3/06/2011

Samsung LN40C550 40-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTV (Black) Review

Samsung LN40C550 40-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTV (Black)
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i actually received this set as from Samsung as a replacement for a 37 inch model that they no longer make. unfortunately, this television has also been plagued with problems. let me preface this by saying as far as picture quality and overall appearance go, this is a fantastic set. however, there are 3 fatal flaws that are causing me to return it.
1) audio clipping issues: regardless of the audio source, the television exhibits audio clipping and dropouts where the sound will temporarily disappear. this causes a very quick, but incredibly annoying, loss in audio. this occurs regardless of input source.
2) auto-dimming issues: the set features special settings to automatically adjust the brightness levels to conserve energy and optimize the the tv for low-light settings. however, even after turning off all of these options, the tv still auto-dims. obviously, this degrades from the experience.
3) poor DLNA codec support: one of the most exciting features for me about this set is that it is compatible with DLNA home media servers. i was hoping to be able to stream my content to this set. however, the television has very poor codec support. it cannot play many common file formats and codecs. even after transcoding the files, the set often fails to play them. in addition, the set doesn't support fast-forward or rewind on streaming media, which makes watching a movie very difficult.
i really wanted to like this set, and was excited to receive it, but unfortunately, i think this will be the last Samsung TV i ever own.

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Thanks to its four HDMI inputs and a Full HD 1080p panel resolution, you can use the Samsung LN40C550 to enjoy HD viewing from sources like Blu-ray Disc.But with this Samsung LCD HDTV, you can do even more.A rear ethernet port gives you the ability to connect this LCD to your home network, making it possible to stream music, photos, and video directly to the 40" HDTV.Look to a special Game Mode for sound and picture quality optimized for gaming content.

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Samsung UN32C6500 32-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV (Black) Review

