Customer Reviews

Beware of very poor viewing angle
I got the 40" 6 series LED sidelit TVs and was initially very impressed with the slim-design, finish and picture quality. I hung it like a picture using the slim-mount system and was very pleased on purchasing such a beautiful TV that could be almost flush to the wall. However I quickly noticed that picture quality dropped sharply if I was only 15-20 degrees off center. I have a 8' wide sofa about 10 ft from the TV and the picture is great when I view it from the center but really bad (washed out and with no-depth) if I'm sitting on either side. I even tested it repeatedly from various angles and found that after around 15-20 degrees teh picture quality drops but then remains consistent. This is not what I expected from Samsung's latest line of products.

I really like the TV's design but find that the viewing angle and picture quality issue is probably too significant to compromise. I am surprised that no one else seem to have mentioned this with the exception of the CNet review. Maybe I have a faulty set - but it seems unlikely since the picture is great if I'm dead center-front of the TV.

Good to Excellent, Significantly better than CCFL?
I originally ordered the Samsung LN40B650 and was fairly certain that I had made a good choice. I don't know why but I starting second guessing my decision, which led me to review the Samsung LED LCD televisions. While the reviews were not extremely glowing, the Samsung LN40B6000 looked like it could better the picture of the CCFL LN40B650 and I canceled the order for CCFL and went with the 6000 series LED television. One of the "cons" of the edge-placed LED televisions is a noted lack of screen uniformity but that is for larger screen sizes and I thought the 40 inch screen would not be as prone to that problem.

Some thoughts and observations:

1. The clear screen is very good - I have 3 windows, and a bright ceiling light; there are no reflection problems. In some of my earlier posted Amazon photos, a window reflection was evident on the screen, but not really noticeable in real-life viewing. I found, however, if I looked for the reflection, I could see it. I reshot the photos in lower light to better illustrate the performance of the ln40b6000. The first photo shows how good the screen image is when viewed directly on; this quality remains solid to 15 - 20 degrees of center. The image does lighten but I disagree that it rapidly deteriorates to poor quality even up to a viewing angle of 45 degrees; it's still a good image.
2. Out of the box the picture is good, but after using the settings recommended by CNET, with some slight personal adjustments, the picture for many Blu Ray pictures are as good as I've seen.
3. Despite the stated mega contrast ratio of 3,000,000:1, the gamma setting needed to be adjusted to at least +2 or +3 (highest) values to keep dark scenes properly contrasted. One interesting fact regarding the off-center viewing is that contrast for dark lit scenes actually improves.
4. The sound is NOT bad; the two LN40B6000 rear/downward firing speakers in custom mode produces respectable sound for a television set. Now, if you want theater-quality surround sound, then this TV is going to fall far short of such expectation, but what set would not? My suggestion is to go into sound mode; select custom, select graphic equalizer (set 100HZ to max; 300HZ to 3/4 range); set SRS Trusurround HD to "On" and give a listen. If you're still not happy, buy a sound bar.
5. The backlit remote is nice for nighttime viewing and is fairly user friendly.
6. The Samsung Blu Ray and UB40B6000 automatically recognize one another which may play a role in the exceptional picture that is produced.

The bottom line is that LN40B6000 produces a very good to excellent picture, and the sound is decent for a television set - is it worth the couple of hundred dollars more than its CCFL counterpart? I cannot say with certainty, but my hunch is that it is. However, where its performance may exceed say the LN40B650 is most likely limited to direct viewing +/- 20 degrees off center. After that the CCFL set may hold an advantage.

Update 9/25: I have read the reviews regarding limited viewing angles, but I have not noticed the dramatic degradation that has been observed by others. For comparison, I have placed 3 images under typical dark viewing conditions (note all camera settings are in static manual mode, no photo editing performed). The series of photos uploaded on Amazon do not come close to the actual picture on the screen in terms of quality, but they do demonstrate relative difference in picture color and contrast as the viewing angle is moved from center - please note photo placement captions. Overall, I am VERY happy with the LN40B6000 performance and have every intention of keeping it. The picture is outstanding when viewed directly, and may diminish with increased viewing angle, but it's more of an excellent to good, than a good to terrible. My wife keeps complaining that the picture is too good - that it's like watching a movie being made instead of viewing a movie - it does not make sense to me either.

Stuning Picture
*UPDATED*

Well I purchased this two weeks ago from Best Buy and I have enjoyed it since then. I have now a better understanding to write a better review.

I like it's ultra slim design and its light weight. I didn't needed more help than little help from my wife to carry the whole package to the second floor. I did it alone to carry off of my minivan and I'm not a wrestler. I did assembled the stand in a few minutes very easily.

This is my first HDTV. I have been following HDTV technology for years but was until now that I was able to purchase it. I have watched a lot of TV's since 5 years ago in every store display with every combination of inputs and I think I can notice when a movie is Blue Ray connected through HDMI or composite video to when a TV set is connected trough other Video inputs and video sources (DVD).

I have my set connected to a Samsung BDP3600 Blue Ray, however I have not purchased any Blue Ray movie yet so I tested with a couple of DVDs and the image is excellent. I can't tell if is the TV or the BDP3600, but I see it like a Blue Ray movie. I can't wait to play a blue ray movie on my set. DVD's look gorgeous. *UPDATE: Computer Animated DVD's look gorgeous. I tried Harry Potter DVD and it is not the same video quality as Shrek II. Blue Ray movies seems very nice as expected, darker scenes seems grainy, I believe that is the ISO sensitivity of the film not an issue of the Blue Ray. If that is true new movies are going to be shotted with HDTV or higher area film, if I'm not wrong, most movies are 35mm film.

HDTV over the air (1080i) looks very nice and is pretty quick to change from HDTV channel to HDTV channel. I have satellite broadcast, however it does not offer HDTV signals :(.

*UPDATE. I have plug ed my USB thumb drive with a racing .mkv file and I was amazed of the quality of video I saw in this highly compressed file (3hrs in a 1.1GB file). All the scenes look very nice with vivid colors and very detailed even the fast moving scenes from on board cameras.

*UPDATE. I would have expected to read my Ethernet disk drive to play this videos, but is not able to connect a network shared drive. The blue ray player is able to do it, however is not able to play .mkv files. So I need to copy them to my thumb drive and play them directly on the TV.

*UPDATE. Infolink is good, but you are not able to select cities from other countries for weather update.

Unless other reviewers say not, mine has buttons, they are touch sensors discrete icons in front of the TV i.e. power button is beneath the SAMSUNG logo.

PROS:
- Excellent Picture
- Slim Design
- Light Weight
- Stylish Design
- Discrete Buttons (some owners might have not notice them)
*UPDATE - Ability to play a lot of audio and video formats including .mkv, video files.

CONS:
The only thing that I have discovered is that Picture in Picture can only be done with an HDMI input and Air. I have not been able to have PIP with Air and the analog A/V input from my satellite nor the satellite with the HDMI input. I have not installed the Ethernet and might a firmware upgrade solve this.

*** UPDATE ***
I did connect the set to my Ethernet, firmware upgrade was done and it didn't solve the PIP issue. There is also no way to swap the images of PIP. Not too much of a concern for me.

I'm pretty happy with my purchase.