Mini-Review: Samsung 40KU6400 as a monitor

BallisticGT3 · 14 Jan 2017 at 07:28

Brocky36 said:
Had this TV for just shy of 2 months now and I really like it. It's been mainly used for the PC and only occasional TV watching.

I have also seen the flickering blue lines near the bottom of the screen for a second or two. It usually happens not too long after turning on but will then go for hours without happening again. I'm not too worried about it at this stage but if it becomes more frequent, I will consider getting a replacement.

Anyway, I'm picking up a PS4 Pro tomorrow and so will likely be switching between that and the PC quite regularly. As the TV only has 1 (of 3 total) HDMI port that will allow selection of the 'HDMI UHD Colour' setting, ideally, I need a way to run and switch between both machines via the one HDMI port, preferably - though not essential - remotely, but definitely without losing any image quality.

Can I just be looking at any regular male to 2x female HDMI splitter or do I need to be looking at something more elaborate, so as not to have to compromise on image quality?

I decided to take the plunge and got myself a 6400 over the New Year.
I share the HDMI#1 input for my Pc and XB1s
I went for the Ligawo 3090063 HDR HDMI switch 3x1 https://www.amazon.co.uk/LIGAWO-3090063-HDMI-Switch-Black/dp/B01KXCO65E and some KabelDirekt HDMI 2.0a/b highspeed cables.
I'm very pleased with the results and so far everything is working as it should.
FH3 in HDR looks stunning on the XB1s (better than it ever did on my IPS Pc monitor)

Thanks Demon - if I hadn't stumbled across your excellent review I would never have gone down this route.

aoaaron · 14 Jan 2017 at 12:28

This seems to make so much sense.

So a 4K 40'' TV in a custom resolution equals to a 34'' ultra wide monitor?

So you're basically paying less money for a 4k HDR display (aka future proofing to a degree which monitors doesn't offer apart from g/free-sync and hz) ?

Hugest_UK · 15 Jan 2017 at 08:30

aoaaron said:
This seems to make so much sense.

So a 4K 40'' TV in a custom resolution equals to a 34'' ultra wide monitor?

So you're basically paying less money for a 4k HDR display (aka future proofing to a degree which monitors doesn't offer apart from g/free-sync and hz) ?

Think it's more like a 36" ultra wide. As I use my ps4 pro connected to my pc monitor (27" 2569x1440 60 Hz) I will be picking up one of these next week. Has everyone that bought one of these had the blue lines issue?

BallisticGT3 · 15 Jan 2017 at 18:38

I've not experienced the blue lines issue.....yet.

Hugest_UK · 15 Jan 2017 at 20:46

BallisticGT3 said:
I've not experienced the blue lines issue.....yet.

Good to know cheers for the reply.

glenimp617 · 16 Jan 2017 at 08:00

mraerosmith1981 said:
Returned mine today, as the blue flickering started again, getting a 2016 LG with similar specs to try now

which model out of interest? although I would prefer VA over IPS

this_is_gav · 16 Jan 2017 at 09:52

BallisticGT3 said:
I've not experienced the blue lines issue.....yet.

I've only seen them two or three times in total and not for ages. I wonder if the last update sorted them out?

BallisticGT3 · 16 Jan 2017 at 12:34

The first thing I did was to upgrade the firmware.
The TV has been fine so far, very pleased with it and can't fault it.

Balb0wa · 16 Jan 2017 at 18:21

Have you seen the price of this now at various places? 549,549,520 tvs normally get cheaper, its 50 inch territory now!

glenimp617 · 17 Jan 2017 at 09:35

Balb0wa said:
Have you seen the price of this now at various places? 549,549,520 tvs normally get cheaper, its 50 inch territory now!

Yep, the 40" ones are going up. Have you seen the prices of the hisense 40m3300 now :eek:

I have a feeling that the driver is the pc community. Considering large 4k monitors are over a grand, many people are switching to tvs (and rightly so).....this demand pushes prices up. Especially hdr.

I'm on the look out for one myself, but only sub £400

n30_mkii · 17 Jan 2017 at 09:46

Balb0wa said:
Have you seen the price of this now at various places? 549,549,520 tvs normally get cheaper, its 50 inch territory now!

Glad I purchased mine when I did, 6 days before black Friday, so got to claim the difference back when RS dropped to £399

For £399 with 6 years warranty it's been fantastic for me, having so much real estate has really helped with photo/video editing

LLBDTiberio · 17 Jan 2017 at 10:23

The KU6400 "40" can still be had some places for £450, considering a "40 4K pc monitor is way above that its still a bargain I think

.
I however still cannot decide if its 40KU6400 or the 49" KU7000, while the HDR10 compliance will be nice I just dont know if 49" will be too big to use as a pc monitor+combined screen for my PS4 and if an extra £400 is worthwhile

.

glenimp617 · 17 Jan 2017 at 11:36

There is a place that gives you 10% off your first order (and can split the payments into 3, or refer for 6 months).

Mmmmmmm

glenimp617 · 17 Jan 2017 at 11:41

Panos · 17 Jan 2017 at 21:17

I am between this and the LG 43UH603V. Price is the same, the LG seems it has has full HDR 10 support also.

Any thoughts?

Legend · 17 Jan 2017 at 21:40

Panos said:
I am between this and the LG 43UH603V. Price is the same, the LG seems it has has full HDR 10 support also.

Any thoughts?

Where are you seeing it's 10-bit? It's 8-bit as far as I can see, but even worse it's RGBW so isn't even true 4K.

See here: http://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/abfe79f

Panos · 17 Jan 2017 at 23:30

Hmm mea culpa. Mixed it probably with the 43UH6100

But why they are advertised as 4K when they aren't?

Legend · 18 Jan 2017 at 01:02

Panos said:
Hmm mea culpa. Mixed it probably with the 43UH6100

But why they are advertised as 4K when they aren't?

Because there is nothing which says they can't. It's the Wild West as far as TV advertising & marketing is concerned.

this_is_gav · 19 Jan 2017 at 08:58

this_is_gav said:
I've only seen them two or three times in total and not for ages. I wonder if the last update sorted them out?

Scratch that as I was watching Monday's Silent Witness last night and had sustained blue lines for a couple of minutes.

I was watching through PotPlayer and interestingly it was confined to the PotPlayer window, so if I shrunk PotPlayer the lines shrunk so they stayed in the window too. Rewound back and it didn't happen (so it's definitely not on the video).

It only happened while watching the MP4 of Monday's episode (encoded via Handbrake) and they weren't in evidence at all when watching the 2nd episode (watching the 'live' TS stream through PotPlayer). I only flag this up as this is the first thing I've watched for a month or so that I recorded and encoded myself, and it's the first time I've seen the blue lines for ages too despite using the TV most days, and usually processed by the PC. Even though the PC is doing all of the processing, I wonder if it's something to do with frame rate or variable bit-rate or other encoding settings.

Panos · 19 Jan 2017 at 17:56

Went tonight to local big shop of a very known chain, to look at the 40KU6400
To its left was running the same demo the 40 curved brother of it. To the right were a 43KS7500 and a 49KS7000.

While the 40KU6400 looked fantastic compared to many others around, spending an extra £300 for the KS7000 makes sense to me.....(still drooling)

But the 40KU6400 indeed makes all monitors ever used, and especially my XL2730, looking like a 100 years old bad quality CRTs.