Official Samsung LN-S3251D/ LN-S3252D Thread

I was wondering if anyone knew the difference in the 51D and 552D cause all i seen was the looks.One older than the other?

What about the Samsung LN-R329D is this a good choise for a PC monitor/TV ?

I mean if I get close to the screen in the PC setting, will the images look as good as they would on a 27" TFD ?

I'm trying to get a larger picture to use with my flight sim. set up as well as doubleing as a HT set up, HDTV use

I have an LN-S3251D on order. Hopefully it will come in this weekend. My major concern has been lack of detail in dark areas. If game mode helps this, then my question is why not use game mode all of the time? Is there some reason not to do this? It seems like I've seen this question before but I don't remember the answer.

I have the S41..which is S51's little brother. It also has the game mode. According to the manual , game mode is optimized for consoles and will "skip" or cause a blip ever so often in normal TV viewing. That's why you don't use it unless you are gaming, and why it's not available in TV/Cable mode. BTW, the S41, is a great panel as well.

Thanks for the answers. I really think that these are the best 32 inch LCDs out there right now, with the exception of the XBR. The sad thing is that perhaps next month that won't be true . Refinement still seems to be in full stride. But I do agree with the reviewers who are saying that these sets are finally ready for prime time.

Whats the main difference between the 41 and 51

Great answers Thanks everyone ....

I've decided on the Samsung LNS 3252 D....

This Monitor/TV is the bigger brother that is paired up with the "X Box 360" and was developed by Samsung and Microsoft specifically for the XBox....

I have a PC that I personally built for flight simming and Lock On is my Simulator of choise, which is a processor and video card hog (LOL)....

One of the other reasons that I've decided that on the 52-D is because of my experimenting with the X Box in the EB Games store and with my home PC...

I tried the King Kong demo in the store which is connected to the smaller Samsung and found the Graphics to stunning..

I've downloaded the same demo at home and ran it on my gameing / HT computer thats paired up to a Sony CRT monitor and found that the graphics quality to be exactley the same with my Custom Computer..

Therefore I'm positive the 32" Samsung when paired up to my PC, will give me near equal results on the larger screen....

I expect to recieve this product with in the week and will post my results here on this forum....


Blaze

41 has fixed (non-swivel/tilt) stand. Different layout (speakers on side, less "V" shape at bottom, silver bar across bottom). It has 3000:1 contrast as opposed to 4000:1 on the S51. The 41 also has a PC/VGA input. Other than that, they share the same specs, settings, game mode, etc..etc.

I see it does not have a QAM tuner for un encrypted HD cable channels (like your Local HD channels on cable).

I thought all new models had to have this starting this year? Did I miss something in the specs?

No, as of March, all TVs 25" and up (IIRC) produced, and labelled as a TV, not monitor, have to have an ATSC 8VSB (Digital OTA) tuner. Unfortunately, there is no QAM or QAM/CC requirement.

... and 200.00 difference in price. I picked out an S41 at BB,[EDIT] and they brought me an LN-S3251D. I didn't realize it was a different TV until I got home. The one I have has the definite "v" shape in the front without the silver across the bottom, but that was the one I was looking at with the sales guy.

Now I have to decide whether to take it back. My conscience is bothering me.

I also bought an unamplified OTA antenna and it picks up about 12 stations, but there is a lot of pixilation. I have to fine tune the antenna to each channel.

I guess I need a multi-directional amplified antenna.

I don't think we are supposed to talk price here, [EDIT]

I just picked up my S3251D and I love it. I live close to 40 miles from the towers and pick up all the hd channels with my Turk hdtvlp. [EDIT]. I think I got a great deal. Only problem I have had is the component connections of my xbox monster 400x cables. The metal connectors are really thick and are hard to plug into my tv since the plugs are recessed in the tv.

Sorry

Wow. I just got back from BB today and I was amazed how good the 2651 and 3251 looked! They were easily better than everything of comparable size. Better blacks, better colors, sharper, etc...!

I have one question though, regarding the DCR tuner. I have Charter cable in my area. In one room, I have analog cable hooked up to an old tube tv and get about 75 channels. In a different room a have an HDTV cable box hooked up to my projector in which I get the digital tv menus, 250+ channels or so plus another 8-10 HD channels.