Samsung UN32C6500 32-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV (Black)
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NOTE: ADDENDUM BELOW TO LESSEN LED BACKLIGHT BLEED. Second Edit follows regarding LED switch-off.
NOTE: SECOND ADDENDUM REGARDING "PANEL LOTTERY"; Addition to info regarding settings to disable LED shutdown (6/30/10)
NOTE: THIRD ADDENDUM: New panel version # discovered :(
The Samsung 32" LED-LCD TV is a great unit, when used within a very limited fashion.
The LCD panel, as best I can I can determine is of the S-PVA variety, which provides good viewing angles, minimal color shift (assuming minimum viewing distance recommendations being followed), and good color gamut reproduction (>85% NTSC). However, this TV has some very serious flaws that make it a poor choice for many of the would-be purchasers that want a new bedroom TV or intend to use this as a computer monitor (as I do).
The first of these flaws is the edge lit LED backlighting. While it makes the image very vibrant (too much so until you calibrate the monitor properly), it also creates a VERY serious backlight bleed problem. On my set, on a screen that is completely black (minus some random area that isn't black - more on this below) I can see very large, very annoying, and very prominent light penetration from the edge mounted LEDs. While virtually unnoticeable in motion image viewing, it is slightly noticeable in static image viewing of moderate contrast, but is glaringly obvious when dark static imagery is displayed, or dark scenes viewed in movies/games. This phenomenon is so prominent that you can tell exactly where the bleed is, even during scenes with motion in them. One would not expect this to be present in a 32" display like it can be in the larger displays that have a larger (and brighter) set of LEDs.
The next problem is input lag. Activating the 120 Hz AutoMotion Plus mode makes playing games or even basic computer use impossible. There is a very distinct and frustratingly long 200ms (millisecond) delay in video image processing. Samsung knew of this ahead of time, which is made very obvious by the fact that the optical digital output has default delay setting of 100ms (the average time delay of the input lag). This unfortunately is only remedied by the activation of the Game Mode setting (Menu -> Plug&Play -> General -> Game Mode). Game Mode disables AutoMotion Plus, and the DNIe processor, leaving you with only basic brightness, contrast, white point balance, and backlight control (it also sets the picture type to Standard). This effectively turns your TV into a glorified basic LED backlit LCD computer monitor with speakers. When Samsung says "picture may be degraded", they mean simply that your TV will act as a barebones computer monitor with only basic functionality - the picture can still be relatively fine tuned via sharpness and the above mentioned controls, but lacks any enhancements from the DNIe processor. Unfortunately, this is the ONLY way you can use the TV as a computer monitor without pulling your hair out. It is also the only way you can play video games also - the input lag makes all but the least time-sensitive RPG type games unacceptably "out of sync" with the user's input. The one bright spot in this mess is that the image is still very clear, very crisp, and surprisingly smooth considering both the size of the display and the 60 Hz refresh rate.
Hinted above, the next problem is a serious flaw in the design of the TV that will be a deal breaker for many video game players. That problem is this: When the TV encounters an ALL BLACK signal, it doesn't just create black pixels within its LCD panel. Instead, it ***deactivates the LEDs themselves***. The LEDs are reactivated once any non-black information is received. This becomes a very apparent problem in games as many have cutscenes, and even live action scenes that fade to black momentarily. This causes the TV to turn its LEDs off completely and reactivate them only once it gets some non-black signal information. Unfortunately, there is a slight (25ms or so) lag when this occurs, and the user can actually miss the beginning of the next scene in a game, as that scene is cut off due to lag time inherent in reactivating the LEDs. This creates a very unnatural look and feel to the use of the TV. While LEDs are nearly instantaneous in their switching, this should not be a feature of the product. Ever. There is a HUGE difference between a backlit black image and a disabling of the LEDs completely. It totally destroys smooth scene transition and continuity. This is one problem Samsung can fix easily with a firmware update that lets the user disable this "undocumented feature".
