|  |  | Brand: Samsung
Category: CE
Buy New: Too low to display
New (14)
Avg. Customer Rating:  154 reviews
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Batteries Included: Yes
Display Size: 32
Shipping Weight (lbs): 27.9
Dimensions (in): 31.4 x 9.9 x 22.7
MPN: LN-32A450
Model: LN-32A450
UPC: 036725228122
EAN: 0036725228122
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 A fantastic TV for the price July 9, 2008
33 out of 39 found this review helpful
I bought this Samsung LN32A450 32" TV about 2 weeks ago or a bit more after some researching of several sets. I'd been eyeing LCD TV's for several months now once we knew of the tax rebates. I was replacing an old Mitsubishi 26" CRT TV that was purchased new in 1986, making it 22 years old that I got from family friends a bit over 4 years ago to put in the living room for it was larger than my Toshiba 20" set I bought new in 1996. The Mitsubishi had issues with discolorations in 2 corners and the remote sensor I think had stopped working for even a universal remote eventually got to where it would not work with it at all. So, the time had come to do something about it and that's where the Samsung comes in.
Just for the record, I still have my 20" set as it's been the bedroom set the past 4 years and is still very much fine. May well get a digital tuner box for it soon, but definitely in time for the changeover next Feb.
First of all, I ordered the Samsung via the white glove service here on Amazon and have to say that I had a very good experience with CEVA, their shipping contractor. The set came on time, (well, it actually arrived 15 minutes later than they said they'd be here, but in my mind, close enough) and in good condition and works very well with little to no pixel defects that I've noticed.
Setting it up is really simple. When you open the box, you first of all have to lay it down to do so, right side up to unpack it and the first thing you will notice is the bottom side of the base, carefully lift it out and turn it right side up onto the surface you are placing the set onto (that's assuming you won't be hanging it), in one of the Styrofoam packing ends, you will see a black plastic collar, that goes onto the neck of the stand - and only in one direction, snap it into place, there is a bag with screws, 2 kinds and a mount. Slip the mount into the base per instructions and use 3 pointed screws, provided to secure it, then remove the rest of the parts, that includes the instruction manual, the remote and all that and remove the top parts of the Styrofoam packing and then carefully lift out the main unit and carefully take it out of it's bag. Notice on the bottom a rectangular opening, that's to slip over the mount, carefully place the TV on that mount and use the 4 blunt end screws, also provided to secure it and the set is assembled. Plug in the power cord and your a/v cables and antenna/cable/satellite and voila, you are ready to go.
The first thing I noticed upon firing the set up is that it's much brighter than my old set ever could be in large part due to it's age. CRT's will dim over time due to age and the guns inside getting weaker from use. The next thing I noticed was how easy it is to setup to accept channels, adjust audio and video without really having to consult the manual first. The remote for this set isn't the most fancy for it isn't universal, nor back lit, but is very nicely designed and comfortable to hold and to use. Overall, it's a fairly intuitive set to figure out and when I was researching sets, I had gone into Circuit City to check Samsung and other brands out to see how they work, how I liked the menu system, the feature sets Vs price, image quality etc and further research revealed that the Samsungs have had a very good reliability history, second only to the Panasonic and from further research and reviews lead me to note it's image quality and my tryouts in the store were no different, true, the store is not the best place to do this, but it can give you an idea of what you are getting though. Ultimately, it came down to the Samsung 3 series or the 4 series and ultimately, I chose the 4 series over the 3 for it had the extra connectors on the side of the set, the 3 does not, I liked it's overall trim profile w/ the speakers mounted on the bottom, facing down, rather than on the sides, facing forward. Also, if this set were to become a secondary set where the built in speakers may be needed, the 4 series was a bit clearer despite not being as loud as the 3 series due in large part to the speaker's placement. Plus, the 4 series had a plethora of connections, both composite, component and digital DVI/HDMI and has a USB service port, geared strictly for updating firmware when necessary by downloading the updates to a thumb drive, along with the optical audio for home theater.
