Even without the brand name, you'd know that this TV and the HP-T4264 came from the same manufacturer. This one is a bit smaller, supports 1080p, and uses an LCD panel instead of a plasma screen; but the physical design, menus, remotes, and just about everything else are identical. It's no surprise that they earned very similar marks.
Samsung's LCD scored slightly above the average for the 12 LCD and plasma sets in our November 2007 issue's HDTV roundup on most of our jury tests, though the it did have problems with standard-def content, whether over the air or on DVD. For the most part it managed high-def chores reasonably well, despite rendering slightly washed-out flesh tones on the only test performed in 1080p, which used the Mission: Impossible III Blu-ray disc.
You shouldn't have any trouble getting the LN-T4061 up and running. Every connector that you might want to plug something into points outward; most of them are on the back, with a few extras on the side for easy access.
The menus are compact and readable, and if you can't read them easily enough, you can make the background opaque. When you select sources, the LN-T4061 skips the ones that have nothing plugged into them; these appear grayed out on the Sources menu. You can rename your sources if you feel that DVD or VCR tell you more than HDMI 1 or S-Video 2, but you must select names from the supplied list--you can't enter your own.
This well-equipped TV has a freeze button and picture-in-picture for watching content from two different sources--though not from two different channels on the HP-T4264's tuner. It also carries a headphone jack and a USB port for viewing JPEG image files and listening to MP3s from an external device.
The LN-T4061 comes with a long and slightly clumsy remote. It's programmable, and some of the buttons light up.
Lincoln Spector