Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
Fantastic Display but with some Bleed Through July 11, 2010 Kenneth F. Krutsch (Minneapolis, MN USA) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Previous reviewers pretty much cover it: elegant physical packaging, very slim and easy to setup. I use only HDMI, so I cannot comment on setup with older connection types.
The good: with a bright, colorful image, the video quality is unbelievable. They aren't kidding when they advertise 3,000,000:1 contrast ration. It's a 32" display, so I haven't been bothered by the refresh rate - I personally haven't noticed any motion blur, even when playing PS3 games - Game Mode on or off. Simple to customize and integrates well with my Logitech Harmony remote (note: don't setup like a default Samsung TV - use the individual commands to access inputs from the menu of options).
The bad: the LCD / side-lit LED bleed took some getting used to. I played with the settings quite a bit to eliminate the fan-out of light from the corners - Movie mode works great - but it's very difficult to get a completely black background. I almost returned the unit, but after tweaking the settings, decided to keep it. To be honest, part of the reason I kept the TV was I saw someone else's new Vizio LCD unit; I quietly noticed right away how much more I liked the picture on the Samsung LED.
This is a great TV, but 4 stars because of the light bleed. However, I would definitely recommend this set to others.
Great off-angle viewing June 30, 2010 B. Kohler (Wash DC) This is my second Samsung HDTV. I have 55 inch and it's the Cats Pajamas so I when I needed a smaller screen, I went with Samsung again. This tv has an incredible picture. I must say that for an LCD screen, the off angle viewing is superb. The picture is still quite clear from the side, with hardly any noticeable dimming or fading. Maybe it's due to being LED lit.
I'm not a fan of 60hz tv's, but this one seems to do well. I use the "movie" mode (definitely gives the smoothest picture) and leave the edge enhancement off. Using these settings, the tv seems to work very well for fast motion scenes and live sports action. Not really any cons to this tv except that in order to connect it to your wireless router, you need to buy Samsung's wireless adapter separately. You can't use a generic one. Otherwise, no complaints.
the worst quality control June 20, 2010 S. Ahn (Palo Alto, CA) 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It does look like a high quality product. I'm using it as a big monitor for my mac mini and the pixels map quite well, not like cheaper Chinese brands.
However, mine was defective with buzzing noise from the behind that becomes louder when making the screen brighter and got unacceptably louder over 3 weeks. I returned mine and got a new unit, and am satisfied with my new one.
After a couple of week, I notice about one inch of blinking line on the left top corner, when connected to VGA. I've used a couple of LCD TV's connected to my computer before, mostly cheaper chinese brands. This is the worst quality control. I may get a better working unit if I try once more. But, who knows what new problems I'll get.
I'm super happy with the TV June 12, 2010 SeeBeeKay 5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I was at first torn between this Samsung, which is nice and thin but only 60 hertz, and other thicker sets in the same price range which are 120 hertz. I'm glad we decided on this thin Samsung. It is gorgeous, and for us the beauty of the TV set outweighs any subtle improvement in motion scenes obtained by 120 hertz.
I agree with previous reviewers that the screen is glossy, and you can see reflections under certain lighting conditions when the scene is dark. But this doesn't change the fact that the picture is beautiful. If we are trying to watch TV in the daytime, we sometimes have to pull the shades to avoid seeing the reflection of our windows on the TV screen. If you are worried about this, I suggest testing the area where the TV will be by placing a mirror there. Sit where you normally sit to watch TV and see if there is a reflection of a bright light source such as windows in the mirror. If so, you will probably have to eliminate the light in order to watch the TV without distraction. I'm not convinced other new TVs are much better on the reflection issue.
I don't agree that the screen causes motion sickness. Perhaps that reviewer had selected a setting that we didn't. In general, we left all enhancement settings off.
I am using the TV as a monitor for a recent model Mac Mini. In addition, we have a Playstation 3. Our receiver is old and does not accept HDMI, so we are using the Samsung TV to switch between HDMI sources, and using the optical out on the TV to get the sound to the receiver. This setup works great, and the TV makes a terrific computer monitor. However, make sure you turn off the Samsung TV's edge enhancement feature if using this as a computer monitor. Edge enhancement makes computer text and graphics look exceptionally bad, and it was a relief to discover that turning this feature off fixes the problem.
When we're watching news, the TV's speakers are great. When we watch a movie, we switch on the receiver for better sound.
It took a while to sort out how to get HDMI output from the mac mini. We first tried the Monoprice Mini Displayport Male and USB Male Audio to HDMI Female Converting Adapter, but the TV gave an error message and did not show a picture. We returned the Monoprice Mini Display Port and purchased the more expensive Kanex iAdapt 51 Mini DisplayPort to HDMI with 5.1 Channel Digital Audio, which works great but required rebooting the mac in order to get the correct resolution.
We don't use the Samsung's built-in tuner, so I can't review that. We watch using EyeTV for the Mac.
The user interface of the TV is easy to use. The remote is thoughtfully laid out, but the touch sensitive controls on the front of the TV are hard to operate because you have to get your face right next to them to see where to touch. On the other hand, the fact that you can't see these controls makes the TV more beautiful.
I wish Samsung had allowed users to program completely custom names for the sources. As it is, you can select from a preprogrammed group with names like "PC," "Game," etc. (I wanted "Mac Mini" and "Playstation 3"). Also, it would be nice to disable source inputs that you are not using, so that the TV will only switch between sources you are hooked up to. A feature like this would make it easier for guests and grandparents to operate the TV with minimal hassle.
I agree with another reviewer that the screw holes for the wall bracket are not the same as for most TVs, and if you want to use a full-motion mount you will have to spend some time finding the right screws at the hardware store. In our case, our wall mount had 100mm screw spacing, and the TV has 200mm screw spacing, so we purchased the LCD Adapter Plate. We purchased four M8 x 25 bolts with 1.25 pitch at our hardware store, plus four thick washers. We had to drill out the holes on the LCD Adapter Plate to accept the M8 size bolts (it was set up for M6), which was easy to do with a cordless drill and the right bit. We also used the four gray spacer sleeves that came with the TV, which prevented the Adapter Plate from blocking one of the TV's cooling vents. This setup took some work, but it looks and works great. It would have been nice if Samsung had either standardized the mounting holes or provided the necessary adapter hardware in the box.
Great tv!!!!!! May 28, 2010 Trent A. Thompson (Fresno, CA) After reading reviews all over the net, I still went ahead and purchased 2 of these. I use them as computer monitors fyi. Yes there is some glare but not near as bad as what other people have experienced. I've got them in a bright open room near a couple windows too. Everything is crisp, bright and beautiful. Text is clear and movies are gorgeous. Maybe I'm not a visual snob but I found that the sets didn't need much adjustment to get to where I like. There are plenty of connections for my needs and the ambient light sensor is a nice touch. Only issue I've found are the light sensor gets a little twitchy in the morning as the sun comes up and the evening when it goes down. They go from bright to dim as the ambient light settles. Overall I would highly recommend this tv to anyone!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
|