually co-operated, 10 is still dodgy
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James
05/03/2007, 08:48 AM
rating
9/10
Bought this on the weekend for $1895 from the Good Guys, fantastic unit, amazing sound quality.
Pros: Picture quality was the ebst out of all TVs i looked at.
Black gloss looks stylish
Inbuilt HD tuner absolute bonus
Cons: None other than the fact that I wanted to go bigger but couldn't afford it
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