Jan 29, 2012 11:11 PM
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The first time I really experienced a big wide screen TV at home was at one of my friend's place and this guy was stinking rich. Well you would have to be those days in 2004 to buy a Sharp Aquos 42 inch "HD Ready" LCD for INR1,85,000!!! Ever since, I had a dream too, someday I need to have one of these in my living room.
So I waited, did a lot of reading on the net, watched a lot of demos and I was really really impressed by one TV I had a chance to see at an audio video expo in Bangalore, the Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX6090. I was speechless after I saw the demo and I was completely sold. Such was the level of detail and it was just inches close to watching a movie in a movie hall. The most important thing, well at least to my eye was that the blacks looked natural and deep and the whites were displayed with accuracy levels that were nowhere to be found on the full HD LCD TV's of those days. Sadly I would have never bought the Kuro as when I asked the gentleman who helped me with the demo, the price was just nowhere near anything I could think about.
This close encounter with the very best in Plasma technology got me reading more and more about the technology and I found it really superior than the much marketed LCD and LED's in many ways, how ever like 2 sides of a coin, the plasma too had its own share of disadvantages too. But I was ready to compromise on that.
Many years of research and demos, I came across so many LCD and LED tv's but none of them were anything near what a Pioneer Kuro could be, but that is when I bumped myself into the world of Panasonic Plasma TV's namely the TH-P42U30Dfull HD plasma. It too had the sort of things that almost had most of my expectation ticked and thats when in the same store they had a demo piece of the Samsung 43D490 3D plasma TV. Trust me this TV is almost a decade old if you compare its specifications with the Panasonic as the Panny had an updated display panel and it was just better in every sense. However the Samsung was just an unbelievable surprise.
As I mentioned in the title, this TV is quite something for the price and can really make the more costlier TV's in its class a run for their money. Now I say this strictly for normal DTH viewing. This TV belongs to the living room and it looks stunning even when switched off. Trust me it is a thing of beauty.
I played a few 1080p titles and it appeared good to my eyes. Well I don't mean exceptional but again for someone who has been dreaming about buying a big screen TV for 5 years, this is brilliant. I also had a few Formula 1 videos specially the 2009 Belgian Grandprix at Spa-Francorchamps looked picture perfect on this screen. However, just like all good things come to an end, all the fun I had ended in 27 days flat. One fine morning I turned it on to watch the news and its gone.
I contacted the Samsung customer service and had a technician visit my place to see what in the world has gone wrong and he informs me that the mainboard responsible for video, USB and HDMI inputs got fried and the unit is completely useless. I bought the unit on 1/1/2012 and on 27/1/2012 it has become a beautiful piece of electronic trash.
As I write this review from my living room I am sitting right in front of my new Samsung 43D490 which sadly had an early death and I am waiting for a replacement. I am completely dissatisfied with Samsung and I am completely heartbroken. May be this is one in a million of the same models that are working fine, but clearly if I had an option, I would never go for a replacement. I would rather buy a second hand 29 inch CRT that works for centuries. And I really wish I could forget about this TV. The sooner the better...
PRO's
Great design and absolutely beautiful to look at.
Dont back off by what you see in the specifications, the picture quality is absolutely brilliant and natural.
Decent black levels
Great colour reproduction
A 3D TV for INR42000 is not bad by any standards.
Connectivity options 1 USB, 3 HDMI ports
CON's
The TV is history in 27 days and that is heart breaking.
I really wish this was made by a company that believes in quality than quantity.
