snyderj's Full Review: Samsung TX-R3079 30 inch TV
UPDATE: 20 OCT 06 - Sadly I must knock down the reliability for this unit as it would no longer turn on. Unfortunately this is two months after the warranty expired. In home repair is quite expensive, and lugging this heavy thing to the shop is a big pain. The diagnosis was thermal diode failure (something to do with the degaussing circuit).
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This TV is heavy, but much lighter than its category peers. Two reasonably strong people are necessary to lift it. Setup is straight-forward, and manual is easy to understand, except in some diagrams where a hand is shown pressing a button -- it looks like you're supposed to use the forefinger AND thumb in some cases. Ignore the thumb. You can find the manual online at the Samsung website (at the time of this writing it is at http://tinyurl.com/dwjzo).
As a point of reference, we had a 19" 4:3 1989 Panasonic TV and were looking for the best value in a 26" to 32" wide screen with HDMI. We have analog cable and, being in a big city, rabbit ears work fairly well.
From the Samsung web site (http://product.samsung.com/):
- Slim Depth CRT; 1/3 Thinner than Regular Flat CRT
- Built-in HDTV Tuner (ATSC/NTSC)
- Finer Pixel Dot Pitch Flat CRT Improves Picture Resolution and Brightness
- Offers True Compatibility with Progressive Scan DVD Players
- 3:2 Pull Down Film Frame Rate Correction
- Digital Signal Processing
- INVAR Shadow Mask
- Color Temperature Adjustments
- Velocity Scan Modulation Improves Edge Detail
- Multi Function Universal Remote Control
- 20 Watt Stereo with Adjustable Equalizer (10W x 2)
- BBE High Definition Sound Processing
- Audio: Stereo Broadcast Reception (MTS & SAP)
- Picture Tube: 32" CRT measured diagonally
- TV System: American NTSC Std. Color
- Antenna: CATV/VHF/UHF 75-ohm, F-Type
- VHF 2-13
- UHF 14-69
- CATV 1-125
- Up to 181 pre-selected channels
- Power Requirements: 120V AC, 60Hz
- Power Consumption: 190W
- RF Input: 1 Rear
- Auto Sensing Component Inputs (480i/480p/1080i): 2 Rear
- S-Video Inputs: 1 Side, 1 Rear (shared)
- Fixed A/V Monitor: Output 1 Rear
- Four Composite A/V Inputs: 1 Side, 3 Rear (shared)
- Net Dimensions: 36.8"(W) x 22.4"(H) x 16"(D)
- Shipping Dimensions: 41.3"(W) x 27.8"(H) x 20.3"(D)
- Net Weight: 120.2 Lbs.
- Shipping Weight: 132.3 Lbs.
The TV tweedles some quick music when it turns on/off, perhaps informing you that you did indeed turn on the TV since there is a pause before the picture comes on.
There is a channel switching delay compared to our old Panasonic, but it's not bad (perhaps 1/2 second).
There is no picture-in-picture (PIP) which would have been nice.
There are hidden but accessible (for the most part -- takes a bit of hand gyration) jacks on the left for temporary source hookup (e.g. camcorder). And easily accessible controls (but you can't really see them well or read which control does what if light is dim or eyesight is poor) on the right if remote is not handy.
The on-screen menu is good and menu transparency can be set, but the location on the screen cannot be set.
Though the picture adjustment is fairly easy, I can't quite get the color set just the way I like it. It's too magenta for my eyes, but it's not annoying. I wish that while adjusting the color the menu shrank down tiny. That would make it much easier to see the faces of the people; instead you end up looking at the edges of the screen.
When muted, a mute icon persists in the lower left corner.
The remote control is fairly well laid out and it is universal so you can program it to control your VCR, DVD, etc. I still like to use separate remotes. (As a side comment, I think most remotes are hideous in design, having no easily discernable buttons and tactile features. They seem to be designed by people who like straight lines, symmetry and no color, which is too bad.) One nice feature of the remote is a "favorites" button so you can cycle through just a few channels.
There are multiple zooms available: 16:9, panorama, zoom 1 (slight zoom in), zoom 2 (strong zoom in), and 4:3. For the most part we keep it on 16:9 (which stretches the 4:3 picture) and sometimes panorama (which distorts the picture slightly -- a bit like watching through very old pane glass windows). Zoom 1 and 2 are nice but you can't see a good deal of the overall picture.
TV has pre-set sound options (standard, music, movie, speech) and you can also create a custom setting. However, the stereo speakers are puny compared to plugging in the TV to good audio components, so these settings, while nice to have, are not all that useful.
The Video components and sources can be named, but this is where my biggest annoyance is. From a technical point of view it's great to distinguish between various types of inputs, but from a user point of view it should be combined into one list: Do you want to watch TV, video, DVD, video game, etc.? Instead Samsung separates this into "sources", "components" and "antennas", and you can't tell the TV that there's nothing plugged in, so it takes a couple seconds to scan each possible source as you try to get through all the different sources. Then there's the matter of thinking of whether it's a source or a component or an antenna -- who cares from a user point of view! One bug in the operating system is that it often freezes when searching for an analog signal where none is present, so you must sometimes wait for 15 seconds or turn TV off then on again. They do allow you to name the sources (DVD, Video, Game console, etc.) which is nice, except "none" is not a choice.
There are a lot of other features that are described in the manual: return to previous channel (r.surf), screen tilt adjustment, weak picture amplifier, auto volume adjustment, on/off timer, sleep timer, v-chip controls, parental controls (based on MPAA and FCC ratings), multiple closed caption modes, Canadian French/English options, digital on-screen programming (if receiving digital signal through HDTV, cable or satellite), signal strength meter, and analog fine-tuning capabilities.
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