Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Little background:
currently have two Plasmas in the household. I am a big fan of their picture quality, black levels, motion handling, and input lag (PS3 games).
Began around three months ago searching for a larger TV, as my 50" plasma just wasn't cutting it for me in terms of size b/c we sit 14' away from the screen. Unfortunately, my built-in entertainment center width was a major constraint. No plasma larger than 50" could fit (the 54" G25 Panasonic was 0.5" too wide!!). I began to look at LEDs as they were built with thinner bezels and could thus squeeze into my entertainment center and still have a diagonal of 55".
I was very concerned with a few items when i purchased this TV:
1. Picture Quality (potential) Problems
a) Flashlighting - read anywhere on Edge-lit LEDs and this is probably the #1 problem that comes up. Please note that with this TV i do NOT watch in complete darkness. Watching in complete darkness tends to exacerbate any flashlighting or clouding problems you may see in an edge-lit set. As for my set, I can definitely see some flashlighting from the corners on letterbox stuff or very dark scenes. I am looking for it though. If I had not read about flashlighting onine I probably would have never noticed. My wife thinks I am crazy. The flashlighting may go away once I get a chance to calibrate the set (I only tinkered with the settings a little) but I think either way I can live with it (and probably will forget about it in a few months)
b) Black Levels - the reason i bought the 6800 instead of the 6500. The 6800 has "Precision Dimming", Samsung's edge-lit workaround to true full array local dimming sets. Did I buy into marketing hype or was the extra money worth the precision dimming? I can't say for sure since I never owned the 6500, but I am happy (but NOT at all wowed) with the black levels of the 6800. I felt my old Plasma black levels were better. 4:3 content or letterbox content sometimes has "glowing" black bars instead of inky blacks. For the most part the black levels are sufficient
The 6800 definitely has better colors and depth to it though. Certain shows look drop dead gorgeous on this TV that i never felt that way with my old TV, most likely due to the color reproduction and brighter display of this LED compared to plasma.
2. Input lag for gaming - I am a HEAVY online FPS gamer (PS3). That's all I do on my PS3. COD, Killzone, etc. you name the FPS and I am playing the online multiplayer, and playing it a LOT. The "twitchier" the better. I've never played games on an LCD/LED TV before and have always read that LCDs/LEDs can have terrible input lag compared to Plasmas. I was extremely worried about how my gaming would be on this LED tv. I think I lost countless hours of sleep over this one, with Black Ops and Killzone 3 on the near horizon ;). Well I am very pleased to say that with Game Mode ON, I do not notice any input lag difference from this LED from my Plasma. Modern Warfare 2 plays very snappy and fast like I am accustomed to. This was a great relief!!! With Game Mode OFF and AMP set to Clear, I could tell a little input lag but it was not anything that would get in the way of any non-FPS/Music games (i.e. any RPG players out there probably would be ok with AMP on). With Game Mode ON I did not notice any abnormal blurring or skipping of the picture...I felt everything about the game playing experience was on par with my old plasma.
3. Motion Handling - read online about the Samsung LEDs and you will find many people complaining about skipping/stuttering in the picture w/ this year's version of AMP. I wont get into all the details since if you are considering this TV you probably have already read some complaints online. Watched hours of football this weekend and all the plays and scrolling ticker I could not see any skipping or stuttering. I have AMP set to "Clear". For movies, I have AMP set to OFF and noticed a handful of times where it skipped a frame. If I had not been looking for it I probably would have not even noticed. Motion gets an A in my book and I don't see any discernable difference from my plasmas. Blu-ray playback on my PS3 @ 24hz looks good! (AMP turned off)
4. Off-Angle Viewing - i didnt think i would have an issue with this, but i surprisingly kind of do. Our kitchen and family room are kind of one huge room (open) so often when we are cooking/cleaning dishes we watch TV too. Granted, the viewing angle from the kitchen is pretty extreme (I'd put it at 20/30 degrees if 0 degrees was directly parallel to TV) but my old plasma (like all plasmas) did not lose any quality from the kitchen. This set washes out pretty badly. We obviously dont watch anything "important" while in the kitchen so i can live with this gripe.
Conclusion:
When you feed this set good material and are sitting directly in front (which for me and my wife would be 95% of the time) the picture is very good in my opinion.
Aside from being 55" (which a huge plus) and being more energy efficient, I am not sure this LED TV can top anything that Plasmas can offer (cheaper, better blacks, better uniformity, same or better PQ, etc). If my entertainment center magically widened by 2"-3" there is no doubt in my mind I would pack up this LED and return it immediately for a Panasonic 54" G25, 54" VT25, or 58" Samsung C7000 plasma. No doubt (and I would save a lot of money too!). But given my constraints and my want for a >50" TV, I am happy with the purchase. As more and more time passes by I am growing more and more fond of the set. It is really good looking and the picture quality most of the time is great. I hope the build quality is good and this set lasts me a while, but just in case I will get an extended warranty as well.
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*UPDATE 11/5/10*: TV is still running well (knock on wood ;) ). I just wanted to post my PS3 settings here, just in case it helps anyone. Remember, my PS3 is via HDMI with GAME MODE ON, so any picture processing is turned off by default and can not be turned on (i.e. Auto Motion Plus is turned OFF). These settings are based off settings I've found online plus changes from using the Disney WoW calibration blu-ray.
Mode: Standard (game mode forces standard)
Backlight: 11
Contrast: 94
Brightness: 46
Sharpness: 10
Color: 54
Tint: 50/50
Eco solutions (all OFF)
Color Tone: Warm2
Size: Screen Fit (use 16:9 for cable tv, Screen fit for your ps3)
Everything else is either OFF or Auto
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UPDATE 1/10/11
TV is still running great (knock on wood again!). I am still very happy with my purchase.
However, announced at CES just a few days ago was Panasonic's 2011 line up for Plasmas, which includes sleeker bezels and finally plasmas that come in 55" screen size!! I am officially envious...however, not sure if Panasonic made the bezels slim enough to match my entertainment center width. Anyways, I just wanted to let everyone know that Panasonic will have 55" Plasmas for 2011!!
*********Delivery Notes:
Frequent shopper here on Amazon but I've never bought anything so large or expensive online before. When I got the notice that the TV shipped using CEVA I was kind of worried, since there seems to be a lot of posts online about frustration with CEVA. First tip I kept seeing over and over is to call them right away to schedule a delivery. Very true. I ordered on a Sunday, got shipping confirmation from Amazon on Monday. Monday night CEVA's tracking system was up with the tracking number provided by Amazon. I called them first thing Tuesday morning and set up delivery for Wednesday. Very helpful and nice staff over there at CEVA. Delivery window was 9AM-1PM, however they came well after 1PM. Luckily my wife was home all day, but if I had taken time off to wait for them I would have been pretty upset that they didn't come during the window. No harm done though. My wife said the delivery men were extremely nice. I did not want them to set it up even though they offered to my wife. TV box was in pristine condition. CEVA gets an A from me.
Note to TV shoppers: AVS forums are a great place to look for helpful tips. Wonderful community over there. However...I will advise that you do not spend TOO much time there, as it may make you second-guess any decision you end up making. Every TV has its ups and downs...you just have to pick your poison. In my opinion, plasmas have less "poison" to pick, but that's just me. Order from Amazon and you'll have a nice return window in case you dont like something. Remember, just because someone on the internet likes/dislikes something about a TV says nothing about that same thing will affect you.
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