The last of the flaws for this TV lies in its stand. The first problem with the stand is the visual design. The last thing you would want right under your TV is light being emitted via reflection, causing you to have distractions during viewing, but this stand does just that, as it is a polished aluminum type stand that WILL reflect light from the display. Their previous line's rectangular stand did not have this problem. The stand also has another nagging issue, and that is that it is insufficient for the TV's breadth and weight. Despite the TV being slim and not too heavy compared to conventional C/CCFL backlit LCD monitors, the TV leans forward about 3-5 degrees, even with the stand securely fastened via the five screws tightly. This causes colors near the bottom of the screen to appear washed out (faded about 20% compared to the center of the screen) unless the user(s)' eyes are at a level slightly below the screen's vertical centerline. The stand's lack of a tilt function (and way to lock the stand in place once it's adjusted) is simply unacceptable in this day and age of TV/monitor mounting technology. The "one size fits all" approach of the stand limits how and where you can effectively place this TV if you are unable to mount it to any of the varieties of wall mounts. Even a back-weighted mini-VESA table mount would be preferable to this mount, provided it wasn't polished aluminum.
This TV's LCD panel is bright, crisp, and remarkably clear itself. It would be nice if the panel wasn't glossy, as that does reflect ambient light somewhat, but this isn't a killer flaw like the ones mentioned above. The features that this TV has are very well done for the most part (streamed video format issues aside), and you do get a lot of display capability for this size class.
However, I cannot recommend this TV to anybody that plays games, or intends to do any computer work on it. The backlight flaws are serious, and the backlight bleed especially is horrendous, and makes this TV seem like a first generation product instead of the latest and greatest. This is one of the few Samsung products I've seen that goes below mediocrity and feels like corners were cut left and right on the basics, which gimp the esoteric features of the monitor. Also, the AutoMotion Plus 120 Hz mode actually interferes with the natural motion blur inherent in filmed video, causing a kitchy effect and creating an image that has virtually no depth to it at all and feels like you're watching full motion cardboard.
For the pricetag on this TV (approaching $1230 retail after taxes/recycling fees), one would hope that Samsung would have at least done some QA on the LED backlight before releasing this product. it feels rushed and overpriced considering the glaring flaws in the LED technology used.
Note of clarification: The LCD panel itself is great, and is a vast improvement over previous models. It is the LED *backlight* system that is flawed and needs to be addressed. Also note that "LED" TVs do not use LEDs for pixels. The video image is generated by standard LCD technology, with the LED part being the backlight, replacing the bulky CFL bulbs in previous generations of LCD displays. LED backlight advantages are near instantaneous switching (but not quite instantaneous as noted above), and they do not change colors over the span of their life like CFLs do.
My recommendation for purchasers is to find a Samsung display that uses what is called "Full Array/Local Dimming LED Backlighting". This type of LED backlight is rear mounted instead of edge mounted, and can be dimmed locally, providing exceptionally accurate color rendition with virtually zero backlight bleed. If you are like me and need a 32" TV/Monitor for specific purposes and/or reasons, save yourself some money and frustration and get the LN model instead of the UN model variant. This model's backlight flaws are too great to justify its exorbitant pricetag.
ADDENDUM:
I have found a way to help alleviate some of the backlight bleed and lessen the LEDs' turning off during black scenes. Here are the settings you'll need when using an HDMI connection:
HDMI Black Level: Normal
Shadow Detail: -2 (Default)
Gamma: 0 (Default)
Color Space: Native
Black Tone: Dark (Darker and Darkest work just like HDMI Black Level [Low] and shut down the LEDs) (Default)
Backlight: 14 (Default)
Brightness: Must be greater than 45 (46-100 will work)
With these settings, you will be able to maintain a very good picture quality while drastically lessening the backlight bleed, and lessening the effect of the LED switch-off during black scenes. Samsung's manual, website, and eveywhere else this TV is posted on fails to mention that the HDMI Black Level is the key to the LED turn off. When set to LOW the LEDs will turn off to simulate perfect blackness, which is bad during games. When set to NORMAL, the TV acts like a regular LCD monitor **if the Black Tone is set to OFF**. NOTE: This setting works in conjunction with Black Tone. If Black Tone is set to DARK, DARKER or DARKEST, it will override the HDMI Black Level [NORMAL] setting and turn off the LEDs as mentioned above. For...Read more›