How does the DCR tuner in the Samsungs work? The way it's described, it seems like if I plug my cable in to the back of the Samsung, I will get the digital cable channels with the menus and not the normal analog... is that right? I know that is how it works with cable cards but I don't believe the Samsungs have them. That's a bummer as Charter offers cable cards for only $1.50/month!

Thanks for your help.
-Matt

Just so you'll know, I took the S51 back. I started thinking about it this morning and my conscience bothered me more and more. Then I wondered if the sales guy might get into trouble. I had to return the OTA antenna for an amplified one and while I was there I saw the salesman and I went over to him and told him he had given me the wrong TV and would he get into trouble over it. He looked shocked and said he wanted to go talk to someone. He came back in few minutes with one of his buddies and I showed them the model I had paid for and the one I took home. The other salesman aske if I had bought an extended warranty for the S41. I took out my receipt and sure enough that's what it said. They both pointed out that the warranty was useless for the S51 because it was issued for the S41. Sure enough it was.

So I took it back and got the S41.

I feel much better now.

Nice to know there still are honest people out there.

I can tell you how it works with the S3251D. When I plug the cable directly into the TV I just get the analog channels (your 75 channels). There is no QAM tuner in the TV to get unscrambled cable channels, and there is no cablecard slot. What I do get with just a little 3 ft antenna plugged into the "air" input is great reception of all the local digital and HD broadcasts through the ATSC tuner. But others have reported some difficulties receiving local broadcasts without a good antenna, so my results are probably a case of being close to a transmitter tower.

The 41 is rated at 3000:1 contrast ratio and the 51 is 4000:1. Cabinet design is different as well between the two.

I have had my 3251D for about 3 weeks now and love it. NO REGRETS!

To answer your question concerning black level details. I used a calibration DVD to set up my TV. In another thread I indicated these settings but I made a mistake on the contrast part and will go back and correct that setting in the other thread. Here is what I set my 3251D to in order to get as close to the ISF standard as possible and render near perfect color, contrast and black levels:

Of note: The LN-S3251D is very easy to set up and is less subjective to changes when using calibration DVD's unlike a CRT based TV that fluctuates or changes when viewing different test patterns. It took me half the time to set up the 3251D compared to a similar sized CRT set.

SET MODE TO "MOVIE", this setting provides a black level boost and enhanced shadow detail right off the bat. Setting the mode to MOVIE does not simply change the contrast and brightness, there are other electronic processes going on internally within the set to achieve this "mode", however just setting it to MOVIE mode alone will still make the set too dark. You must also set the following parameters to complete the set up:

CONTRAST: 100
BRIGHTNESS: 69 (matched the black level setting perfectly)
COLOR: 51 (I used a blue filter to set this up correctly)
TINT: CAN NOT CHANGE (ANY GUESS WHY ON THIS ONE ANYONE?) DEFAULTS TO 50
SHARPNESS: 50 (there is hardly any change in sharpness from extreme off to totally on unlike a CRT TV, so I split the difference and went with 50, if you can see a difference, more power to you. I used a test pattern for this purpose and could not distinguish much of a change and I believe this is normal for LCD flat panels but I could be wrong).

The DVD calibration disk I used came with my extended service plan with Circuit City, it has pretty much the same test patterns used on my other calibration disk, Digital Video Essentials so either disk will work. I found the original Video Essentials disk to be not as accurate and you should use caution if you have this DVD as it is geared toward CRT based TV's and not the newer plasmas and LCD sets. I used this disk originally and my set was too washed out after the calibration was completed. Believe it or not the Circuit City disk is much more user friendly and easier to use. The only problem is the only way to get it is with a service plan on your TV. Digital Video Essentials is good too but can be a little too technical for some users and the DVD's menus are frustrating to navigate through. The test patterns are basically the same on both disks.

Final note on Game mode: Do not use game mode unless you are actually using a game console. Refresh rates are too high and black levels are too dark for regular TV and DVD movie viewing. Microsoft worked with Samsung to iron out this game mode feature to optimize their XBOX 360 but the mode will work with other consoles too, i.e. PS2, Gamecube. Leaving the feature on will eventually tax your TV's internal processor since it has to work harder to provide higher refresh rates for games. Best practice is to turn off Game mode when you are no longer gaming.

Thanks, that's good info. Actually that isn't too far from where I have my custom settings. How about the color tone? I'm not by my TV now, but it seems to me that the movie mode used a warm 2 setting that I didn't really like