From the Epinions Files: Samsung LN32D450 32" LCD HD Television Review (Written October 11, 2011)

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Pros: Good 720p video; great sound, has Anynet+ technology built in

Cons: Requires some assembly.


Samsung LN32D450 32-Inch 720p 60Hz LCD HDTV

A few weeks ago, I decided to replace my first Samsung LCD TV because it was having issues with its video playback.  The sound worked just fine, but apparently (see dtvengineer's comment to me in the Comments section) some of the components that control the backlight went bad and the picture took, well, like forever to show up on the 26-inch screen.

At the time, I had no idea if this malfunction was repairable (as it turns out, it was), but because the service warranty had expired and I had no idea if I could afford to have the set fixed, I opted instead to buy a new TV set.
 
When I set out to purchase my replacement set at my usual online emporium - Amazon.com - I was not looking for a bigger set than my now-malfunctioning 26-inch TV.  Sure, larger sets have their virtues - easier to see, for one thing, and better sound if the speakers are good enough - but they're also more expensive than their smaller siblings.

However, for some reason Amazon didn't seem to have any 26-inch Samsungs in stock on the day that I purchased my LN32D450 32-Inch 720p 60Hz LCD HDTV; there were a few 26-inchers by Coby and LG, but I really like Samsung audio-video products so I decided to stick with the 32-inch model even though it ended costing a little over $370.00.  (Not really a bad deal; it turned out that the TV I was replacing had cost me over $400 in 2008.)

I had read - as is my habit - several consumer reviews on Amazon and saw that the LN32D450 32-Inch 720p 60Hz LCD HDTV set would not be easy to place on its stand, so I turned to my go-to guy for TV set-ups - my friend Baldo - who brought a friend of his over and put the TV set/stand combination together in about 30 minutes or so.

First Impressions:
 
While the 720p (p stands for "progressive scan") basic resolution of the set is wasted on analog channels - "regular" stations' signals look a bit murky on this set, the sharpness and clarity of DVDs, Blu-ray discs (especially Blu-ray discs!) and HD broadcasts look really nice on my Samsung LN32D450 HDTV, especially from a distance of about 20 feet or more.

For instance, the LN32D450 features 65,000:1 dynamic contrast, which solves some of the problems that crop up when watching movies which contain scenes that are either too dark or too light. On analog TVs, movies such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone or Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi - which tend to have night-time sequences or dimly-lit settings such as basements and dark corridors - are really hard to see.

Not so with the 65,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio feature on the Samsung LN32D450; here, the backlight intensity is adjusted automatically, resulting in a huge improvement in contrast. In short, things that were very hard to see before on either the older LCD set or its analog ancestor are now clearly visible.

Additionally, the LN32D450 has what Samsung's website calls a Clear Motion Rate of 60, which is defined by the company as "a combination of advanced backlighting technology, significant improvements in panel response rates and ultra fast image processing."

I am, of course, no expert on electronics, but I have noticed that this set has far better audio features than the 26-inch TV it is replacing.

This, I am sure, is partly because the TV is slightly larger, but it also can be credited to Samsung's constant updating of its product lines.

This set is part of Samsung's 430/450 series, after all, so its audio system probably has been improved as a result of consumer feedback regarding the sometimes less-than-overwhelming sound of sets which are used sans home theater systems with extra speakers.

Where the older and smaller Samsung 26-inch model had three speakers which gave me adequate but not exceptional performance, the LN32D450 has just two speakers but offers "bigger" and "crisper"audio.


Again, I'm no A/V equipment guru by any means, so I'll just refer to Samsung's official website's description of its SRS TheaterSound feature, which is defined as an "audio enhancement technology for TVs. SRS TruSurround XT provides 3D sound without extra speakers."


In practical terms, what this means is that the sound from the LN32D450 is good enough for those of us who can't afford - or have no room for - a home theater sound system that provides viewers that powerful movie palace-like audio performance.

Other Features:

The remote control resembles that of my BD-D5500 Blu-ray player; this is not surprising since they are both Samsung products.  The two remotes have similar shapes and color schemes: The only way to tell them apart from a distance is that the BD-D5500's remote has two red power switches (one for the player, one for the TV) . Other than that - seen up close - the Blu-ray remote is somewhat smaller than the LN32D450's remote and has a bank of three white buttons in the center.

The remote, which uses two AAA batteries, has the expected POWER, SOURCE, numeric keypad, volume adjustment and channel selection buttons, of course, but it also has a plethora of other control or function buttons.  Among these control options are digital fine tuning to find multiple digital channels which are sent out by the same TV station, sleep mode, mute, channel list, tools, info, menu selection keys, closed caption activator, picture and sound mode selectors and, at the bottom, control buttons which will work with peripheral devices - such as a Blu-ray player - which will work on Anynet+ or My Content modes.