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3/05/2011

Samsung UN46C6500 46-Inch 120 Hz 1080p LED HDTV (Black) Review

Samsung UN46C6500 46-Inch 120 Hz 1080p LED HDTV (Black)
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When you spend $1500 on a piece of technology you have certain assumptions and expectations about it. You do your research the best you can and hope that your purchase will be everything you hoped it would be. Occasionally, you are thrown for a loop and presented with some challenges that you didn't anticipate. That's what happened to me when I picked up this excellent TV. My old Sony LCD did not have HDMI ports, so I was relegated to the spaghetti bowl of component hookups to achieve high definition. I just had to have a TV with HDMI, so when I was finally in the market I knew it would have to be at least 46", LCD or something comparable, full 1080p, and have plenty of HDMI ports on it. With the exception of one small issue, this TV is everything I wanted.
I must say that the Samsung UN46C6500 LED TV is astonishing to look at. The colors are rich and saturated, black levels are the blackest I've ever seen, and the images are crisp and clear. The screen is a glossy finish, so it does reflect any light you might have in the room, but it's not overly distracting. The panel itself is super thin, only about one inch thick. The stand is very sturdy. Touch sensitive buttons line the lower right hand corner of the panel (kind of hard to see, but they're responsive). The bezel has a brushed matte charcoal grey strip covering a transparent acrylic (very elegant).
The one problem I have with this TV is not listed anywhere except inside the manual. I didn't see any other documentation or warnings about this, so I was a little disappointed when I encountered it. This TV is not compatible with HDMI versions older than 1.3. My old Onkyo receiver (TX-SR604) came with HDMI 1.1, so the TV would not display images through it. I had always thought that HDMI was backwards compatible. It's not on this TV, and the manual clearly says that if you have any components with HDMI versions older than 1.3 you may have issues with sound and video. Beware.
Because I was so disappointed that I would not be able to use HDMI through my receiver, I decided to upgrade to the Denon AVR-791 (which supports HDMI 1.4 and is 3D ready). Even though I'm another $500 poorer, I'm an extremely happy camper. Watching Avatar on blu-ray with this setup is truly amazing. The TV performs wonderfully and is otherwise exactly what I was wanting. I have not ventured into the internet TV features, but that's on the horizon. Unfortunately, the TV is not wifi compatible (unless you buy a USB adapter), so you'll need to use an ethernet cable (I actually knew this before buying).
Samsung makes incredible LCD and LED TV's. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a high definition viewing experience. Hopefully, my review will educate and warn those with older components. HDMI is the way to go, but you can always fall back on component cables if you have to. That just wasn't an option for me. When all is said and done, I don't regret my purchase at all. The end result was well worth the journey.

