I don’t say the above lightly, folks.  If you’ve been reading my review pieces here for any length of time you know from experience that I usually only have one problem with Samsung, and that’s its preposterous control scheme by which you press touch-sensitive sections of the television’s front panel that aren’t labeled very clearly at all–so not clearly, in fact, that for a while I was convinced they didn’t exist at all.  But the Samsung LN40B630 has a whole lot more problem than most any other Samsung I’ve encountered.

The Samsung LN40B630 is a forty inch 1080p LCD television with picture in picture, game mode, and a variety of inputs including four HDMI inputs, two component inputs, one composite input, one PC input, two USB ports, one Ethernet port, and one optical digital audio output.

And it sounds great, until you discover like I did that the picture is intolerably fuzzy for something that purports to be 1080p, the sound quality is merely fair and once again the controls are horrendous.  There’s actually very little good about this model, and frankly, I’m amazed.  Did I just get the dog in the bunch?  Or is this model really as bad as it seems?

But regardless, that’s the experience I had with the Samsung LN40B630, and on the strength of that, I can’t recommend this one.

Get a complete home theater package with the Audiovox DV1201 5.1-Channel DVD home theater system. This package comes with 4 satellite speakers, a center speaker and a subwoofer. As for the DVD player itself, you can bet that it should deliver better resolution once you choose to play your DVDs for visual entertainment.

The Audiovox DV1201 also includes a built-in Dolby Digital and Pro Logic II surround decoders which should provide the soothing audio compliment that people look for once a film starts to be played. It is compatible with most CD and image formats like DVD-Video, audio CD, CD-R/RW, MP3, and JPEG.

Additionally, it comes with the usual video output, composite input and output, S-video output, and digital audio output. For $75.03, the Audiovox DV1201 is sure to be a great buy for people who want a complete home theater solution to satisfy their home entertainment rants.

(Source) Amazon

Mitsubishi offers another possible LCD HDTV solution for the consumers who are studying their options in the LCD HDTV market. The Mitsubishi LT-46148 LCD HDTV is part of their current line of 1920×1080 displays up for customer options that carries the following features:

• Black cabinet finish with swivel stand
• Auto-sensing inputs
• Back panel - 4 HDMI 1.3 with Deep Color, X.V. Color and Simplay HDMI certified, 2 component video (input 1 supports optional composite video and 2 is component only), 1 composite video or s-video (input 3)
• Side Panel AUX Input - component video or composite video and USB Photo Port (JPEG files)
• Accepts 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p and 1080p24 frame
• serial RS232 port
• All video inputs support analog left/right audio
• HDMI L/R analog audio inputs (assignable)
• RCA digital audio output (internal tuner and video inputs)
• Antenna 1 main and Antenna 2 aux for NTSC, DTV, analog cable, QAM cable 64 and 256 (Clear QAM)
• Fairly good size remote that was comfortable in the hand, easy to use and includes an orange backlighting button providing great clarity to read the buttons in the dark
• SD aspect ratios - standard (16:9), expand, zoom, stretch plus, narrow (4:3)
• HD aspect ratios - full native (1:1 pixel mapping), standard (16:9 with marginal over scan), wide expand, zoom
• PC aspect ratios - Centered 1:1 pixel mapped centered output 4:3 and 16:9, zoom (fills out screen), reduce for 1080p only
• Plush 1080p internal scaler
• Smooth 120 Hz LCD Video Processing
• Backlight Adjust
• WCG-CCF back lighting, Wide Color Gamut - Cold Cathode Fluorescent for accurate color
• 10-bit digital video processing
• CEC HDMI control

If you are looking for some good performance, accuracy is not required and you will not be ISF calibrating, then this display is worthy of your consideration. That represents 90% of the market who have never heard of the concept of video standards much less video calibration.

Indeed, this display has much to offer because with a few control setting changes, the factory calibration is not that far off, representing one of the better factory imaging responses available.

Price: $2,099.00

(Source) HDTV Magazine

The Toshiba 15LV505 15.6-Inch Widescreen LCD TV with DVD Player is a great visual entertainment solution for people who are particular about space as well. The built-in DVD player is something that makes this all-in-one solution easier to manage.

Compared to the traditional setup where you have to worry about where to place the TV and the LCD player, your worries just got blown away with this setup.

Just check out the features:

• Digital Picture Zoom Fast Scan Slow Motion Multi-Camera Angle Select
• Dolby Digital and DTS Compatible Bottom Mount Stereo Speakers Bass/Treble Balance Controls
• MP3 Playback WMA Playback
• Clock Closed Captioning V-Chip Parental Control System OSD Language - English/French/Spanish
• Channel Labeling Multi-Subtitle Select Tri-Lingual Select
• Unified Remote Control Inputs and Outputs
• ColorStream HD Component Video Input
• S-Video Input
• RCA Video Inputs
• Rear, L-R Audio Inputs - Rear, 1 RF Input, PC Input D-Sub 15
• Digital Audio Output
• 1 Coaxial (DVD only)
• Headphone Jack - Rear Unit Dimensions - 15.84 x 12.61 x 5.52 with stand / Weighs 7.7 lbs.

Now if those features don’t capture your attention, try looking for a better all-in-one package.

(Source) Slayo