For readers who may not be familiar with Samsung's Anynet+ feature, I will cite Samsung's official definition as it appears on their website's product page:

Anynet+
Technology that allows one remote to control all digital devices in a home theater/entertainment system.  

In plain English, if you have a device that is compatible with the LN32D450 set, you can control most - but not all - of its basic functions.

For instance, if you have a Samsung Blu-ray player made within the same product generation/production run, you can hit the PLAY, PAUSE, SEARCH and STOP buttons and not have to deal with two remotes at the same time.

Likewise, you can use the Blu-ray remote as a universal one in most instances.  (Obviously, there are unique controls in each remote that can't be duplicated in the other: There is no OPEN/CLOSE DISC TRAY function on the TV-only remote, nor is there an e-Manual or additional digital channel selector on the Blu-ray player remote.)

Still Other Features 

The LN32D450 also boasts a wide array of features which allow users to share content from the Internet or a computer with the use of what Samsung calls ConnectShare Movie.  If you have a USB drive you can connect it to the TV's USB port and peruse photo files, listen to music or watch videos downloaded from the World Wide Web.

Samsung also states that this TV is Energy Star compliant; according to the company, All Samsung TVs not only meet ENERGY STAR requirements; they exceed them. This means:
* More energy savings
*  Lower utility bills
* Leaving a smaller carbon footprint on the environment

I have no way of confirming this claim, especially since most modern audio/visual gadgets of the 21st Century tend to stay on low-power standby mode when we switch them OFF so that remotes will activate their full power modes faster.  I like to make sure that my TV is truly off when I do not expect to be using it, so I simply turn off the power strip that it's currently connected to.

Ease of Use:

One of the best features that the Samsung LN32D450 is that once it has been set up properly (either on a wall mount or a pedestal-type base), it is very easy to use.

The LN32D450, like the other Samsung TVs I've owned, has some function switches built in on its front panel.  The model I have has a control panel that contains the following features:

  • Power on/off switch
  • Remote control sensor
  • Source (which allows users to select the source of an audio-visual signal, primarily TV/Cable, Component AV and HDMI cable)
  • Menu (which displays an on-screen menu - on-screen display - of the set's various features)
  • Volume up or down buttons
  • Channel up or down buttons

That having been said, I use a remote 99.9% of the time; the switches on the lower right hand corner of the TV's "frame" are so subtly laid in that they're very hard to see, and the remote has all the important buttons (TOOLS, INFO, CONTENT, SOURCE and various function-specific ones) anyway.

The interconnectivity between the set and the Anynet+ compatible Blu-ray player is one example of how easy the LN32D450 is to use.

You can, for instance, turn the TV set on simply by turning on a Samsung Blu-ray player of the same "generation" (say, if both TV and Blu-ray player were built in 2011).  I discovered this purely by chance when I uncharacteristically turned on my BD-D5500 first.  With my old 26-inch set the only thing that would haVe happened was that the player would be running first but the TV would have to be turned on separately.

Not so with this Anynet+ equipped set.  Now when I turn on the Blu-ray player first, the TV's "power on" chime goes off and the blue and white Samsung logo appears.

And when I turn off the Blu-ray player first, an on-screen prompt will appear to inform me that the TV is disconnecting itself from the Anynet+ device and switching to TV/Cable mode.

On the whole, this TV has extremely good video and audio performance: it's not a 1080p or 1080i top of the line/best resolution model, but for a 720p HDTV it provides users with a nice, clean (if not exactly pristine) image.

Audio-wise, even though it has one speaker less than the set it's replacing, it actually doesn't need to be connected to a home theater sound system unless a consumer has a yen to do so. I'm hard of hearing myself, but when I set my set's volume at level 19, the sound is perfectly audible.

As for reception issues, the TV is connected to a Comcast cable box via coaxial cable, so it picks up the local and national broadcast/cable networks' programming that way.

Video quality varies here, not because of the way the TV functions but rather because Comcast has kept the lower channel numbers (2 through the 100s, I suppose) on low-res video while placing its HD channel lineup in its more expensively priced packages. I have noticed that on the rare occasion that I can find a local station's HD counterpart, the picture and sound are almost as sharp as those of a Blu-ray disc's.




Product Features 

16:9 LCD panel with 1280 x 720p resolution
32" class screen size
Built-in digital tuner
65,000:1 Dynamic contrast ratio
SRS TheaterSound 60Hz
720p resolution
ConnectShare Movie
Exceeds ENERGY STAR standards
HDMI Inputs: 2
Touch of Color design  

Technical Details 
Model: LN32D450
Display Technology: LCD
Display Size: 32 inches
Image Aspect Ratio: 16:9
HDTV Compatible: Yes
Speakers Included: 2 speakers
Height: 20.1 inches
Width: 31.3 inches
Depth: 3.2 inches
Weight: 19 pounds
Image Contrast Ratio: 40000:1
Resolution: 720p
Refresh Rate: 120  


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