Currently, the set gets it's material from a non up converting SD Panasonic DVD recorder and a VCR connected to it (for dubbing primarily to DVD) and over the air digital broadcasts. My analog channels don't come in well at all, in fact, are virtually unusable (and have never been that great to begin with) and I am amazed at the quality of the image on this set, the colors are brighter, livelier, SD images tend to be clearer when the source is very clean, be it over the air or DVD. Now I realize that not all movies are meant to have a crisp clear look so I do take that into consideration when viewing material. However, this set does exacerbate the grainy tendency of some films shot on grainy film stock and there really isn't much you can do, but to try and minimize it some so it's not so obvious. "Tales of the City" is one good example of this, shot to film, but for TV in the early 1990's so it's all SD material and even on the old TV, I could detect the grainy film, especially in dark interior or night scenes. Otherwise, in brightly lit scenes, details become more apparent than ever before with the Samsung.
One thing to note, in the information pane at the upper left when you call it up, all DVD sources are shown as 720x480. Don't know if it's being up converted by the TV or not and I am running the component cable w/ the deck set at 480P (progressive scan) and widescreen and I do think it helps to have the DVD player output progressive scan whenever possible and when sources are clean and crisp, it really shows up nicely.
VHS is VHS and no matter what, it'll always look so, so though it might be a touch crisper with this set. For programs originally shot on video tape will often look reasonably good, given the condition/quality of the original source and of course, its age. The older the material, the less the lines of resolution in general so bear that in mind, but overall, from what I've been able to see, it fairs quite well overall even though the set can render more than what the source can provide so one will see the flaws, such as they are where they exist.
Overall, I really love this set for it renders details like nothing I've had before, dust from the cells during original production in a fully restored Looney Tunes cartoon now really show up and I've noted it quite well on the old set so consider it a part and parcel of the cartoons themselves. Well restored cartoons really do look fantastic on this set. When viewing HD sources, you can REALLY see the details like the imperfections of an actor's skin for example, or the texture of an insect shot in macro mode on a nature program, just stunning.
If there is one potential con, and that is the blacks, out of the box are too deep, so much so that you get no details at all. Navy blue, black, dark brown, charcoal all look the same so some tweaking is necessary to render those colors enough to tell what they actually are and in some cases, I could not discern the lapels of a dark suit and barely could see a button of the suit jacket, tweaked, the suit was actually dark gray.
That is a testament to how good Samsung has got the blacks on this set, perhaps a bit too good IMO. And it's this deep, deep blacks are what allow the colors to just pop but without being garish. Avoid the dynamic setting; it WILL render your image in a garish manner color wise, but your blacks will look great. One thing I would suggest is get a calibration DVD and set the set up that way for I think you may get a much better color and etc for YOUR viewing situation, rather than the presets Samsung gives you and they can be used as a reference, but with the wide choice of settings available for adjusting your picture manually, why not take advantage of that and this set does offer the blue only setting, which is necessary when using color bars on a calibration disc and that will ensure color accuracy amongst other things.
Overall, I'm very pleased with this set for its ease of use and setup and for its superb image quality and for it's breadth of features for the price.
Nice addition for a small room June 4, 2008
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
We bought this to replace our 27", 20 year old, 125 lb Sony in our bedroom. While the Sony still had great color, we have just purchased a bedroom wall unit with an "entertainment top" that needed a television that was around 33" wide and not very deep, not to mention the desire to upgrade to HD.
The first joy is the Samsung weighs less than 40 pounds in its packing box, about the same as the cat litter I haul home. Out of the box it's under 30 lbs and very easy to move around. The stand was easy to put on and holds the unit very stable.
Per the performance, absolutely agree with the descriptions in the other reviews (We've hooked it up to a DirecTV HD DVR via an HDMI cable). Great viewing and since we are less than 10' away from the screen 720p is fine. One of the advantages of the 450 series (32" and 37") over the 330 when it comes to the entertainment center is the speakers on the 330 are on the sides of the monitor and make the unit wider. The 450 has the speaker under the unit. We could have gone for the 37" in the entertainment unit, but since this is a secondary TV and the 32" was on sale (Best Buy for $750) we went smaller.
Great little television (our primary unit is a 56" Samsumg 1080p), especially where space is a consideration.
