Digital Trends

Samsung LN-S2651D March 27th, 2007 | by Jason Tomczak

Setup and Use

Setting up the Samsung LN-S2651D HDTV is a very easy process. Unpacking the TV may be what took me the longest part of the setup. After getting the TV out of the well padded box, you'll find that the LN-S2651D is in two major pieces - the body of the TV itself and the small, oval-shaped base.

Place the base on the floor or on your TV stand. Pull the body of the TV out of the box and carefully slip the base attachment into the base. It makes a little "click" when the base is properly attached and secure. The base feels very stable and keeps the 24lb TV from wobbling. Plug the TV into a good quality surge protector. Pop the two included AAA batteries into the remote control.

Depending on whether you're going to use HDMI or component cables, the setup will deviate slightly. HDMI is by far the easiest to set up, because an HDMI cable has one single plug for both digital video and digital audio. HMDI ports look like thinner, flatter USB ports. For HDMI, plug the cable into the back of your DVD player or HDMI-enabled HDTV tuner, and then plug the other end of the HDMI cable into the HDMI1 port in the back of the TV. The Samsung LN-S2651D supports two HDMI connections from separate devices, however the first (or solo) device must be plugged into HDMI1.

The audio/video connections on the back of the LN-S2651D

For component connections, plug the component video and component audio cables into their respective ports on the DVD player and then on the TV. Each video input can have it's settings changed through the menu system and the TV will remember each connection independently.

The Samsung LN-S2651D also has two coax connections, one for the integrated ATSC HD tuner, and the other for last-gen cable boxes, standard RCA audio/video, S-Video for computer connections, and digital optical audio outputs to a higher-end audio system.

For those of you who would like to hook your computers up to the Samsung LN-S2651D, there's an analog VGA video port and corresponding 1/8" jack for audio. I found it very disappointing that Samsung used an analog VGA connector instead of a DVI port. Of course, DVI-to-RGB conversion cables abound and can be purchased in almost every computer store in North America.

Samsung includes a small info sheet on connecting a typical iPod to the LN-S2651D for listening to music (which is very different from the a/v cables required to watch videos). Unfortunately, they recommend buying a complex-looking, Samsung-branded iPod connector cable. At $39.99 for this cable, it' a bit of a sting.

The final bit of setup involves watching some test media, such as a new high-quality DVD, some HDTV programming or whatever suits you. Watching the content for color, contrast, brightness, etc., use the remote control to navigate the well-designed setup menus. Adjust the picture and sound to your liking. Again, the menus are well designed, visually pleasing and provide a simple interface for controlling almost every aspect of the TV.

Once the LN-S2651D is connected to appropriate audio and video sources and adjusted for personal viewing pleasure, the real fun begins.