40in LCD Picture Sound Features Usability Value The C7000 offers a genuinely innovative 3D experience with a few glitches. Rating: 91%

Reviewed: 24 May 2010

  A genuine 3D experience, stunning looks

  Expensive, some 'crosstalk'

Design

Hedging their bets perhaps on the chances of widespread adoption of 3D technology, Samsung have made sure that this TV will prove just as attractive in other areas. To begin with, they have created a TV that comes as close to meeting the requirements of that old cliché "selling on its looks alone" as any flat screen we have come across to date.

An 'edge based' implementation of LED technology helps of course, producing a waif like profile, but it is other aspects which combine to produce one of the most attractive TVs we have come across.

A broad, four pronged stand finished in what looks like stainless steel is the first indication that we are dealing with something rather special. On close inspection, the stand is actually plastic, but you have to look pretty close to tell.

Samsung's usually high standard of fit and finish and to a mix which has created, in our opinion, one of the best looking TVs for some time.

3D

With the arrival of Samsung's C7000 range of LCD TVs, 3D is now a reality in UK homes. Not only do you get a true 3D experience based on 'active shutter' technology, Samsung also offer a kind of pseudo 2D to 3D experience on the fly. Hit the 3D button on the remote while you are watching normal TV and you get Samsung's take on 2D-3D conversion.

It is worth remembering that 3D technology has moved on from the red and blue cardboard glasses you may have had some experience with at the cinema (or Channel 4's recent 3D week). This is an all new experience bringing a new advanced form of 3D into the living room.

Special 'active shutter' glasses are a prerequisite for 3D viewing and unfortunately Samsung are not bundling in any with the C7000. Although we were told that the 3D specs would retail for £100, we are starting to see them through various outlets for much less. Samsung has indicated that only its glasses will work with its TVs.

At the moment there is a concern over the amount of 3D material available. There is a dedicated 3D TV channel on the way from Sky later this year (3D premiership football is already available via selected pubs across the UK), but at the moment there is just the one 3D Blu-ray title available - Monsters v Aliens.

There is already a preview of Sky's 3D channel available to subscribers. To enjoy 3D Blu-ray, you will need a purpose built 3D Blu-ray player; Samsung have just launched the UKs first, the BD-C6900.

If you would like to find out more about 3D TV you might like to read our 3D TV, Cinema & Gaming Guide.

Features

Bearing in mind that 3D content is relatively scare and that the technology is largely untested in a domestic environment, the big manufacturers, Samsung included, have ensured that their 3D enabled TVs are attractive enough to appeal to consumers even with 3D capability taken out of the equation.

	Screen: 40in 16:9 Tuner: Digital Sound System: Nicam Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Contrast Ratio: na Other Features: 3D ready, Freeview HD, Motion Plus, PVR ready, Internet@TV, DLNA, Wi-fi ready. Sockets: 4 HDMI (v1.4), 2 SCART (RGB), USB, S-Video, Component Video, Composite Video, PC input, Ethernet.

 

The C7000 has a built in Freeview HD tuner and although the high definition choice is limited just now, it will grow and of course the service is subscription free, direct through your existing aerial.

Freeview HD services are currently being rolled out across the UK, so it is important to check via Freeview whether they are available in your area.

The UE40C7000 carries an updated version of Samsung's Internet@TV web portal. An improved interface offers access to the likes of BBC iPlayer, Twitter, the Picasa online photo album site, YouTube and Skype.

The widget platform, which has been designed amongst other things to allow independent developers to produce online 'apps' has also been enhanced, although when we looked, the amount on offer seemed a little thin on the ground just now.

The C7000 is DLNA complaint meaning that you can hook up the TV with your PC via an Ethernet connection (or an optional Wi-fi dongle) to stream various multimedia files; an inconvenience to achieve this however is the requirement to load up 'All-share' proprietary software.

Interestingly it is possible to record programmes via the TV's USB connections to an attached HDD (hard disk drive) or even a 4GB or larger USB stick. This gives you simple PVR (Personal Video Recorder) functionality, although recordings are locked to the TV they were made on.

In all the excitement, we mustn't forget that the C7000 has an 'Edge' based implementation of LED backlighting using a form of local dimming, where segments can actually be dimmed separately.

