Samsung LN40B650

Ease of Use (8.0)

The Samsung LN40B650's menu system is a simple and attractive tabbed interface, with top level menus arrayed in a column on the left and items for those menus appearing to the right. The menu interface is intuitive and easy to use, we especially like that you can wrap from the top of a menu to the bottom, something you can't do on all HDTVs. Menu items that can be adjusted along a scale shift to the bottom of the screen when being adjusted, which allows you to see what the effect is on the display.

The main menu has a simple tabbed interface.

Sub menus appear in a box in the middle of the screen that replaces the main menu interface, while items with multiple options appear in a small pop-up box. We also like the helpful explanations that appear at the bottom of the screen when an item is selected. Overall the menu interface is consistent, attractive and easy to use. Our only major annoyance is that the menu system seemed a bit slow to respond at times.

Picture Controls (8.0)

At the top level the Samsung LN40B650's picture menu offers access to the basics that you'd expect. You'll find the mode at the top, which switches between Dynamic, Standard, Natural and Movie. You can also adjust backlight, contrast, brightness, sharpness, color and tint from the top level.

Top level picture controls give you access to the basics.

There are two sub-menus available, ine called Advanced Settings and another called Picture Options. The advanced settings menu offers you detailed controls for adjusting gamma and white balance as well as black tone, dynamic contrast, color space, flesh tone and edge enhancement.

The 120Hz options are a new feature.

The picture options menu allows you to adjust the color temperature, which Samsung calls color tone, as well as access features like digital NR, film mode and blue only mode. You'll also find the controls for the 120Hz refresh rate here. Samsung have included several presets here as well as discrete controls for Blur and Judder reduction, something new in their lineup. We like the discrete controls that Samsung offers in their picture sub-menus, this will give those who like to fiddle with their HDTV a lot of options. For those who don't you'll be able to just access the basics at the top level.

Detailed control over color space, gamma and white balance.

Audio Controls (6.0)

The Samsung LN40B650s sound menu offers users with five modes to choose from. There's also an equlizer on board for fine tuning, the option to turn the simulated surround sound on/off and some nice additional options like auto volume for equalizing volume and mult-track sound options.

Five audio modes are available.

Other Controls (10.0)

In addition to the picture and sound menus the Samsung LN40B650 has five additional top-level menus. These are Channel, Setup, Input, Application and Support. The channel menu allows you to program and control channels from an antenna or cable connection.

The setup menu is where you'll find miscellaneous options.

The setup menu allows you to adjust V-chip settings as well as time and lanuguage. You'll also find the option for game mode here, which is a little strange, as well as network setup and energy options.

The input menu allows you to access your source list and edit names for sources. The Application menu is where you manage media playback from USB devices, Anynet+ for controlling other Samsung devices and the Internet@TV service, which gives you access to various online widgets. Finally the support menu let's you check for and install firmware upgrades, look through the product guide and includes contact information for Samsung.

Manual (1.0)

Unlike most HDTVs the Samsung LN40B650's manual doesn't come as a booklet, rather it is loaded onto a USB drive that you can plug into one of the television's USB ports and browse on the screen itself. Although an interesting concept we have a couple of problems with it. First, you can't do anything else while running through the manual, so you can't be looking at how to do something and then actually do it on the HDTV. Second an manual that can only be accessed on the television doesn't do much good if you're having trouble getting the television to work.

The USB manual can only be viewed on the television itself.

What's more you can't even plug the USB drive into a computer to browse the manual, or at least it didn't work on the Windows or Mac computers we tested it with. There's not even a PDF version loaded on the USB stick. As such we're only awarding it a single point. If you want a manual for your Samsung LN40B650 that's actually useful we recommend downloading a PDF version from Samsung's website.