Buy Now...

This is the first 32inch full HD TV I have reviewed, not ‘HD ready’ but showing full HD and I can assure you it gives a far nicer view even when viewing standard TV down your aerial and is the first digital TV I have seen where I prefer the digital image to that available from the Analogue channels.

The unit is 80x51.5cm with the viewable area 70x39.5cm giving the diagonal measurement of 31½ inches. There is a 50x24cm stand that lifts the unit a few centimetres above whatever you stand it on.

This unit does not have some of the features available in other units the most notable is the omission of picture in picture, however it does have stunning image quality and that surely is the main thing for a TV.

See also: Televisions

more

After connecting the aerial lead and any other units via SCART or other methods attach the 13amp plug to the mains. From now on you can do everything else using the 49 key remote control. First stop is the menu button and to search for channels. Both the analogue and digital searches are done together and are quite quick. After around three minutes I had the five analogue channels plus my video recorder and 65 digital TV and data channels and 26 radio channels.

Watching BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4 was more enjoyable on digital than analogue as the picture size normally fills the screen fully whereas the analogue versions have small bands top and bottom also the colour palette looks more natural on digital, this is first set that I have been able to say that. Early external digital boxes got the aspect ratio wrong with lots of stretched images this really is not a problem now but the whole look and feel of digital is now better than analogue, just as well as this service will disappear totally by 2012.

As with most modern TV’s you should be able to select tones and shades for your liking and under the menu button these are easily changed. I am well aware that in certain parts of the country analogue and digital signals vary. For those who are getting better analogue images then this may not be the unit for you, while it has Teletext it does not have the ability to force sub pages to display. It does show them but you have to wait for them to come round to be viewed.

Digital text is good but despite what is bandied about it does not have the same numbering for all pages. A 72 page manual tells you exactly what you can and can’t do. There are six near invisible touch buttons on the right front edge of the screen but they don’t do anything not available from the remote control. The rear has a connection panel and the left side has what is called a ‘Jacks Panel’. This latter offers headphones, Composite, S-Video, Wiselink (USB), HDMI and a Common Interface. The latter allows insertion of a credit card style card still used to access certain scrambled signals.

The connection panel on the back Component, three HDMI, Antenna In, Audio Out, PC Audio In, VGA socket, Audio sockets and apart from optical out two SCART.

I have used this unit for several weeks and towards the end of the review period I was sent a Blu-ray player. While the image quality – especially on digital – was excellent prepare to be blown away when viewing via Blu–ray. Remember this is 1080P (not 1080i) full HD. While there are a number of full HD 37inch offerings this is the first 32inch one I have reviewed. The problem is getting the required pixels into a 32inch panel so it will always have a premium. It is certainly worth it. Look for my review of the Blu-ray player shortly. The quality of feature films is of course the main selling point but while image quality is great you really need either 5.1 or 7.1 speakers to get the full cinema effect, however concerts and natural history features also show the real advantage of 1080P with tiny blemishes being visible, sorry ladies.

So if you are looking for a new TV and it is going to 32 inch or larger certainly check to see if it is ‘HD Ready’ or ‘Full HD’ the latter certainly makes a difference even with standard TV, and when you attach a Blu-ray player well its ‘chalk and cheese’.

Doing my Internet searches found the Samsung Series 6 Full HD LE32A656 unit available at a best price of £592.99 including shipping from the first link below. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00188ZR8S?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634

Doing my Internet searches found the Samsung Series 6 Full HD LE32A656 unit available at a best price of €654,99 from the first link below. 

http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B0015UG0PS?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge04-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1642

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=television&type=television&subtype=tftlcd&model_cd=LE32A656A1FXXU