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Samsung PN50C550 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black) Review

Samsung PN50C550 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)
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I had tried to buy the previous "B" model at close-out prices, but I missed the boat. Thought I might be outta luck until the "C" version started showing up a day or so afterward and it turned out to be basically the same TV, just about 25lbs lighter - only 2 people needed to wall mount - I was down with that and $[...] bucks still didn't seem too bad. I had already researched for some time and Plasma was it for me. The Panny G-10 had a similarly good picture too, and although it offers much to consider, I liked the Sammy's picture just a bit more, but you may want to check it out as well. I received the set with zero problems or issues: no dead pixels or any buzzing, whines or anything amiss at all. Outta the box the picture was quite good, and showed me good resolution performance even with SD cable with no video noise issues (although initially I did find it necessary to use the 3 supplied ferrite, choke magnets that snap onto the power cord. These not only eliminated the several horizontal noise bands in the picture, but cleaned up the resolution on the overall picture with no downside - an easy fix that totally nixed the problem for me).
But, tweaking the picture a bit is where this set shines the most. When researching, I came across a site that offered a list of picture control settings for the "B" version. Since this is really the same panel, I factored it into my buying decision accordingly. Especially since the settings were said to be obtained with a Sencore color analyzer (about a $10,000 pro device for calibrating video displays and is the sort of thing used by the Imaging Science Foundation - ISF. They at least did pioneer and continue to legitimize the video calibration practice, but more to the point, it WASN'T done by any of the more lame imitators that have since cropped up (like Geek Squad, Spyder and others) whom, I feel, exist to separate you from your money (at about $300 a calibration) while hardly giving you a better picture adjustment than you can get on your own with a $25 calibration DVD).
What this means to us is that the results of, what I'm taking to be the equivalent of a $300 (legit) picture calibration, for this particular set anyway, have already been posted on the web for free - not an inconsequential consideration, for anyone interested. I'm posting those numbers here, for those who are:
White Balance Settings:
Red-Offset: 22
Green-Offset:25
Blue-Offset: 12
Red-Gain:33
Green-Gain: 25
Blue-Gain: 33
Picture Settings:
Picture Mode:Movie
Color Temp: Warm 2
Brightness: 56
Contrast:90
Cell Light 8
Color: 53
Tint:G35/R65
Sharpness: 10
Black Tone: Off
Dynamic Contrast:Off
Gamma: 0
Colorspace: Auto
Flesh Tone: Off
Edge Enhancement:Off
Digital NR: Auto
HDMI Black Level:Low
Film Mode: Auto
When I tried these settings I noticed a very organic, natural-looking picture, one that offered me a few surprizes. This set happens to be inherently capable of showing a more-than-generous amount of color saturation without problem. I personally prefer a picture that's just slightly undersaturated, if anything (but, I expect this set will accomodate anyone's taste on that score, if yours are different than mine). With all this, what I found was that even when slightly undersaturated and I felt the picture was indeed realistic-looking, whenever an unusually colorful object was displayed (like a particularly vivid piece of clothing, or a brightly flourescent color - like some NASCAR colors, for example), this TV displayed BOTH the less intense colors of the more mundane objects, and the most decidedly vivid ones, equally well in the same scene AT THE SAME TIME - never subduing the most vivid colors even when the overall color level looked 'properly' undersaturated to me on the more everyday objects. Nor was it unnaturally emphasizing them, for that matter. The result was a TV that, on any good, HiDef, cable feed, regularly showed me a surprisingly wide (yet natural-looking) "dynamic range" of color intensity in the images. I could just about feel as if the TV itself were getting out of the way and showing me clearly (and more truthfully than I've seen in my home before) just what the camera saw. Very nice and, as I say, surprizingly convincing (and this with simply 1080i and 720p cable feeds - a Blu-ray player is definitely next!). This set, after my preferred adjustments, didn't make all the colors look too subdued, like some plasmas I've seen have ended up doing, nor all the colors too vivid, like some LCD's. I felt like it walked the line beautifully - not merely a good compromise, but it seemed truly the best of both in this regard. Black levels were great and with excellent detail - no complaints.
In the end, I did opt to deviate from the settings above, but only with respect to overall contrast/brightness and color level settings, everything else was the same. This gave me an appreciable gain in contrast that suits me and my family's tastes in our well lighted, daytime living room. Plasma is usually not as vivid in the contrast department as most LCD's or LED's, but in the mid-price range ($1,000-$1,500 retail) it's a small price for me to pay for a picture that I feel (with adjustment) is otherwise decidedly sharper, clearer, more life-like and dimensional than anything else for the money. I haven't felt that any comparative lack of overall contrast has resulted in any buyer's remorse for me at all, as no such notion has yet remotely entered my head anytime I've watched it.
I'll add that in my experience with LCD's vs. Plasmas, Plasmas kill LCD's and LED's when it comes to motion - at least in the sets in this price range. Up over about $2,000 and differences between the panel types start to get quite a bit smaller to me. But, just before I settled on this Sammy, I went to Wally World and dragged home a Vierra LCD, mainly to see if 'taming down' an LCD picture to suit my tastes could possibly be better than trying to 'pump up' a Plasma. In this case, a huge waste of time! What I saw was a 120-Hz LCD on sale at just under a 1,000 bucks that just couldn't do motion very well at ALL. I popped in a SD DVD of Lawrence of Arabia and it looked like it was shot "live-to-video", perfectly goofy. I also found out just how bad a 5-ms response time can look on a 47" set. The 120Hz feature DID work as advertised and made fast motion MUCH better than without, but any slow-speed pan or movement caused a nearly instantaneous defocusing of the area of motion, until the motion stopped and the blurred area was able to snap back into focus. When watching a head shot of someone speaking, for example, their face would perceptably blur in the areas of facial movement while the face of another person in the scene next to them (not talking) remained in sharp focus - too disconcerting. And too much of a disconnect to the experience to NOT want to look at a person while they were talking(!). Plasma (600Hz or no) inherently has no such motion problems that require the consumer to spend money on to overcome. If that wasn't enough (and, believe me, for me it was) the somewhat artificial vividness to the picture proved, at least on this LCD, to be something I could never quite tame, no matter what the settings.
For me, to pass muster, a flat panel must make no major blunders in the 4 most important performance areas of color, contrast, resolution and motion. To me this Sammy does all of that and at a very nice price - I don't know how I can do much better than that, especially without another free video calibration. In fact, the only Plasma that I'm confident could beat it hands down is the discontinued-but-still-available Pioneer Kuro 50" plasma. But then, it should, it retailed for a mere $4,500 when new. But, a few months ago it could be had on the web for only 1,600 bucks. It's just that at the time, I didn't have the scratch. Now, the remaining ones, if you can find 'em, were, the last time I looked, hovering around $3,000. Oh well, I'll tell you one thing, though; this machine at this price, has certainly eased my pain...;) I know this isn't 3D, or more colors than RGB or anything, but I'm more than content now to wait all that out. Til the next round, this will do me just fine!

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Get a true cinematic experience without going to the cinema with a Samsung plasma HDTV. This Samsung PN50C550, with Mega Dynamic Contrast Ratio makes sure every frame is saturated with dense, rich color. Samsung is also ENERGY STAR compliant so you are assured that your 50 -inch plasma HDTV is helping the environment by using less enery while saving you money.