My first HDTV and I am very satisfied May 29, 2008
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
Like many other reviews of this set, I did a lot of research on 32" HDTV's and was convinced that the Samsung was the way to go. I am happy to report that I am thrilled with my first HDTV. The picture is spectacular and it is very easy to do the tweaking you would like to do, although the preset picture is lovely in and of itself. One of the sources I looked at wondered if using an HDMI cable improved the picture and sound. For me it did, but don't spend a lot of money on the cable as the experts say it is not worth it.
I could not believe how terrific the nature shows look in high definition. Also when watching a baseball game, you can really see the ball a lot better.
My set was delivered by a contactor for CEVA logistics which is the shipping company Amazon apparently uses for HD tv's. I was initially told that the shipping would be delayed about 7 days, but then was contacted by a representative from CEVA only three days after I ordered the set. They told me they could deliver it the next day. I was well pleased by their service.
It is a bit of a shock paying this much for a TV, but it sure is a nice one. I think you would be well pleased with this gen from Samsung.Samsung LN32A450 32-inch 720p LCD HDTV
Great Product, Great Delivery, Great Price, Great Warranty July 6, 2008
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
The Samsung LN32A450 delivers on its promises of brightness, color depth and accuracy, wide viewing angles, flexible connection options, and more. When you read the manual, and look through the setup screens, you'll find an amazing range of adjustments to the picture quality, operation, and features that should suit any application or personal taste.
I chose this model instead of the entry-level LN32A330, which has lower contrast and speed specs, and fewer connection options, but costs nearly as much (at the current Amazon price, anyway). What a great decision this has turned out to be.
I'll get to the viewing experience, but I have to comment on the Amazon "white glove" delivery via CEVA logistics, because I felt it was a big unknown factor when I ordered. Well, it was relatively painless to schedule -- and like other reviewers, the package moved much faster than originally predicted. On the appointed day, the delivery guy came to our home, carried the box inside, unpacked it and set it up. He'd have done all the work of hooking it up, if I had let him. Wow.
Speaking of hooking it up, I am very glad to have 3 HDMI inputs, since I've already got two of them in use and may want expansion options in the future. It has a full range of connection options on the side of the set, as well as the main bank of connectors on the back panel. I've already found the side connectors handy for plugging in a camcorder, etc.
You can connect legacy devices via regular RCA or S-video jacks, or even by the coax connector (whose main purpose would be for a cable box or over-the-air antenna). Other reviewers here have discussed the over-air reception of regular or HDTV; I haven't tried it yet.
I have an upconverting DVD player that puts out 720p from a conventional DVD, and when hooked up to this set, with a widescreen movie, the result is fantastic. Watching HD channels on cable TV is good -- I'm still getting over the "Wow" effect after upgrading from an old TV, so I'm slowly becoming pickier. But not about the TV.
My concern now is whether the cable signal is really giving me everything the set can handle. There are motion artifacts on cable TV shows that I do *not* see from DVDs, for example, which is why I blame the signal source, and not this set.
I have to say, the built-in speakers are pretty wimpy compared to our old TV, but it's not enough of a factor, for my purposes, to take off points for that. I generally watch movies through the stereo, and for regular TV shows the internal speakers are adequate. The set can feed other devices through audio-out connectors, including external amplifiers and speakers. This is just one more example of the amazing connectivity of this set.
Thanks to Amazon's 30-day price guarantee, I'm pretty sure that I could not have bought this elsewhere for less money, and certainly not with the level of confidence and customer support that I get here.
One last issue that is often overlooked. This TV comes with a one-year warranty on everything, not just parts. On the 32-inch model, the service is *in your home*, not carry-in. And if you use the right credit card, you can double that warranty to two full years. Many/most competing TV sets do not offer that kind of confidence in their products.
Great TV May 3, 2008
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
All of the other reviews cover pretty much all of the other "pros" for this TV and I agree with them 100%. I wanted to mention its quality for gaming.
I knew before I bought a new tv that me and my roomate would be using it alot for gaming on the xbox 360. I tried a couple of others with an 8ms response time and they just weren't quick enough. When I decided I was going to need something with 6ms or better I assumed I would have to spend a great deal more. Then I found this tv.
We play a variety of different types of games and all of them look and flow great. From Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 to racing games, sports games, and even GTA IV that just came out. In my experience there has been no delay from the controller to the screen and I couldn't be happier.
Great deal. Buy it.
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