Samsung LNS3251D 32-Inch LCD HDTV
First large tv with an LG 32lc2d right next to it
I bought the Samsung at Best Buy 2 weeks after I bought the LG from Ultimate Electronics. I bought the samsung because I was impatient and didn't want to start into the third week of waiting for the LG to arrive at the store. Ultimate jerked me around by saying it will be in _____. I called each time they said it would be in and it wasn't in. <br /> <br />On to the review. I run analog cable in the apt. So my main viewing is at 4:3. About 26\\" picture. When I first turned on the samsung I thought the sound was fantastic. I took a pretty big step from a mono 13\\" tube tv though. When I turned on the LG I thought the samsung sound quality was crap. I'm new to surround sound and all that fancy sound stuff. By using the TV audio outputs, though, the sound is better than what I got from the LG audio out with a cable and DVD. One annoying thing about having both tv's going at the same time was the echo. You're probably thinking, echo? Wait a minute. There shouldn't be an echo. There was. Even hooked up straight to the wall separately the LG's audio is noticably behind the movements of people's mouths. I would say just miliseconds but definately annoying. Either that or the samsung was ahead ever so slightly. I vote the LG was behind though. <br /> <br />The picture is tough to compare. I spent a bunch of time switching settings to get them to have similar contrast, brightness, color. The samsung, unfortunately has a lower refresh rate than the LG. The LG's refresh looked flawless whereas the samsung has some, artifacting, I believe was the word used. Blurring of movement. Noticable but not overly annoying.  <br />The LG had a problem with where the 4:3 picture met the black side bars. There was sort of a white strip about a pixel wide separation. Samsung is flawless all the way to the edge. Also the black side bar is less noticable because it's blacker.(with comparable screen settings) <br />As far as overall sharpness(again with comparable settings) the samsung pulls ahead. The color is a bit more robust in the samsung.  <br /> <br />HDMI. Well. I didn't know this existed until just recently. I've always used separate audio/video cables to hook up a vcr. I'm new to DVD players too. PC's are my friend. I have a decent sony DVD player pushing signals out the HDMI. HDMI is like when you turn the sharpness up to much on a photo in photoshop. S-video is like dropping the sharpness. Both TV looked the same as far as quality from HDMI and s-video. I expected the LG to look better with all the fancy quality step-up/enhancement features. I bet samsung has similar features but they just don't market it as hard as LG. <br /> <br />Since I'm more of a PC user than a DVD watcher I liked that they both offered a PC hookup. They both looked fantastic when the resolution was set properly. I'll hand it over to the samsung though for a more robust image(with similar settings). <br /> <br />The remotes and menus are different but just as easy to learn with a little bit of messing around. The LG remote is heavier but the buttons offer a more positive press and a softer feel. <br /> <br />The samsung is much much lighter and wouldn't think twice if I wanted to anchor it to drywall. The LG, however, is heavy and I would be leary about hanging it on the wall unless I hit a stud with both mount points.  <br /> <br />The feature of being able to pause the tv is pretty neat. The LG offers a more crisp still. Not like it matters though. It's like a picture on a phone. for both of them. <br /> <br />I went with the samsung. A bit more expensive. I wanted to save a boatload by purchasing from amazon but with all the bad reviews on their chosen shipper I decided to talk best buy down a bit on the price. Please if you buy from a retailer and get the service plan, ask them to knock money off the TV to drop the price since they usually cannot drop the price of the service plan. Yes they have to make money too but it's not hard to figure out that the markups on TV'sare ridiculous. <br /> <br />Had I got the LG right away when I bought it and didn't go crazy doing research on other TV's while I waited for two weeks I probably whould have been satisfied with it despite the minor annoyances. Would I have even noticed them if I didn't have the samsung side by side? Probably not. Would I have noticed anything negative about the samsung without the LG side by side? Probably not. Both solid units. Prices aren't the same but close.