Samsung LN-S4051D review

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.