Elsewhere there are 4 HDMI inputs, one of which is v1.4 which supports ARC (Audio Return Channel). The only drawback of the waif like profile is that you need to use supplied adapters for Scart and component connectors which are too wide to fit directly within the TV.

Performance

To get the not so good out of the way quickly, Samsung's pseudo 2D to 3D conversion is at best a little hit and miss and if we are honest, rather pointless. Samsung have given us a glimpse of what 2D-3D conversion is all about, but on this evidence it will need further refinement before it approaches a level of sophistication which will see viewers using the function on a regular basis.

The real 3D element however delivers what in our opinion is a true 3D experience in the home. Forget the inconvenience of wearing the active shutter glasses and the fact that the experience is not as breathtaking as your local Imax cinema; this is a truly involving and innovative development for TV in the home.

While the 3D effect is indeed impressive, we were concerned a little with the amount of 'crosstalk'. Cross talk is the undesirable 'ghosting' effect of a 3D image frame destined for either the right or left eye lingering to interfere with the next frame to the opposite eye.

Although other elements of picture quality such as colour fidelity and sharpness loose nothing to the 3D conversion process, we do feel that an element of contrast has been sacrificed to add brightness to the 3D effect. Still, having been used to a flat two dimensional image in the home for so long, the experience of real depth is a revelation.

While the 3D effect is indeed compelling, the experience falls short of the Cinematic 3D effect. Why? simply because in our opinion, a 40in screen is too small to fully appreciate the technology. We believe that the sense of depth would become progressively greater as the screen became larger.

No one is under the illusion that 3D TV is the finished article and many will still view the technology as a passing fad; what almost everyone concludes however after experiencing 3D on the Samsung C7000 is that this is a genuine and worthwhile implementation of the technology.

We mustn't forget that there are other aspects of the C7000's performance that are just as an important for those considering this screen as there new TV mainstay.

This is an LED screen and as such delivers some good black levels. As we have already mentioned, we feel that a certain amount of contrast has been sacrificed for the sake of brighter 3D images. However, the C7000 still manages to offer decent levels of detail across darker scenes that are subtle enough to appear without any obvious 'stepping'.

LED has gained an unfortunate reputation for uneven backlighting and while the C7000 is not completely free from this affliction, it is present to a far lesser degree than we have seen on other TV's. This we suspect may have something to do with the fact that the LED's in this case are presented along the top and bottom of the screen rather than all round, limiting any LED cross interference in the corners.

The UE40C7000, despite employing an 'Edge' based implementation of LED backlighting, also uses aspects of Samsung's 'Local Dimming' technology. We are not sure exactly how this technology has been implemented but it does offer a sort of local dimming. Unfortunately, the effect is delivered at a cost; a cost which presents itself in the form of brighter image elements that are not as subtlety integrated into the picture as a whole as you would wish.

The decent black levels create a good backdrop for the presentation of colour, an advantage that the C7000 is able to take full advantage of.

Colours are as vibrant as anything we have seen, while retaining a subtlety which presents tricky areas such as facial tones with a dynamic realism that few can match.

Once again, Samsung has delivered TV which handles Standard Definition sources with aplomb. It is all too easy to get caught up with a screen's shiny new features when most of us will be gaining the most benefit from a decent SD picture.

Samsung's core picture processing engine has seen year on year improvement which now delivers a virtually 'noise' free SD picture which suffers virtually no discernable artifacts during the 'upscale' process.

High Definition pictures are predictably excellent with a level of sharpness and colour intensity which takes full advantage of the built-in Freeview HD signal. Samsung and Panasonic now offer a comparable HD experience with most of their high end screens - an experience that compels you to reach out and touch the screen it is so believable.

Once again, a TV has sacrificed a decent Acoustic ability for the sake of style. Just how important a distinct lack of top end Bass depends to a degree on your outlook. Having spent the best part of £2000 on buying the screen in the first place you might well be prepared to fork out a little bit more on a separate sound system. The utter gorgeousness of the screen may on the other hand more than make up for the slight deficiency in many people's minds.

Conclusion

The UE40C7000 is a good TV, not only in terms of those elements which combine to create a regular two dimensional image; but in that it offers a genuinely innovative viewing experience, 3D. There are however a few glitches with the 3D image and compromises to the extra dimensional technology which reduce its effectiveness with 2D.

  A genuine 3D experience, stunning looks

  Expensive, some 'crosstalk'