The bad: Shadow detail on the LND630 sequence was somewhat murky, its dark areas tinged were tinged a little blue, and the benefits of 120Hz difficult to detect. A few slightly more expensive models have much much better feature selections.
The bottom line: With image quality every bit just like many expensive LED models, the Samsung LND630 is a fantastic choice for a no-frills LCD TV.
Review:
One of the most typical requests we hear at CNET is for a TV which has good picture quality "without all that extra crap" (or words to that particular effect). Said extras included on many TVs these times include Internet connectivity and 3D, as well as a good LED backlight for LCD models. Samsung's LND630 series comes pretty near to that no-frills ideal, delivering picture quality that's a match for most of the best LED TVs we've tested this year at a cost that reflects its relative lack of extra features.
Indeed, the LND630 does have a 120Hz refresh rate, but you can customize its processing to find the benefits of 1080p/24, film-based Blu-rays without smoothing (yay! ). More to the point, the step-down 60Hz LND550 lacks this model's color precision. Slightly more-expensive sets like the LED-based Sony KDL-EX523 sequence offer built-in Internet streaming, but for the price difference you can add a network streaming box to this Samsung. The actual LND630 doesn't provide quite the bang-for-the-buck of Panasonic's ST30 sequence plasma, but among LCDs we've tested, LED or or else, it's the value champ.
Series information: We performed a hands-on evaluation from the 46-inch Samsung LN46D630, but this review also applies towards the 40-inch member of the series. Both sizes have identical specs and based on the manufacturer should provide very similar picture quality.
The LND630 looks the a part of Samsung's nicest non-LED TV, with a sleek transparent edge which makes the bezel around the screen seem slimmer than it's. The bottom edge of the frame gets a bronze-colored remove to offset the black. We appreciated the swivel, although we noticed Samsung dropped the glass-topped base of 2010's LNC630 stand to visit with glossy black plastic this year.
Samsung's standard midrange remote is roofed on the LND630, complete with backlighting behind nearly every key--a rarity with this class. We don't like the grid layout as much since the better-differentiated keys on some other remotes, but it's still perfectly functional when you figure out the logical groupings.
The TV has exactly the same menus as last year, and that's a good point. The transparent, blue-highlighted graphics are easy to read as well as navigate, and response is snappy. Text explanations are present for almost every function.
Features:
The LND630 is the only non-LED Samsung LCD to provide 120Hz processing. It lacks the Internet streaming found upon many step-up LED-based 2011 Samsungs, but it does are able to play back multimedia files via DLNA. Its Ethernet port may also download firmware updates if necessary.
Nothing major goes missing right here, and four HDMI ports are plenty for just regarding anybody. It's worth noting that the second component input doubles since the one back composite, so you can't use both concurrently.
Performance
The LND630 delivered very good picture quality, on par with Samsung's own UND6400 LED-based model--one in our favorite LED TVs of the year. The D630's talents include deep black levels and accurate color, augmented by a chance to handle 1080p/24 sources, solid screen uniformity for an TELEVISION and that elusive (at least for Samsung) matte display finish. Our quibbles--some loss of shadow detail and bluish tinge in black areas--were minor within the scheme of things.
As usual with Samsung, the Movie preset came closest to the ideal dark-room picture settings, although in this case (also as usual) it measured too blue, with darker gamma and somewhat higher light output than we want to see. All of those picture controls allowed a precise calibration, especially with Samsung's excellent color management system. The grayscale and gamma weren't quite as accurate as we'd expect from a 10-point system--there was lots of grayscale fluctuation from measurement to measurement in the center of the scale (40-50 percent) and too-coarse controls toward the bottom--but still ideal for a TV in this price range.
For our comparison and image quality tests we employed the lineup below and watched "Harry Potter and also the Deathly Hollows: Part 1" on Blu-ray.
Black level: The LND630 acquitted itself well with this category. In dark scenes like the meeting of the criminals at Voldemort's in Chapter 2, its black letterbox bars shadows and also the clothing of the participants, for example, all appeared darker and much more realistic than on the Vizio, the LG or the actual Insignia. The depth of black was very close one of the others, from the cheaper Samsung LN550 up to the actual higher-end UND6400 and Panasonic plasma. The plasma still held the edge in perceived comparison since its bright areas looked brighter and punchier compared to others, but the LND630 basically tied the UND6400 and also the LNC630 in this regard.
Shadow detail was good--we saw more detail in Snape's cape and black hair than about the LNC630, and the Insignia, while the washed-out blacks from the Sony and Vizio made shadows much less realistic--but still not as much as the standards of the UND6400 or the plasma. Again the more affordable LND5500 basically tied the LND630.
Color accuracy: Again the LND630 fared perfectly against the comparison models, an advantage due mainly in order to its excellent adjustment options. Skin tones, like the faces from the good guys as they gather in Chapter 3, appeared well-saturated and natural. In fact the LND630 was one of the better in the lineup in this area, matching and sometimes outclassing the UND6400. Each of the other sets fared a little worse, from the less saturated Panasonic, Insignia and Vizio towards the overly blue Sony and Samsung LND550.
Video processing: The LND630 series has the majority of the same processing options found on higher-end Samsungs, and with regards to dejudder it offers more adjustability than the competition. It's three dejudder presets--Clear, Standard and Smooth--join a Custom setting underneath the Auto Motion Plus (AMP) menu. Engaging any of the actual three presets introduces the characteristic smoothing effect, as nicely as some artifacts, so we preferred the freedom associated with Custom. That mode, which includes both a Blur Reduction along with a Judder Reduction setting, lets you tweak both parameters for your liking. We prefer minimal dejudder, but having the option to dial in as much or less than you like is very welcome, and works much much better than we saw on LG's custom system, for example.
As with some previous Samsungs the LND630 must be in Auto 1 film mode to pass the 1080i movie deinterlacing test, for what it's worth.
Uniformity: The LND630's standard CCFL backlight beat the edge-lit LED backlights of within our comparison at maintaining an even image across the display. In dark scenes we saw no indications of the with no brighter corners and/or edges we saw on the edge-lit UND6400 as well as Insignia, or the Sony BX420 CCFL TV for which matter. It wasn't up to plasma standards when all of us looked closely at test patterns, of course, but obvious flaws in screen uniformity--the kind that appear in program material--were absent.
When viewing from off-angle the screen of the LND630 washed out black and dark areas to comparable extent as most of the CCFL models. The Vizio and also the LEDs were worse in this regard however, while, not surprisingly. The plasma trounced them all.
Bright lighting: Unlike higher-end Samsung TVs the LND630 includes a matte screen, which serves it well in bright areas where lights, windows and bright objects cause reflections. Such objects appeared dimmer and far less distinct, and thus less distracting, then they did about the UND6400 and the Panasonic plasma, for example. The remaining sets in the lineup also have matte screens, and generally they all performed equally well in this category.
Energy consumption: After calibration the LND630 used almost exactly just as much power as the LED-based UN46D6400. While we'd expect the Resulted in be more efficient, most other like-sized LEDs we've examined, such as the LG on the comparison chart beneath, are thriftier with their power use.
Source : CNET