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3/04/2011

Samsung UN22C4000 22-Inch 720p 60 Hz LED HDTV (Black) Review

Samsung UN22C4000 22-Inch 720p 60 Hz LED HDTV (Black)
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I had originally bought a Vizio LED 22inch. It had poor sound and picture quality. Since 2006 I've been avoiding Samsung products since I bought a DVD recorder from them that records DVD's that only play on the machine that records them. My recorded DVD's wouldn't even play properly on another Samsung DVD player. Back then I called them to tell them my problem; they basically told me I was out of luck. I was hoping to Archive some old home movies.
At my house I have a Samsung DLP, and the beformentioned DVD player that upconverts the DVD's to high definition. I also had an old style 13 inch Samsung TV that gave good service.
I chose this Samsung 22 LED since I had seen it at Best Buy and saw that the picture quality was very good. There is pixelation on dark scenes but this may be due to AT&T U-Verse. Aside from this the picture quality is very good and better than a supposed 1080p Vizio I had bought. I later learned that the only place you can get 1080p is from a Blu Ray player. Cable/Satellite companies are broadcasting in 720p.
The sound on this TV is excellent and it comes with different sound options, all of which sound very well.
The only drawback so far on this TV is the on/off timer. This is a feature I wanted to keep since my old 13 inch Samsung had it. The weird thing about their On/Off timer is that when the TV comes on you can only choose from two source options, the USB drive or the coaxial cable connection. So you can't wake up to the HDMI source setting of the TV, I don't know why they put this limitation into the design of the TV, it's very odd. Hopefully they'll have a software update to correct it.
From what I've understood from reading the manual it can't play quicktime movies, I haven'd had time to try one. If it can't play quicktime videos that's another limitation the set should have corrected in the future.
The design of the TV itself is very nice, and while the remote is a bit bulky it has all the basic functions. I like that it has a sleep button right on the remote. Some other TV's make you go through a long Menu to get to the sleep setting; when you are falling asleep pressing a button a few times is a lot easier than some intricate navigation menu.
The OnScreen menu is easy to use once you figure out how to navigate around it. A thoughtful feautre they put in is that when you highlight a choice such as "digital noise filter" an explanation comes on at the bottom of the screen indicating what this feature does.
I liked that it has a PIP option. The only thing you can watch in the PIP window is the coaxial cable connection though. I hooked up my computer to the TV and was able to watch regular TV in the PIP window.
I would definitely recommend this set to a friend.

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Samsung LN26C350 26-Inch 720p 60 Hz LCD HDTV (Black) Review

Samsung LN26C350 26-Inch 720p 60 Hz LCD HDTV (Black)
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The picture quality is very good. I watch OTA channels only (no cable, fios, or satellite). The sound is typical of small tv's. Out of the box, the audio lacks bass; however, there is an equalizer to make adjustments or just use one of the preset modes. The bezel is big which makes the viewable screen look small. The bezel is 1.75 inches around, plus another 1.5 inches on the bottom for the speaker. I dislike the glossy bezel because it reflects light, which can be a distraction.
I have another Samsung purchased in 2008. There does not seem to be improvements in how this new Samsung tv tuner handles OTA multi-path problems. I would say it handles the same. There are some improvements in user interface. On the older tv, when changing channels, it would display the channel number and station ID on the upper right corner and, for some reason, it would show the audio mode (mono, stereo, mute) on the upper left corner. On this new tv, it only shows the channel number and station ID on the upper left corner. The onscreen display is transparent, so you can still watch the current channel beneath the onscreen display.
There is a button on the remote that brings up a list of channels and lists what program is on each channel. This saves you from switching channels to find out what else is on. Another button, the "info" button, displays a synopsis of the show you are watching. It also has a progress bar to show how much time the show has until it ends. My 2008 Samsung does not have a progress bar.
I had no problems connecting my laptop to this tv via the hdmi port. Video and audio passes through the hdmi port, which is good.

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Make the move to the smoothest LCD action ever. Samsung's LN26C350 LCD HDTV offers incredible color and rich clarity, all on a 26-inch screen. Add the power of Samsung's Wide Color Enhancer, for a picture that optimizes a given color's hue, resulting in more natural rendering of colors and lifelike action. Samsung HDTVs are also ENERGY STAR compliant, helping the environment by using less energy while saving you money.

