Design
Whether you love or hate Samsung's industrial design, you've got to admit it's distinctive. The LA40R81BD has the piano-black finish we've come to expect and a soft blue power light -- that, incidentally, you can turn off. The television is a lot more rounded than the upmarket Samsung LA46M81BDX (or just M8), but it certainly doesn't look tacky or cheap.
Turned off, the 40-inch screen lacks the glossy finish of other TVs in Samsung's canon but it also means it's less prone to glare and acting as a couch potato mirror.
It's obvious that a lot of thought has gone into the ergonomics and user-friendliness of this TV -- witness the side-mounted, touch-sensitive power and channel buttons, the manual swivel base, and the third HDMI port on the other side.
Features
The Samsung LA40R81BD is a 40-inch TV with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and an 8ms response time. Like most TVs of its type it claims a 178 degree viewing angle, but if you have to watch any TV at that angle you're not going to get much out of it, and the same is true here. Contrast is fairly consistent at wider angles, though.
Many of the features of the flagship M8 TV are repeated here, and it's available for more than AU$1,000 less. Soon to be standard (we hope) on all TVs is the provision of three HDMI ports, and in combination with the two component connections you shouldn't be in need of an HD switchbox anytime soon.
Also like the M8, the R8 includes an onboard HD tuner, in addition to an analog model. And as you'll soon see, it's a corker.
Other features include picture doohickies including a Wide Colour Enhancer (for brighter blues and greens), a claimed 8,000:1 dynamic contrast, and the much-maligned Movie Plus Imaging Engine for reducing judder.
Performance
One of the most striking aspects of this television is how damn good the digital tuner is! Whether you're watching HD or standard def, the results are full of detail and plenty of contrast. It certainly put the M8 to shame on a side-by-side comparison, which is strange as the M8 supposedly has twice the contrast of the R8.
We mentioned that the Movie Plus Imaging Engine isn't the best regarded artefact remover, but while it's pretty horrible on all digital content (PAL and NTSC) it does work wonders on analog broadcasts.
We spun our favourite DVD test disk, King Kong, through the LA40R81BD and the results were unfortunately a little mixed. While detail and black levels were good, the results were missing some of the three-dimensionality and naturalness of other TVs in this price bracket including the Samsung PS-50Q91HD plasma. That said, this still boasts a very impressive picture for an LCD.
Watching a Blu-ray disc brought out a lot of the qualities we liked about the TV's tuner: bright, detailed images with plenty of contrast. There was a tendency for the M8 to push this detail to the point of digital noise, but the R8 rendered this perfectly. Size is obviously an issue -- you'll possibly see more detail on a larger screen depending on how far you sit from it.
Finally, we attached the Samsung to a PS3 and found it suited gaming very well -- for the full immersive experience big is always better, but for smaller rooms this screen should be perfect. Thirty-two-inch screens may have been the default size in the past, but with a greater adoption of HD devices such as PlayStation 3 consoles we'll see these bigger screens take a more significant hold.
The Samsung LA40R81BD may be missing the absolute blacks and full HD capability of its M8 bigger brother, but considering the price differential, this is the superior TV. The picture isn't as "three-dimensional" or as "black" as the M8, but in every other way it is exceptional. You'll get plenty of detail and a decent home theatre experience out of this TV, and without getting into the whole plasma versus LCD thing we can just say this is a very good example of either technology. Highly recommended.
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ConnorDavies
16/07/2008, 09:31 AM
rating
9/10
- Fantastic quality of picture
- Awesome for gaming (XBOX 360)
- Great movie quality
Overall it is just an awesome TV! I got it for $1200 and I regret nothing! Black, sleek design is amazing
Pros: - Gaming Picture
- Design is spectacular
Cons: - Picture not as lifelike as some others
- Only 720 pixels
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djimbo
04/06/2008, 10:46 AM
rating
9/10
Great deal movieman! We paid a couple hundred extra, even with the cashback! If you can find them now they're cheap as they're discontinued models
Pros: Great dtv picture, esp on the true HD shows.
Cons: Bit sketchy as always for sports (cf CRTs), but that's lcd for you.
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movieman89
04/01/2008, 01:09 PM
rating
9/10
We bought this telly yesterday and were amazed what we have been missing out on.
Pros: Excellent built in digital tuner. Great price(we got it for $1149).Easy to use interface. And everything the average user could want.
Cons: Not so good sound quality
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veets
19/12/2007, 11:56 PM
rating
9/10
Great value 40" TV. For the price, I believe it performs very well for gaming, DVD and watching TV. If you pick this up, and you have an Xbox 360, I recommend using the VGA adapter, as I feel the graphics look much better with this, than with the component cables. For DVDs, the Movie Plus mode looks either very average or very cool, depending on the movie or the scene. Using the Spider Man DVD as an example, with Movie Plus on, some scenes where you see lots of moving cars on a busy New York street, or any scene where there is minimal movement, looked very life-like, however, in the fight scene in Times Square, the CG graphics stood out a bit too much. Still, Movie Plus is a cool feature worth playing around with. With Movie Plus turned off however, movies still look really good. I don't really watch TV, but I did flick it on to Ten HD when the Syd FC vs LA Galaxy game was on - and it looked goooooood! Overall, a great buy, and I concur with movieman89, in that an average user would be more than happy with this TV.
Pros: - Awesome value for money. If you pay for delivery and an extended warranty (if the retailer offers this) you're still looking at under $2000
- Awesome picture quality
Cons: - Movie Plus mode can be a mixed bag (but you can turn it off)
- For gaming and DVDs, sound quality from built-in speakers is only slightly above average. You'll want to get even just a cheap stereo/surround system
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Matthew
01/10/2007, 06:41 PM
rating
10/10
Bought this unit yesterday mainly because of the quality picture, design, functionality and 3 year warranty. They are now awesomely cheap too and this unit really performs. You should pay under $2000.00.
Pros: Price, quality, warranty, ease of use out of the box and it does everything really really well.
Cons: Probably not quite as good picture wise as a quality plasma but if you need something under 42 inches at a fantastic price for the quality and warranty, I can't fault my purchase so far.
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movieman89
20/08/2007, 05:12 PM
rating
10/10
We bought this TV 3 months ago for $2,400
It's an AWESOME TV. Our first 'big screen', and totally worth it
Pros: Awesome picture, got everthing an average user could possibly need from a big screen tv
Cons: The black finish LOVES attracting dust; but by cleaning it regulary, it sure looks fantastic!
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