Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Samsung LN46C630 46-Inch

The picture on this TV was stunning right out of the box. After a few minor adjustments it was as close to perfect as I could imagine. It came with the SQ01 panel and it would be hard to differentiate the color depth and quality from some of the plasma sets I looked at. The TV is in a very bright room and the matte screen cuts out glare with no picture degradation. The viewing angle is very good, though we are never more than 25 to 30 degress off center. The LCD this replaced did not have a very good SD picture so I wasn't expecting much difference with the Samsung. But it actually looks great, almost like HD. It also has separate settings for processing speed and anti-judder. I watch a lot of sports and barely noticed motion blur at 60hz and virtually none at 120hz. With this set I would see no need to spend more money for a 240hz option. The sound is very good for normal TV viewing. Its also internet ready with both USB and ethernet connections, though to do so via USB requires an adaptor that is not included. There is no S video connection so you may need some component cables to hook up older external equipment. UVerse is the programming source.

One thing about settings. This has a feature that can automatically adjust the picture to room brightness. The first night the picture suddenly got much darker in the evening, but only in Standard viewing mode. I reset the brightness but it would not hold the new settings once I left the menu. I spoke with Samsung and they had no idea why this was happening. So I read the manual one more time and it turns out this is due to a factory default setting in the Eco portion of the menu. You can either set the auto adjust to never go below a certain brightness level or you can turn it off completely, which is what I did. And that took care of it.

The last time I bought a LCD I continued to look around in case I found something better. That will not be the case this time as I am completely satisfied. Pilot shipping through Amazon was great. They delivered on time, set up the TV and swivel stand, and had everything working in 5-10 minutes.

 



Sunday, April 25, 2010

Samsung UN46B8000 46-Inch

 

Whoever said it's all in the details would have appreciated mega contrast. It intuitively adjusts the LED backlight for every frame. Whites are more pristine. Shades of blacks are pure. And the depths of every color are brilliantly pronounced. It's a perfect marriage of technology and art.Enhanced black expression with low haze by optimizing the light's phase and increasing the transparency ratio in ultra clear panel, Samsung full HD TV can reduce reflection of out light and increase contrast.

 



Saturday, April 24, 2010

Samsung UN46B8500 46-Inch

 

Had my Samsung UN55B8000 TV a couple of weeks now. It has more than lived up to the hype. Hooked it up and put on a blu-ray disk. Even the delivery guy's jaw dropped, and he's delivered/set up hundreds of TVs.

TV is only inch and half thick and only weighs 60 pounds or so.

In fact, it is sometimes almost too good. When viewing people on HD you can see every little mole, scar, wrinkle, stray hair, makeup, five o'clock shadow, makeup line, etc. I'm sitting here watching the news and I can clearly see tiny pieces of lint on the guy's black suit. I'm guessing the talking heads of tomorrow are all going to have to have much better complexions.

If you like to tweak your TV this one provides a lot of different controls. There are already some websites that will give you what they consider good tweaks to maximize the pic. You can also look for the B7000 tweaks. Looks pretty darn fantastic right out of the box so if you aren't a techie, don't worry about it.

Sounds..not particularly good or bad, but I don't want TV speakers taking up space anyway. If you are going to spend this kind of money for a TV you should be using your stereo system.

Some reviewers were complaining about the number of inputs. Again, how many is enough. I run my PS3, XBOX360, IPOD, and the Dish box through my Denon and so I only use one HDMI.

You can plug it into the internet. No set-up, just plug it in. First thing it did was download 12 updates to itself. Have no idea what they did but ...didn't cause any problems. It automatically loads up some of Yahoo's widgets. Fun to try but...not something I have really gone back and used much. Also has some built in content...recipes, artwork, etc. that I haven't bothered to look at.

 




Friday, April 23, 2010

Samsung UN55C7000 55-Inch

 

There is a lot of debate about whether the Touch of Color Red Design is a good thing or bad thing. Also, you'll see on last year's models that some people claim it's barely noticeable while some people claim it's a major game changer. My TV sits on a black TV stand in a spot in the room that sits in the shade -- I can barely see the red color. However, I feel that if you were to shine a lot of light on it, it would quickly become very noticeable.

The bezel is not quite as thick as I thought it looked in the Amazon.com pictures (which are Samsung's official PR shots). There is a somewhat "fat" pointed chin which I don't think looks too terrible. If you look at the pictures you'll notice that the glass of the bezel extends about half an inch beyond the actual TV bezel, I kind of like it. The neck of the stand is a glass pillar and very nice looking. The stand itself is surprisingly deep compared to the TV stand, but, again, not a bad thing, it's just hard to see in the pictures.

The built in TV controls sit on the bottom right hand corner of the bezel and are impossible to see from more than a foot away. It's a good thing for watching movies, but when I told somebody how to lower the volume on the TV, they couldn't find the buttons. I should also note that the buttons are touch sensitive there's no tactile way to find them or get feedback when pressing them. To the right of the buttons is a red light that turns on when the remote is pressed or the TV controls are pressed. It is otherwise always off unless the TV is in standby.

I should point out that the TV is very glossy and during very dark scenes it is absolutely necessary to shade your windows. Even when the not in dark scenes, I found that the bezel reflects what the screen does not. When I closed my blinds, the TV looks absolutely superb. The bezel is no longer noticeable, dark scenes are fantastic.

The remote is fairly straight forward. The design is just a tiny bit red like the TV bezel, buttons are nice and large and easy to memorize. The backlight button for the remote sits in the top right corner of it and when pressed illuminates the keys fairly well.

There are a good number of connectivity options which are thoroughly explained on the Amazon.com specs or on Samsung's website.

 

 



Monday, April 5, 2010

Samsung SyncMaster 2333HD

 

Redefining the standards for viewing quality, energy-efficiency and home entertainment decor, the Samsung 6000 Series LED HDTV deliver unparalleled picture quality and enhanced connectivity while also helping you reduce your carbon footprint with the reduced power consumption of the LED screen. Using Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) as its primary light source--rather than traditional Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL)--this cutting edge HDTV also offers the benefits of an ultra-high contrast ratio and a slim depth that allows for a more artful design.