Samsung LN-T4681F 46" 1080p LCD HDTV with LED backlight

I have owned this set for about six weeks now, and I love it. The picture is exquisite, and far outpaces the three-year-old Sony VEGA set it replaced (the old set only did 720p, for one thing...).

Good stuff:

This TV is a real conversation starter. It's enormous, and very glossy (both on the screen and the bezel). The gloss makes fingerprints very obvious, and seems to attract dust...so you'll want to do some routine cleaning if you want to keep it looking nice. People sit down in my living room and just stare at the set, even if it's turned off. Some have compared it to the monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey." That's...good, right?

The picture is stunning. The reviews here are right: the LED backlighting really makes things look great, and makes rich black really pop.

I recommend turning off the power-on LED (the little blue bar under the display) using the onscreen menus. When it's on, you can actually see the reflection of the power light on the bezel around the screen, and I found that distracting. Fortunately it's an easy thing to turn off -- and when it's off, the set has ZERO lights aside from the picture when turned on. This is a great feature, as I don't want any little points of light distracting me from the picture! On my old set, there was a little "power on" light that always bugged me.

Tuning between inputs is fast, and makes switching from one input to another no big deal. (On my old set, it took several seconds for each switch, so going through the list felt laborious....)

Be sure to go through the onscreen menus and enable the optional features, particularly the dynamic LED backlighting (some of these features require you to change the picture mode to MOVIE, which I've done on every input...). The default VIVID setting is garish, but it's very easy to switch (and of course the setting is saved, on a per input basis, so it's a one time setup).

Bad stuff:

The three HDMI ports are adequate for me (HD TiVo, AppleTV, and Samsung Blu-ray player), though I wish there were more, and I wish they were all on the back rather than one on the side. As it is I'm using the side port for a Blu-ray player, and having the cable sticking out the side isn't exactly ideal. I still haven't found a decent right-angle adapter.

The speakers aren't great. I guess they're fine for a TV set, but they're nothing to write home about.

The remote is adequate but not great. I wish the backlight extended to more of the buttons. The remote is also rather long. Note that if you have a Samsung Blu-ray player, you can use the Blu-ray remote instead to control most/all of the TV functions...but the Blu-ray remote (at least the one with the BD-1500 series player) isn't backlit. Oh well.

The glossy screen definitely shows light sources in the room: windows, lamps, etc. In many cases you'll want to move stuff around (or simply turn off/block out any light sources) if you're watching anything serious. But I guess that's true of any movie viewing experience.

Anyway, overall I'm extremely satisfied with this purchase. My other candidate was a Sony XBR4 set, but I'm glad I went with the Samsung...it's cheaper, has a better picture, and uses less energy due to the LED backlight. The Sony's design is arguably a little better, and it doesn't have the extreme gloss factor. But for my money, this is the set to get.

THIS TV IS ESPECTACULAR. I'M FROM MÉXICO CITY AND HERE, YOU FOUND IT IN $6,200 DOLLARS. SO MY REVIEW INCLUDES THE PRICE. MY ONLY COMPLAIN IS THE REMOTE. I THINK THAT FOR THE PRICE YOU PAID, THE REMOTE MUST BE A LOT BETTER. THE TV IS SIMPLY PERFECT AND THE BEST AVAILABLE, PERIOD (I RESERACH A LOT). BEST OPTION IN DVD, BLU RAY, XBOX 360, PS3 AND EVEN TV SIGNAL. THANKS TO SAMSUNG. I WAITED TO BUY A HDTV FOR A LONG TIME, AND NOW MY PITTSBURGH STEELER'S CRIB IS COMPLETE.

This Samsung LN-T4681 LCD TV has excellent clarity, excellent natural colors and no motion blur.

I have had my Samsung LNT4681F for over 2 weeks now and I could not be any happier. The colors that are produced on the screen are amazing, when my wife saw it she said "WOW!" I had a rear projection TV before and my wife and I love to watch movies. Whenever we rented some DVD's I would always steer clear of the ones in widescreen. I could stand the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Very noticable, and if I did happen to watch a widescreen DVD I would change the screen ratio to stretch the picture and remove the black bars. With the Samsung LNT4681F there is no need to do any of this because it produces TRUE Blacks. I can quite easily watch a DVD in wide screen now and not for a minute do I even notice the black bars. I would highly recommend this TV to anyone.

I traded up from my LN-T4671 to the 81 last week due to a service issue and Samsung was unable to provide me with a new set due to a long backorder line. Samsung was nice enough to allow me to pay the extra money and trade up to the 81. I am so pleased with it. The Black's are unreal.
I must really tell you that Samsung Executive Customer Relations in New Jersey for the most part was very uncaring. Most of the staff I spoke with sounded like they were stressed and burned out and could care less. I think Samsung has gotten too big for their brithces.
Samsung makes a great product. BEWARE OF THEIR EXTENDED WARRANTY the price is OUTRAGIOUS. Twice that of Sony.
Aside from that I am quite pleased with the set, not so when it comes to the company itself. Samsung's web site is at best mediocre to poor. When I phoned them to complain about some non functioning links to service and lack of info re: extended warranty's the customer service people told me they were well aware of the problems and that the higher ups disgregarded their reports and concerns.
It's no wonder we outsource much of our jobs because many American workers are in dreamland. How sad is that??
I am sure a webmaster in India could do better than the knuckleheads at Samsung Web dept.
Good Luck.