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Samsung LN46C600 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV (Black) Review

Samsung LN46C600 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV (Black)
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So far, this TV ROCKS! I bought from Amazon because the price was fantastic, shipping was free, no tax, and I used gift certificates from a certain grocery store, which gave me $ off at the gas pump. All of this was, of course, after selecting Samsung and this specific model, and then shopping around for price. I knew I wanted a 46" LCD for my living room, so I started looking. At 1st, I was gonna get the Toshiba 46G300U for $650 during Black Friday at Shmears, but after visiting many stores, I was drawn to Samsung's picture clarity. Just amazing! A store I liked a lot was HHShmeggs because they had so many to choose from and the store lighting in the TV section was closest to my actual living room.
So, I ordered from Amazon and a few days later, there were 2 delivery guys at my front door. The TV got to me before some things that I ordered days earlier! They brought Bessie in and were somewhat conscious of my carpet by asking if I had something to set the box on (never mind that they were wearing their shoes, but I digress). I grabbed an old blanket and they set her down. They asked if they can open it to check the screen and I said yes. They slid it out carefully and set it down. We all looked over the screen with a flashlight. Everything looked good. I had them place it back in the box to allow it to get to room temp before setting it up. They had me sign that it was in good physical shape, but they listed that I didn't power up the TV because it was cold. They left and I smiled at my new television.
While waiting for Bessie to get to room temp, I assembled the stand with 4 provided screws and read over the manual. Turns out this TV has a LAN port, which I did not see in any spec listing for this TV. This is nice because you can check for firmware/software upgrades over the Internet. My new U-Verse cable receiver has a LAN jack, so I have an ethernet cable between it and the TV. I checked for upgrades, but did not find any. The TV has software from October, so I wasn't surprised that no upgrades were available.
The TV's Menu system is pretty good. I haven't had much trouble finding any settings I was looking for. There's also a button labeled Tools, which gives you quick access to a few settings you may use more frequently. The remote itself is nice. It has a backlight button to see better in low light, which is always a plus. I would like if I could label my inputs with custom labels. For instance, I have a media player and the closest label they have is PVR STB. If I could just label it Media Player, the Mrs and the kids would have an easier time selecting the correct input. I would also like to hide inputs that are not used. That would make flipping through them much quicker.
Some have said that they do not like Samsung's Motion Plus feature because it makes movies look like fake soap operas. This is true for some of the Motion Plus modes, like Standard, but there's one called Clear, which looked just fine. As far as the Standard mode, it does have it's place. I found that it makes animated movies like Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Kung Fu Panda, etc look almost 3D. My toddler absolutely loves the effect! I set his animated movies to Dynamic color and Standard motion plus for an awesome looking picture. Samsung's color is just amazing! Dynamic color mode is very bright, but for movies like The Matrix, I use Movie Mode to see more detail in darker scenes.
One catch is keeping the TV clean. This thing is a dust magnet in my house. They do provide a special cleaning cloth where you just use water, but I think I will be using it very often. I think I may pick up a swiffer duster for dusting the set and just use the cloth when there is more build up.
The TV did not come with a safety strap to tether it to my wooden stand, but since it sits so far back on my stand, I don't think my toddler will try to reach it. I'll have a close eye on him just in case. He knows that touching Bessie is off limits, but you know how toddlers can be...
Well, that's it for now. I'll update if I think of anything else...

Click Here to see more reviews about: Samsung LN46C600 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV (Black)


Nicely affordable and offering top-of-the-line picture quality with 1080p high definition resolution, the 46-inch Samsung LN46C600 LCD HDTV provides sharp details and vivid color thanks to a 100,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio for more realistic images and Samsung's Wide Color Enhancer technology for a more natural rendering of colors. This C600 series HDTV features Samsung's Auto Motion Plus with Clear Motion Rate technology, which utilizes a 120Hz refresh rate helps ensure crisp, easy viewing of sports, video games and movies.
The 46-inch Samsung LN46C600.

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