Samsung LN40D550

Experts and users say that the 40-inch Samsung LN40D550 provides solid picture performance and just enough features to keep things interesting. Picture quality is very good, highlighted by excellent screen uniformity -- a rarity among LCD TVs -- and good to excellent colors, depending on whom you ask. Blacks levels measure exceedingly deep, but one reviewer says that this is deceiving since the set uses nondefeatable and not-quite-perfect dynamic backlight dimming (which dims and brightens the backlight in response to what's on the screen) to achieve its excellent score. On the whole, though, picture quality is very solid, though some other sets in the same price range, such as the 40-inch Sony KDL-40BX420 (*Est. $585) , edge it out slightly in that regard.

The feature lineup is not nearly as strong as on some TVs, for example the 42-inch Vizio E3D420VX (*Est. $630) , but Samsung has a put a few items into this TV's bag of tricks. For example, while you can't stream content from the Internet, the 40-inch Samsung LN40D550 is DLNA compliant so it can stream movies, music and photos from your PC. The set's user interface makes accessing that multimedia more pleasant than with many other TVs. Wi-Fi is supported, but you'll need to budget extra for a Samsung Wi-Fi radio (*Est. $80). Resolution is 1080p, but the refresh rate is limited to the standard 60 Hz. The series is available in a number of other screen sizes, and all should perform similarly. Those are the 32-inch LN32D550 (*Est. $480) , 37-inch LN37D550 (*Est. $585) and 46-inch LN46D550 (*Est. $800) .

Professional reviewers have looked at different screen sizes in the Samsung LND550 series. ConsumerReports.org evaluates the 32-inch LN32D550, and TelevisionInfo.com reports on the 46-inch LN46D550. User reviews can be seen at BestBuy.com and Amazon.com.